Suggestions on RESTful Java Web Services Framework...

Question

I googled some information about web services, it seems like a enterprise level application. I found that RESTful design is very cool idea on this. I find that Apache CXF looks cool, it support RESTful design and Java. It is a good choice for beginner to start writing an application using Apache CXF? or any other framework is suggested?

Answer 1

I'd go for Jersey, the RI of JAX-RS (JSR 311), the Java API for RESTful Web Services (i.e. a standard).

Answer 2

I recommend to use JAX-RS because IMHO it is the most neutral framework in terms of telling you how REST should be done. I have not used CXF, only Jersey. It is a very solid implementation and comes with a good client side connector, too (client side not part of JAX-RS yet).

Being neutral with regard to 'how to do REST' is important because there is not yet an acknowledged 'best' way to approach certain aspects (e.g. design of hypermedia).

Congrats to going the REST way - you won't regret it.

Jan

Answer 3

The much simpler implementation for a beginner would be spring 3.0 REST support. Spring MVC 3.0 has REST support and is very much simpler compared to Apache CXF.