Is Java Required for Web Development

Learning Java for web development is not a must, there are many other options that developers can use for building web applications.

It is important to note that Java is used heavily in many web applications today, especially in the enterprise world.

If you get a job in a company whose web application codebase is written in Java, you will have no option but to learn it.

Changing the entire codebase is very expensive, that is why most companies choose to maintain their original codebase and technologies.

“Java is a high-level, class-based, object-oriented programming language that is designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible.

It is a general-purpose programming language intended to let programmers write once, run anywhere (WORA).”  

Java can be used to develop web applications, mobile applications, desktop applications, games, embedded systems and so much more.

According is a 2022 Stack Overflow survey, Java is the 6^th most commonly used programming language, it is used by 33.40% of professional developers.

Java is quite popular even though its love from developers is decreasing, in the same Stack Overflow survey, 47.15% of professional developers loved Java versus 52.85 % of developers who dreaded it.

Java has a huge community of developers with a lot of free resources online, although it is not the most beginner-friendly language, it is easy to get started with and you can easily find answers in case you get stuck.

JAVA FRAMEWORK FOR WEB DEVELOPMENT

Java is used widely in web development, especially on the server-side part of web applications. Web applications developed with Java are known to be performant, robust, and secure.

There are many technologies implemented to make web development with Java easy and seamless. Here are some of them

THE PLAY FRAMEWORK

The Play Framework is a high-velocity web framework that makes it easy to build web applications with Java and Scala. The Play framework is used by companies such as Verizon, Walmart, LinkedIn, The Guardian, Electronic Arts, Samsung, Norwegian Cruise Line, and many others.

According to a 2022 Stack Overflow survey, Play Framework is the third highest-paying web framework in 2022. Developers who use the Play framework are paid $88 800 per year.

THE SPRING FRAMEWORK

The Spring Framework is an open-source application framework for developing Java applications.

According to the Spring website, “Spring makes building web applications fast and hassle-free. By removing much of the boilerplate code and configuration associated with web development, you get a modern web programming model that streamlines the development of server-side HTML applications, REST APIs, and bidirectional, event-based systems.”

These are some of the technologies that you can use to build Java web applications, using Spring to develop web applications is one of the most popular and easy approaches that most developers use.

Spring is ranked in the top 10 web development frameworks according to the 2021 Stack Overflow survey.

VAADIN

Vaadin is a web application development framework for Java. It comes with a large library of easy to use UI components. It helps you build reliable web apps and a great UX faster.

Vaadin comes with collaborative features that make it easy to work with others. Vaadin is used by many companies such as Netflix, Volkswagen, Motorola, Dell EMC, Primerica, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Puma, and many others.

STRUTS

Apache Struts is a free, open-source, MVC framework for creating elegant, modern Java web applications. It favors convention over configuration.

Struts is extensible using a plugin architecture, and ships with plugins to support REST, AJAX, and JSON. Struts is used by companies like doubleSlash, Spookies, Aspen, coinatstar, QDP, and many others.

JAVA IN WEB DEVELOPMENT

SERVLET API

Servlet technology is used to create a web application on the server and generate a dynamic web page.

JAVASERVER PAGES (JSP)

Java Server Pages is a server-side programming technology that enables the rapid development of web-based applications.

It also enables the creation of a dynamic, data-driven, platform-independent method for building Web-based applications.

It provides a simplified, fast way to create dynamic web content. JavaServer Pages embed Java code in an HTML page by using the special delimiters <% and %>

JAVA DATABASE CONNECTIVITY (JDBC)

JDBC is a Java API used to connect and execute the query with the database. It is a part of Java Standard Edition. JDBC API uses JDBC drivers to connect with the database

JAVA PERSISTENCE API (JPA)

The Java Persistence API provides Java developers with an object/relational mapping facility for managing relational data in Java applications. It is used to persist data between Java objects and relational databases.

WHICH LANGUAGE WILL REPLACE JAVA?

Kotlin will likely be used in many places where Java is used. Kotlin is designed to interoperate fully with Java, and the JVM version of Kotlin’s standard library depends on the Java Class Library.

Kotlin can be used to develop web applications, mobile apps for Android and IOS, and more.

Java was the default language for developing native android apps in Android Studio until 2019. Android App Development with Android Studio has been Kotlin-first since Google I/O in 2019.

Google announced in 2019 that Kotlin will be the preferred language for Android App Development.

This will in the long term replace Java for android app development. Kotlin is modern and beginner-friendly, and its syntax is easy to write compared to Java.

A Stack Overflow survey shows that Kotlin is more loved than Java.

LANGUAGE	LOVED	DREADED
JAVA	47.15%	52.85%
KOTLIN	61.55%	38.45%

Although Java seems to be losing popularity and seem to be replaced by Kotlin, there is still a long way before Kotlin takes over Java in popularity and usage, Java is still in wide usage and will be for a foreseeable future.

CONCLUSION

Learning Java for web development is not a necessity, it is optional. There are many options that make web development easier such as Python, Node.js, Php, Ruby on Rails, Golang, Kotlin, C#, etc.

However, there is no harm in Learning Java for web development especially if you seek to work for big tech companies whose code may be in Java. Having Java skills can be a huge boost to your resume.

If you would like to learn more about web development, check out our article BECOME A SELF-TAUGHT WEB DEVELOPER (STEP BY STEP GUIDE).