Will ADF fusion applications matchup as Java EE 6 has arrived?

Question

Here is my view as a simple developer who doesn't like complications :)
1)With ADF, the first thing that wowed me long back was how well integrated the stack is, calling business logic from frontend was quite easy as JDeveloper did lot of work of creating relevant XML files and so on. With Java EE 6, i simply use CDI to inject EJB's in managed beans and start using it right away. Infact EJB's can now be also included in WAR files which i guess will be a good news for small to medium scale applications using Java EE6 web profile. Isn't CDI a better approach for integration rather than lots of XML files. Isn't Java EE 6 more intuitive approach rather than developer having to worry about additional resources being added to the project?
2)I love ADF since we can setup validation in Entity objects and it gets reflected in frontend too. With Java EE 6, bean validation i get almost similar features as validation code is not repeated in every tier.
3)ADF involves a steep learning curve with additional lookup in Business Object API's for various scenarios as well as knowledge of core JSF. With Java EE 6 providing seamless integration, the learning curve is lot less, JSF 2.0 + EJB CDI  Bean Validation combination seems sufficient for most projects.(CDI specification only about 100 pages, Bean Validation specification about 145 pages and this year itself books related to Java EE 6 will be out for those who don't like the specification approach)
4)I always had issues with ADF applications taking lot of time to startup. I tried some sample Java EE 6 application(on glassfish v3), using JSF2.0 + EJB combination. They start as fast as pure JSP applications. Plus the memory required by Netbeans(with integrated Glassfish v3) is quite less.(JDeveloper + Weblogic+ Oracle XE require lots of space). Netbeans(i use it just because it has support for Java EE 6) starts in around 10 secs whereas JDeveloper takes around a minute at least on my PC.
5)Java EE 6 applications will run on all compliant servers and already development is on for Java EE 6 compliance. Such claims cant be made for current ADF applications. Isn't it a kind of application server vendor lock in?
6)I have personally found jsf libraries like Rich faces, Prime faces, Ice faces quite easier to use than ADF Faces. For the former cases, i simply look up the demo show cases and use the relevant code in my projects. Using ADF faces is easy with JDeveloper but when i look at the source code, i find it much more complex than other JSF libraries, lots of binding stuff in it. With richfaces, prime faces etc, i get a sense of control over the UI code. Granted ADF has more components then any other JSF framework, but really using a particular JSF library like RichFaces or Prime Faces is more then sufficient for me. Plus some libraries are already JSF 2.0 compliant. At the start, i was impressed by the charting components which ADF provided, but now virtually every JSF library provides them. Pages can be edited at source code level in other libraries, i cant imagine doing the same with ADF Faces.
7)ADF Faces is currently not free (at least till the last time i checked it), many other libraries are. Thats a big big plus for small budget projects who dont happen to have Weblogic.
8)When i tried building demo application using ADF, first of all Weblogic takes a lot of time to start, plus it took lot of time to just view a modified page. Glassfish v3 starts in just few seconds, plus pages are served quite quickly. I did follow some steps in various blogs about how to improve performance of JDeveloper+Weblogic for development purposes. However JDeveloper + Weblogic combo create-edit-test time is more than netbeans +glassfish v3 combo. Infact i have always wondered, why i am forced to test my ADF applications on a production level server like Weblogic and not on smaller ones like tomcat or even full EE servers like glassfish. If am forced to use a particular server for testing, then i expect quick runs. Visual Studio with integrated IIS is so fast, in fact there is hardly any wait time to see a modified page.(I have developed both Java EE as well as Asp.net applications, and i guess mentioning them is OK since its also a component oriented framework)
9)This is a rather offbeat point. Asp.net framework offers Gridview, a table control which is heavily used by .net guys.(Infact a new control ListView has arrived which offers far more features). In ADF lazy loading tables, there is no direct paging available(i mean paging where we actually see the pager control), with developers having to find out ways to include paging. In other library say PrimeFaces, there is table control which has lazy loading as well as paging built in. Cant there be such a control in ADF with paging as well as template based approach like ListView of Asp.Net? In fact i still haven't found a flexible control like ListView in Java arena. Guess i have to build one since JSF 2.0 has made buildings controls very easy :)
With Java EE 6, JSF 2.0 + EJB + CDI + Bean Validation, do we need the overall complexity which ADF applications inherently have?
Edited by: Nash Era on Jan 30, 2010 8:58 AM

