Lighter-Lighter Java / Web

Many times I've wondered if one even needs the likes of Spring / JEE (5) to build good web applications. Spring is a nice framework, born mostly out of unhappiness with previous versions of the Java EE stack and with good reason; J2EE was horribly complex and required many artifacts to even build the smallest EJB's.

Times have changed with Java EE 5 however and another artifact needs to bite the dust.

I'm sure you know what I'm talking about; it's the gratuitous use of XML by frameworks to configure your applications.

So why not use Java EE 5 together with your favorite web framework (Wicket in my case)?

Well my biggest problem is the added complexity in building and deploying, testing, etc.

All I really need is Wicket and a database enabled framework which allows me to work iteratively from an existing HTML design to a working application.

Java EE 6 will bring the next evolutionary step by eliminating the requirement to implement EAR's. Unfortunately it will be a while before Java EE 6 becomes ready for prime time, so for now I'm just going to use plain Java, JPA and Wicket. Yay for simplicity and those pushing to make developing complex applications easier

I'm not alone in this by the way