I am looking for guidance on choosing the best framework for a web application project that will involve two backend developers and one frontend developer, who works independently as a freelancer in a different office.
Since the frontend and backend development needs to be decoupled due to our team structure, I have some specific requirements:
- The application should provide easy-to-integrate data interfaces for other applications.
- It needs to be highly scalable and perform well under load.
- I’m also aiming for a remarkable Rich Internet Application (RIA) user interface with extensive reporting features.
I was considering using a Spring/Wicket combination for the backend. Does anyone know how well these frameworks work together?
For the frontend, I thought of using ExtJS, but I’m unsure about its compatibility with Wicket. I noticed the Wicket-ExtJS project seems outdated since it hasn’t been updated since 2008.
I believe jQuery and HighCharts would work well for charting in this project.
Which frameworks would you choose for this project and what reasons support your choices?
Given your team structure with decoupled frontend and backend development, I would strongly recommend moving away from Wicket entirely. Wicket is primarily designed for server-side rendered applications where frontend and backend are tightly coupled, which conflicts with your distributed team setup. For the backend, Spring Boot with Spring MVC or Spring WebFlux would be far more suitable. This approach allows you to build robust REST APIs that your freelance frontend developer can consume independently. Spring Boot also provides excellent scalability options and integrates seamlessly with various databases and caching solutions. Regarding ExtJS, while it offers comprehensive UI components perfect for enterprise applications with extensive reporting features, the licensing costs can be substantial. React or Vue.js paired with libraries like Chart.js or D3.js might provide better long-term value and community support. These modern frameworks excel at creating rich interfaces while maintaining the flexibility your remote developer needs. The key advantage of this stack is complete separation of concerns, allowing your backend team to focus on API development while your frontend developer works independently without framework constraints.
honestly wicket + extjs combo sounds like a nightmare for maintainence. since you need decoupled dev, why not go with something like laravel/symfony for backend apis and react/vue frontend? way easier to coordinate between teams and the freelancer wont struggle with outdated wicket-extjs integration issues
hmm, what about your team’s experience with these frameworks tho? spring/wicket might be overkill if you’re already dealing with seperate offices. have you considered how the freelancer will handle debugging when things break between frontend/backend? also curious - what kind of load are we talking about here for scalability?