Spring MVC gets Form Tags
Most seasoned Struts developers I know (myself included) are masters of the html:* tags, using and extending them liberally in just about every web application they design. Spring MVC has been on the forefront of challengers to Struts, and with its sensible design, endless flexibility and excellent documentation, it isn’t difficult to see why. But Spring’s MVC left the building of HTML form controls up to the developer and his own devices. This was a big issue for me and the one that has kept me from rapidly adopting the system for use in my own apps.
In their 2.0 release the Spring team has given the community its wish, and provided a JSP form tag library. It’s been added to the manual, but here’s a key term that might pique your interest: convention over configuration.
The Spring crew has taken lessons learned from the wildfire of support for Ruby on Rails and employed them in their J2EE kit. Bravo. Time (and other ‘me-too’ projects) will tell if this is really what J2EE needs to stay on return to the cutting edge.