[DZone Research] Java Persistence and Front-End Frenzy

This article is part of the Key Research Findings from the 2018 DZone Guide to Java: Features, Improvements, and Updates.

Introduction

For this year's DZone Guide to Java, we surveyed 507 software professionals on various topics related to the Java language and its use in programming. In this article, we focus in on the data from that survey to discuss the prominence of the Java Persistence API and the varied frameworks and libraries in use to create front-ends for Java-based applications. 

The Art of Java Is the Art of Persistence

Hibernate JPA remains the most popular persistence tool, with 50% of respondents using Hibernate’s implementation of the Java Persistence API (up a negligible 1% from last year’s survey). Standard JPA, on the other hand, fell from the second-place position it held last year, with respondents who said they use the tool dropping from 43% in 2017 to 35% in 2018, causing standard JDBC (42% in 2017 and 45% in 2018) to take it’s spot as runner-up. A steep increase in adoption of Spring’s JDB template from 26% in 2017 to 37% in 2018 pushed it to third place. This year’s survey also saw an increase in respondents who said they use Spring Data, from 24% to 32%. While still not as popular as the other four persistence tools mentioned, this increase in Spring Data adoption hints at a rise in Java applications including more non-relational storage models.

Front-End Free-for-All

This year’s Java survey saw several shifts in responses regarding tools used for creating application front-ends. Respondents who said they use JavaFX fell to 11% from last year’s 17%, putting JavaFX slightly below Swing at 14%. Respondents using the Java Server Faces framework decreased dramatically, from 31% in 2017 to 21% in 2018, and the Struts MVC framework saw a slight decline, from 14% to 10%; however, Spring’s MVC framework adoption increased from 33% to 39% this year. The use of JavaScript frameworks to handle Java app front-ends continued to rise this year, with React seeing a huge boost, jumping from 19% last year to 31% this year. Angular usage also increased from 52% to 57%.

Conclusion

As the development of web applications over desktop apps grows more and more common, this trend is likely to continue. What front-end frameworks do you use with your Java applications? 

This article is part of the Key Research Findings from the 2018 DZone Guide to Java: Features, Improvements, and Updates.