Answer 1

Thanks for taking time for replying :)
Good to hear that Java EE 6 is being considered in ADF future development. For once, a standard seems developed by fellow developers rather than over engineered stuff coming out of a committee meeting( well it started with Java EE 5).
For me, another framework is required only if a standard doesn't suffice all the needs. I mean why increase a developers burden by making him learn whims and fancies of new framework with all its API, its usage, etc.And Java EE 6 has lots of features to satisfy a wide variety of development scenarios.
1) Actually, i wasn't pointing to injecting specific code in model. For eg: [this |http://www.adam-bien.com/roller/abien/entry/ejb_3_1_killed_the], [simple javaEE6|http://www.adam-bien.com/roller/abien/entry/simplest_possible_jsf_2_ejb] .All business logic in session bean, clueless about how its going to be utilized by any front end. When i use a particular UI technology, say JSF 2.0. i simply inject the session bean in one of my JSF managed bean and start using it. No XML files, no binding directly visible for the developer, all binding magic taken care of courtesy, CDI. In fact now a JSF managed bean doesn't need to declared in faces-config.xml, a simple @ManagedBean and scope declaration is enough, one , two , three
Even i am skeptical about how annotations which are being liberally used affects project maintenance. Hope it doesn't turn out to be annotation Hell!
With JPA 2.0 including lots of new features, JSF 2.0 being enhanced further, a lot of development scenarios seems already covered.
3)It really took a lot of time for me to get a hang of ADF. Simple applications are easy to manage, but reading the developers guide took a while.(The guides are really good, the best thing about oracle is how well documented there products are).
5)Actually i tried porting a sample ADF application on Tomcat. Wasn't successful at it. (Actually i gave up since i didn't have that much time). A official support for ADF on various servers would be great.
6)ADF BC as business layer and ADF Faces as UI does involve bindings. Plus a extra binding xml file for each JSF page. With Java EE 6, i have no extra items in my project.
Am looking forward to how JDeveloper, the IDE of choice for me, provides support for Java EE 6,specifically if any annotation GUI kind of support is provided for DI.
7)I wasn't saying that ADF is not worth its price tag. Just that free alternatives are available which may suffice many projects.
9)About components, a pager control is so much required. I mean for web applications, if we present a product list to the user, he gets a sense of number of products in a list just by looking at the pager below. Better user experience can be achieved by pager control then scrollable tables. Say for amazon.com or ebay.com with search results in a scrollable table wont be acceptable. Plus pager provides a sense of completion than scrolls as the user doesn't have to worry if he has missed a item by scrolling past it. How many ecommerce sites out there use scrollable tables instead of pager? ADF should have catered to this large audience who prefer to have page numbers, prev, next, first, last buttons.
ListView in Asp.Net is very flexible. It can display a table of data with pager , plus it supports templates. With typical JSF table controls, they are rendered only as rows in a table. With ListView i can display the data in any format i want. So a particular list item info is not restricted to be in a row format. I can display it in whichever form i want( for eg: if i am displaying a product list to a user, i place a image to left, price, product info to the right), plus i get paging too.
Am sure JDeveloper + ADF + Java EE 6 will be a deadly combo just as it was for Java EE 5. Looking forward to it :)
Edited by: Nash Era on Jan 31, 2010 9:57 AM
Edited by: Nash Era on Jan 31, 2010 10:07 AM