This is a personal journey of a java developer seeking to learn and share basic java technologies as often used in web applications. My intention is to walk through every detail so the reader with a basic understanding of Java can build a basic web application. The example application will use a few database tables, and offers basic functionality like add, edit, and delete.
Countless corporations rely on this basic framework for both internal and public-facing applications. I’ve worked on many such applications recently in my career. However, most of the time this kind of work involves enhancing or debugging existing systems written by teams of prior developers. This denies one the chance to learn exactly how all the pieces fit together, and what is minimally necessary vs. what are legacy components. These unknown fragments remain in a project because nobody knows if they’re really needed, and hasn’t the courage to remove.
My guiding principle in composing this tutorial is that this is exactly what I would have wished to have while I was struggling to learn. I came to this subject with good proficiency in Java, but came up against a bewildering range of technologies contributing to developing even a simple web application.
This blog is intended to build a model application in small increments, so the reader can learn the purpose and function of each part, and how they work together. That approach includes building a development environment from scratch.
Requirements for success in this tutorial
- A computer. I will be using Windows 7, but this can be built on any Linux system (e.g., Apple Mac)
- A reasonably fast internet connection. Some tools and components will need to be downloaded from the web.
- Basic knowledge of Java. Some knowledge of common frameworks like Spring, JUnit, HTML, etc is helpful.
- Some disk space, about 10-15GB. Other than installing Oracle VirtualBox, no further invasive software will be used on your computer.
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Adventures in Java 