Struts & JSTL versus JSF

[Dan Washusen]

This isn't Spring specific but I consider Spring users to be an enlightened bunch and I believe your insights will be valid, helpful and accurate.

We are currently being prodded, by the powers that be, into the direction of a mixture of Struts and JSF. From the pages I've read it sounds like this is very bleeding edge and it seems like it could place a lot of risk on a project if it were attempted. Has anyone attempted this feat and does anyone have any comments?

I would also be very interested in general experiences with JSF especially compared to Struts.

Cheers,
Dan

[katentim]

There's no doubt it's a risk if there's no previous experience amongst the team (true for most technologies - especially new ones).

Here's a recent mix of opinions (which would worry me, especially when the bad ones are from respected J2EE figures).
http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=28929

Quoting from Rod/Juergen's book regarding Struts/JSF "Do not try to combine approaches that do not naturally fit." Struts is MVC focussed, while JSF is RAD focussed with per-event action listeners.

If you have time and power to prove or disprove it's usefulness, I'd make evaluating it a top priroity before blindly using it.