Spring vs Java EE 7 [closed]

Question

Now I am reading "Begining Java EE 7". And I was wondered that Java EE 7 is a good stack of technologies, it includes CDI, bean validation, JSF for web tier and other specifications.

So I got a question:
Why should I study Spring framework if Java EE 7 exists and covers all capabilities which Spring implements?

Answer 1

I will share little bit of what I know about using Spring. You are right by saying that Java EE 7 has all the technologies to help solve the problems.

Well Spring just enhances these capabilities and makes life more easier for a developer.

As an example when you use Spring MVC framework you can use Spring UI tags to create your JSP and those tags in turn can help you map the values directly to your controller. By controller I mean the Java class which is invoked when you do form submit. It also helps you to validate the form data.

This can be achieved using the Servlet technology also but Spring lets you focus on business logic and it takes care of these.

In my experience as a developer its good to know and understand Java EE 7 but frameworks like Spring utilize some of the best practices and patterns to make life easier for developers.

Would like to hear the opinions from others as well.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

I think that one simply should know both of them. Spring has a huge community and is used widely, but Java EE is now going forward too, using many technologies that are in Spring in its latest versions.

However, it is incorrect to say that Java EE covers all the fields that Spring does. In my opinion Spring still has something that could make the difference, if you work in particular domains, such as mobile (Spring mobile), social (Spring social), navigation flows management (Spring Webflow) and others.