Open Source Technology Stack for Java Projects

Open-Source tools for Java development have reached a maturity that often goes far beyond commercial tools. A lot of Java projects doing business applications can come along with Open-Source tools. Here is a list of my current favorites.

Development

• Eclipse – the Open-Source IDE
  

• CVS – the Open-Source revision control system
  

• Ant – the Java make
  

• JUnit – the unit test tool for Java
  

• Fitnesse – for acceptance tests
  

• Jemmy [desktop frontends]- testing Swing UIs
  

• HTTPUnit [web frontends] – testing Web UIs
  

• JMeter [server side code] – for load tests of server side code
  

• NoUnit – finding untested methods
  

• Integration-Guard – server side test execution before/after checkin in CVS
  

• DoxyGen – similar to JavaDoc but supports different output formats
  

• PMD – identifies problems and smells in Java code
  

• Eclipse Profiler Plugin – Profiler for Eclipse
  

• XDoclet – generates data from Java meta tags; used for Hibernate, JBoss and others

Libraries

• log4j – for logging (more powerful and widespread than the logging facilities of JDK 1.4
  

• Struts [web frontends] – framework for web applications
  

• Eclipse Plugin Model [client side code] – the Eclipse plugin model can be used without the Eclipse IDE to implement a client side component model for Java
  

• JFreeChart – generates business charts
  

• JFreeReport, JasperReports – printing from Java

Database

• mySQL, PostgreSQL, SapDB – Databases
  

• Hibernate – OR mapper with transparent persistence (requires XDoclet); if an existing database schema has to be used, Torque with its code generation approach may be more suitable

Application-Server

• Apache Web Server – if a lot of static web pages exist or non-Java application logic has to be executed at the server
  

• Jakarta Tomcat [web frontends] – if only a web interface is required
  

• JBoss [server side code and desktop frontends] – if a desktop interface is required and server side code is neccessary (I recommend to use XDoclet to generate most of the EJB stuff)
  

• MockEJB [server side code] – a local container for session beans; supports testing session beans and allows the execution of the system stand alone without an application server

Organization

• XPlanner – Managing and planning of stories
  

• JSPWiki – a simple Wiki web based on Java Server Pages
  

• Open-Office – for external documents and project tracking

Upcoming

There are promising tools which I haven’t had the opportunity to use until now:

• Eclipse Rich-Client-Platform [desktop frontends] – an application frame for desktop applications
  

• iReport – GUI tool for JasperReports
  

• Maven – a build management tool
  

• Bugzilla – a bug tracking system