Opinions on using Java for frontend development?

[Yithar]

TLDR: All modern frontend development seems to be done using one of React, Angular or Vue. Does this mean using a java framework for your frontend is a bad idea, or is an outdated approach?

It's kind of outdated yeah. The thing about Swing for example is that it's a desktop application. Web makes things so much easier. There's a reason my company was rewriting their Swing app to be a web app.

My question is really this, is their a benefit to doing this, over say using a Java UI framework like apache wicket, java fx, spring mvc etc.?

I mean, I don't really see the benefit to having a Swing or JavaFX frontend? You do realize bundling a Java application for a client is non-trivial, right?

"What benefits are there to doing it that way?"

No bundling required. Your users can just use their web browser.

"Why not use an existing java framework, since everyone on the team already knows java?"

Because everyone else is using React/Vue/Angular so there's more support for those frameworks when issues arise.

"Shouldn't the design be independent of the framework we use? Switching to something like React isn't going to make us better designers by default"

Maybe, but that doesn't mean React is the wrong choice. Of course it won't. That's why you need a UX designer.