Another MVC Framework - Play

Recently, I have found a little down time and thought I would investigate some other frameworks. I have been working mostly with Spring MVC this last year. I stumbled upon  Play Framework recently. It reminded me of a promotion of Ruby on Rails a few years ago comparing a several feet high stack of books on J2EE with the one simple single Rails book. Play framework is taking the same approach. Simplicity and immediacy.

It uses a command line similar to Rails (and Spring Roo by the way) to create initial constructs based on archetypes/patterns. It incorporates the web server so every change is instantly view-able on the web page and it will immediately display errors right in the web being developed. Further, it includes a simple template engine integrating the framework for creating pages to deliver to the client.

Watch a a nice tutorial posted on YouTube.

One premise play is based on is of more interest than its Rails like simplicity, that is its assumption of a stateless "share nothing'' REST first approach. Keeping state synchronized on the client, in the session and on persistent store can be annoying and difficult. It makes clustering more difficult and tends to produce complexity and as a result bug potential.