Website Development

[Patrick McDonogh]

Hi All,

I am a Java developer and am looking at building a simple website, with pictures, content the admin user can change, users can post forms and send emails, timer tasks, etc.

Like I say its a simple website for a small building firm where users can get quotes and admin users change content and quote paramters for valuing a quote, update products and services.

I was wondering what people may recommend to build it. I know there are now things like ruby, jruby, groovy, etc.

Hopefully something that is quick and easy to use which comes with lots of functionality straight out the box!

Any suggestions?

Regards,

Patrick

[Matthew Taylor]

I would highly recommend Grails. You can get a scaffolded site up in minutes. Grails 1.0.3 was recently released, and the grails-user mailing lists are very active. This is an up-and-coming web framework, but I've been using it for almost a year now (professionally!) and I wouldn't want to create a java web app any other way.

And if you get some experience in it, there are job opportunities popping up all over now.

[Paul Michael]

I had the chance to create an intranet library application using Grails and had fun writing it. Groovy came natural to me being a Java developer for quite some time.

However, for internet based apps, I prefer writing them in PHP (I'm a PHP newbie by the way) since the hosting costs are significantly lower.

[Michael Sullivan]

For a Java developer, groovy may seem to be a natural fit. However, before you head down that path, let me suggest Ruby, and ROR:

- Ruby/ROR has less risk, and is more mature than Groovy/ Grails
- While Groovy/Grails community is encouraging, Ruby/Rails community is vibrant and alive with activity
- Ruby/ROR offers you a different paradigm at web development. Groovy/Grails copies/mimics this, sometimes at a loss of functionality
- Ruby and ROR still offer some functionality that Groovy/Grails doesn't (like DB migrations, plethora of helpers, etc)
- Ruby isn't based upon, or restricted by Java (and it's limitations/rules/implementation). Enough said.
- Groovy/ Grails are still gaining acceptance. Ruby/Rails have passed this test.

The point of this post isn't to get you to "choose" Ruby/ROR, but to consider them. I think it's worth your while.

Thanks!