AppFuse - Kick start your webapps

AppFuse is an open-source Java EE web application framework founded by Matt Raible. The main objective behind the AppFuse framework was to allow developers to get started quickly and easily using popular Java open-source technologies like Spring framework, Hibernate and Struts to eliminate the initial "start up" time when building new web applications.

AppFuse in its simplest form is a project skeleton that is very generic which is ready to use as a web application with the most basic requirements of a web application. Developers can change the skeleton or use the same setup to add their business logic. AppFuse 1.x uses Ant to create projects, as well as build/test/deploy it. AppFuse projects contain a number of classes and files from the very beginning. These files are used to implement features, but are also examples when developing your application. By using AppFuse to start new projects, it is possible to eliminate the usual first week or two of development time and this is the USP of this framework.

Configuration of open source frameworks have already been done in the appropriate downloaded versions. The AppFuse project is pre-configured to connect to a database, to be deployed in an application server, and allows you to login. Security features that are a must of any web application today are already integrated and only requires configuration if necessary.

AppFuse supports Hibernate, iBATIS or JPA as persistence frameworks. For the web framework, you can use JSF, Spring MVC, Struts 2 or Tapestry. Some of the features that AppFuse comes out of the box with are the following that most application use today:

Authentication and Authorization
User Management
Remember Me (saving your login information so you don't have to login every time)
Password Reminder
Signup/Registration
SSL Switching
E-Mail
URL rewriting
Skinnability
Page Decoration
Templated Layout
File Upload

Check it out guys!!! AppFuse Rocks!! Cheers to Matt for giving us AppFuse.

For More Information on AppFuse project check out the AppFuse Project Website