Comparing Web Frameworks: RIFE

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 15:19:10 GMT

Well, it seems that the series of articles comparing all the different frameworks using Simon's initial set of requirements is expanding. This time, Geert Bevin, the creator of RIFE, has done the same thing, using his own framework.

I've always found RIFE very interesting, but a little daunting for new users. It uses a lot of cool concepts, like web continuations, blueprints, constrained meta data, etc., but if you are starting at server-side development using Java, or if you come from a much simpler framework like Struts, then you might find all of this just a little bit too much.

Also, it seems that there are at least 3 ways to accomplish the same task for many tasks that you want to do. This says wonders about the flexibility of the framework, but if you only want to 'get it done', you will probably stall with RIFE, trying to figure out which one of the options is the best for you; and then, after selecting one, you might start thinking that the other ones might have been better.

I'm sure that the amount of work Geert has put into his framework is making RIFE very flexible. However, I would still choose Wicket over RIFE, as Wicket provides a simpler entry point, in my opinion. I guess the real issue is how does each framework handle more complex requirements, though.

JavaGeek.org - rife tag

Comparing Web Frameworks: RIFE