Apache Shale Takes JavaServer Faces to the Next Level

n its time, Struts was the MVC2 framework Its design elegance, simplicity, and robustness enabled a larger portion of Java developers to embrace Struts for presentation-tier development. But alas, it has been five years since Struts was conceived, and it has started to show signs of age. It has remained a monolithic request-processing engine that is hard to customize and extend, while JSF has established itself as a flexible, scalable event-processing engine. Secondly, Struts has failed to add support for declarative workflows, a consistent validation framework, or emerging technologies such as AJAX. This has led to a diminished role for Struts in new development projects.

However, the Struts development team is not idly standing by while JSF gains ground. Comprised of the best minds in the industry, the Struts team has re-invented itself and begun creating services that can supplement and enrich JSF rather than try to compete with it directly. They want to make a good thing (JSF) better. (If you are not familiar with JSF, read "Introduction to JavaServer Faces" and "Face Up to Web Application Design Using JSF and MyFaces" to get up to speed.)