CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaweb-applications
user2745866
user2745866

Reputation: 21

Simplest route to creating a browser-accessible Java application

Context:

I have created a 'desktop' (console-based) Java application in Eclipse. I am using several third-party APIs to help me with the logic of my application. There's currently about 1000 lines of Java code.

I would now like to make this application browser-accessible. All I require is a few buttons and a few tables. The buttons (including a file upload button), upon being clicked, would run my 1000-line java code, and then output the text results into a table or two. I might require a few drop down boxes. All that matters, is that the application is accessed through a typical Web browser.

In another project, I have previously used ASP .NET Web forms (C#) to create a browser-accessible Web application and it was extremely straight forward. I simply dragged and dropped the buttons and tables I required. And coded the logic behind each button, and simply pressed "play" for it be usable through the local Web browser. I could do the CSS styling through VS to make it look pretty if need be.

Questions:

  1. Sorry for my simplistic nature, but what is the "Java version" of ASP .NET C# Web Forms? - that is, drag and drop UI components for a web form that I can simply tack code behind, that can be easily deployed to a browser.
  2. What's the "fastest" route I can take to achieve my goal? I simply wish to deploy my console-based Java application into a browser-accessible stand-alone application. It only needs to run on my local machine.

Notes:

From the reading I have done, it appears that I can use JavaFX for my purpose? - that is, create the UI and code the backend. And apparently, I can simply package the desktop-based JavaFX application to be runnable through the browser.

I apologise for any shortcomings of my question/context; I tried to keep it succinct so I may have generalised a bit. Not in the greatest mindset at the moment...

Upvotes: 2

Views: 229

Answers (1)

Pace
Pace

Reputation: 43957

As for question 1, that would probably be JavaFX. It has the UI builder, and can be deployed to the web as well as to the desktop.

As for the general question, there are dozens of solutions, too many of which to cover here. The most straightforward and common solution would be to write a servlet. You would have to do all the mapping from HTTP URLs and request parameters to the appropriate model objects and then convert the model objects to HTML yourself.

Built on top of that are plenty of tools which can help you with the request mapping (JAX-RS, JAX-WS, Spring MVC, ...), and the conversion from model to HTML (JSP, Apache Velocity, ...), and everything in between.

In addition to Servlets and JavaFX, there are probably also several other options such as GWT and Flex. Figuring out which one is the "fastest" would be a broad and subjective question and so the best I can do is list some options.

Upvotes: 1

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