One of the most interesting findings in the latest Vaadin Community Survey was that Java EE is used slightly more than Spring Framework among developers. Although the difference between the Java EE and Spring Framework shares is small, if we combine both, we get that 73% of the developers using Vaadin also use either Java EE or Spring Framework:
The good news for developers is that Vaadin officially supports both Java EE and Spring Framework. Vaadin’s Matti Tahvonen and Petter Holmström recently explained the Dependency Injection alternatives in a webinar and I recently published two videos showing how simple it is to set up a Vaadin project with Java EE and Spring back-ends. Of course, these videos aren’t the only resources available. I’ll talk about some resources for learning Spring and Java EE with Vaadin below.
Java EE + Vaadin
To see Java EE and Vaadin in action, watch this 5 minute video:
Java EE is supported through the Vaadin CDI add-on. You can find the must-read documentation at the docs site. As Java EE includes several APIs specifications, you can use a Compatibility Matrix to check the compatibility of Vaadin with several of these APIs. One way to master CDI is by reading the specification and then putting the concepts into practice. There’s also a Vaadin Framework & Java EE training that focuses on the basics of Java EE and how to use it in Vaadin applications.
Spring + Vaadin
To see how to mix these two frameworks in less than 5 minutes, watch this video:
https://vaadin.com/spring is a good starting point if you want to learn about the Vaadin + Spring combination. In short, Spring Framework is supported through the Vaadin Spring (a new release is coming this month) and Vaadin Spring Boot add-ons. The best place to start learning about these add-ons is the docs site. If you like learning by watching videos, you should watch Marcus Hellberg’s video where a full-stack “to do” application is developed from scratch, and this webinar with Stéphane Nicoll and Matti Tahvonen. Alternatively, you can read the guide at spring.io.