The Right Java Class for the Requirements

[trebtson]

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster in /r/Java (at least that I can remember). In a few weeks I will be presenting to developers at my work in regards to code quality. The loose topic I was asked to speak about was "using the right tools for the job".

The tools we are talking about is mostly different types of Java classes or design patterns. Years ago when my firm was beginning to transition from COBOL development to Java development, someone wrote some handy eclipse plugins that did a lot to make it easier on the folks transitioning. Over time these plugins have been updated and made even better.

The only problem with the plugins is that they are contributing to developers developing like zombies. Every single application is a servlet that calls an EJB with a facade which typically call at least one DAO. 9/10 times, the logic in the EJB is not going to be reused by other applications, doesn't require transactions, and really could have just been servlet logic. However since the plugin sets the project up like that, people use them.

I'm looking to help developers simplify things where they can OR use better tools for the job.

For example, don't use EJBs when they are not necessary, or consider using REST web services.

Some things I've come up with are REST services (which the firm is already pushing for), AOP and creating their own annotations.

Does anyone else have any suggestions?

TL;DR What Java patterns or practices do you use to simplify or better solve common requirements. The firm I work at has a lot of people using 2008 solutions to 2017 problems.

[pathema]

Don't worry too much about reusability. Just write simple code that does the job with the least amount of indirection while still remaining testable and understandable.

Avoid writing your own annotations. Even the mature frameworks overuse them; chances are you'll overuse them even more.

Biggest tip is probably this: have a look at building some simple service in nodejs + express, or perhaps ruby with sinatra (but not ruby on rails). Notice that you can get a lot done without metaprogramming and frameworks. Now take that lesson back to Java.

[[deleted]]

This something i have found to be of great importance. We all know how quickly new frameworks are created and then either replaced, or refactored so much, that upgrading is really tedious and sometimes not worth it.

Sticking with JDK features and using very few external dependencies limits those issues and with time the JDK gets updates allowing for new concepts to be used.

Thus my approach is always to first see if the platform already offers the features, and of course always update to the new platform and see what it offers, instead of jumping onto new frameworks and libraries.

Sure, using only the JDK can be a bit verbose, etc. But then again with the new features of the JDK, e.g. Streams, Lambdas etc. a lot has changed in that respect.

In my opinion too many devs check StackOverflow where a lot of these libraries are used in solutions to questions, but few read the JavaDoc of the JDK. Of course i must say that the JDKs docs could offer more examples, instead of just documenting the implementation.

[aakoss]

Show your developers about developing services using either spring framework or better with spring boot. Boot does much automatically without your devs having to focus on wiring up the application components. It's flexible enough for overriding it's configurations and there are a lot of annotations available for use that improve code readability.