In the world of Java, there are a lot of possibilities. Those possibilities range from game development to cloud-based applications, server-side apps, Internet of Things, Machine learning, and more.
Especially in the world of server-side enterprise application development, Java provides a lot of options. Enterprise Java Beans was an early technology designed to make server-side development easier in Java. It could handle transaction processing, persistence, security, and more. However, EJBs were somehow cumbersome due to the amount of configuration required.
Around 2002 Spring was created as an alternative to EJBs and its heavy-weight containers, it also supports auto-configuration. It is a highly flexible framework used mainly for building Java web applications. In addition, Spring makes programming Java quicker, easier, and safer for everybody. Its focus on speed, simplicity, and productivity has made it the world's most popular Java framework.
The issues on ground
EJB had several issues that made it challenging to work with. Some of the key issues include:
Complexity: EJBs were often criticized for their complexity, especially in earlier versions. Developing and deploying EJBs required dealing with a lot of configuration and boilerplate code.
Performance: EJBs were known to have performance issues, especially due to their remote method invocation (RMI) mechanism. This was due to the overhead of serialization/deserialization and network communication.
Transaction Management: EJB's container-managed transactions (CMT) could be restrictive and cumbersome to configure, leading to performance and maintenance issues.
Scalability: EJBs were seen as not very scalable, especially concerning their heavy use of server-side resources.
Complex Deployment: Deploying EJBs required deploying them to an application server, which could be complex and time-consuming compared to simpler deployment mechanisms.
Spring resolves these issues by making things simpler, quicker, and better. Spring is also open source with a large community backing making it easier to ask for help.
How popular is the Spring framework
In 2024, it is to be noted that Spring is a top choice still among software developers. And one thing that has kept its appeal is the addition of the latest useful feature that improves the developer experience. According to Jet Brains' 2033 Developer Ecosystem survey, Spring Boot leads followed by Spring MVC. This is also the case with Continuum's Java Ecosystem 2023 Survey Results
Conclusion
Finally, Spring's simplicity, flexibility, testing support, lack of vendor lock-in, integration capabilities, and community support make it a preferred choice for many developers over EJB.
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