Fat Client-Web based architecture design help ?????

Question

Hellow experts
i have recently joined a java project
which is a fat client-web based application.
clients can work from any location or place using the internet
they will connect to the web server which will be provide the data
to the clients application
i am working on the improvement of architecture n design of the project
pls help me in deciding the best and the fastest way to develop this application further.
i am designing a framework based on my experience and
am also doing some research on whats latest which can accelerate
and improve the development process.
here's what i have and want to know what u think abt it.
pls suggest some new good frameworks if you are aware of.
Technologies to be used
Fat client front end : Java Swings
Web server : Tomcat,Struts
Database : Mysql
FrameWorks
Client side
XXXView.Java(is the GUI layer) (where xxx is any module specific name)
          |
XXXWebHandle.java(this java file will have the code to
connect to the webserver using the apache httpclient)
it will call a struts action file specifically
the data collected from the gui components will be transformed
into xml and sent to the struts action file.
Server Side
xxxaction.java(this file will parse the xml data from client side
and save it to the datbase using jdbc statements
it will also retrive data and metadata from database using jdbc queries
and convert it into xml and send it back as http response to the XXXwebhandle.java
which then parses back the xml data and puts it on the GUI components of XXXview.java files.
THe Problems
1) the conversion of database query resultset to xml at server and the xml back to fields data
takes a lot of time and is cumbersome to code as we need code the xml
defination pattern for every data exchange between server and client.
we need to remove XML .................is it possible????
can we send data back to client as java objects and if yes then how??.
2) right now we are making JDBC calls to mysql database using a common Utility class file
created for handling all kinds of sql statements and return the data via a hashtable object.
We need to use a ORM tool here............dont know which to use and how to use.
heard of hibernate and EJB.pls suggest which one to use
Overall i would appreciate if someone can suggest me good architecture.
is there any framework readily available for developing these kinda apps
pls guide or give me links where i can get info abt this.
thanks
Jags

Answer 1

Hellow experts
i have recently joined a java project
which is a fat client-web based application.
clients can work from any location or place using the
internet
they will connect to the web server which will be
provide the data
to the clients application
Okay. As an aside, you can 'fatten' up a standard web page with technologies such as Pushlets or Ajax.
i am working on the improvement of architecture n
design of the project
pls help me in deciding the best and the fastest way
to develop this application further.
i am designing a framework based on my experience and
am also doing some research on whats latest which can
accelerate
and improve the development process.
here's what i have and want to know what u think abt
it.
pls suggest some new good frameworks if you are aware
of.
Technologies to be used
Fat client front end : Java Swings
Web server : Tomcat,Struts
Database : Mysql
IMO, you should take a look at Eclipse's SWT in addition to Java's Swing. SWT has outstanding performance and looks native. Struts is not a web server. Place that entry instead down in 'frameworks'. MySQL is a good database, but I prefer Postgres, which is also free and implements more of ANSI SQL.
FrameWorks
Place Struts here. Also consider using Spring on your server side. BTW, what is Struts doing other than acting as a Controller? Presumably your fat client is the View. No?
Client side
XXXView.Java(is the GUI layer) (where xxx is any
module specific name)
          |
XXXWebHandle.java(this java file will have the code
to
connect to the webserver using the apache
httpclient)
it will call a struts action file specifically
the data collected from the gui components will be
transformed
into xml and sent to the struts action file.
Any thoughts of using either RMI, SOAP or JAXB since you will have Java objects on both ends of client and server?
Server Side
xxxaction.java(this file will parse the xml data from
client side
and save it to the datbase using jdbc statements
it will also retrive data and metadata from database
using jdbc queries
and convert it into xml and send it back as http
response to the XXXwebhandle.java
which then parses back the xml data and puts it on
the GUI components of XXXview.java files.
So, a database exists. Fairly normal stuff there.
THe Problems
1) the conversion of database query resultset to xml
at server and the xml back to fields data
takes a lot of time and is cumbersome to code as we
need code the xml
defination pattern for every data exchange between
server and client.
Again, take a look at JAXB, SOAP and/or XMLBeans.
we need to remove XML .................is it
possible???? Yes
can we send data back to client as java objects and
if yes then how??.RMI + Java Serialization or JAXB/SOAP/XMLBeans.
2) right now we are making JDBC calls to mysql
database using a common Utility class file
created for handling all kinds of sql statements and
return the data via a hashtable object.
No, no no. Hashtable (and all Maps) have no type-safety. You can introduce lots of programming errors casting from Object to another type. It is far better to create an actual Java object that will hold the data. It seems to take more time, but you will have far fewer runtime errors in your application during development, which IMO, actually speeds up the process overall.
We need to use a ORM tool here............dont know
which to use and how to use.
heard of hibernate and EJB.pls suggest which one to
use
Hibernate and, to a lesser extent, JDO are popular now.
Overall i would appreciate if someone can suggest me
good architecture.
is there any framework readily available for
developing these kinda apps
pls guide or give me links where i can get info abt
this.
Rapidly? Hard to say. I would steer clear of full blown J2EE with EJB's or MDB's if you want to speed up development. Ruby on Rails also generates some press for rapidly putting sites together.
thanks
JagsYou are welcome. Best of luck.
- Saish