Javalin and htmx: A Powerful Combination for Full Stack Web Development in Java

2023/07/12

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Introduction In the world of frontend frameworks, Single Page Application (SPA) architecture has been dominant, with frameworks like Angular and React taking the spotlight. However, there is a growing trend towards server-side rendering, as demonstrated by technologies like Next.js and React Server Components. Enter htmx, a lightweight frontend library that allows servers to respond with plain old HTML, eliminating the need for complex frontend frameworks. In this article, the author introduces Javalin, a simple web framework for Java, and demonstrates how to combine it with htmx to build a fast and simple full stack web application in Java.

Dependencies To get started, the author suggests using Maven and provides a list of dependencies to include in the project's pom.xml file. These dependencies include j2html, a Java library for generating HTML in a fluent and typesafe manner, and Javalin, the web framework that will handle the server-side logic.

Server-side HTML with j2html Instead of using a templating engine like Thymeleaf, which requires template files outside of Java, the author recommends using j2html. This library allows developers to build HTML in a familiar and type-safe manner, making it easy to generate HTML directly in Java code.

Handling requests with Javalin Javalin is described as a simple web framework for Java and Kotlin, similar to Express for Node.js. The author provides an example of how to handle requests using Javalin, showcasing its simplicity and ease of use. By combining Javalin's Context#html method with j2html, developers can easily serve HTML responses from the server.

Interactivity with htmx To add interactivity to the web application, the author suggests using htmx. By including htmx as a WebJar dependency, developers can leverage its special hx-* attributes to make dynamic requests to the server without refreshing the entire page. The author provides an example of how to use htmx to replace a button with the HTML response from a server-side request.

Conclusion With the combination of Javalin and htmx, developers can achieve fast and simple full stack web development in Java. By leveraging Javalin's simplicity and j2html's type-safe HTML generation, developers can easily build server-side rendered web applications. And with htmx, developers can add interactivity to their applications without the need for complex frontend frameworks. This powerful combination opens up new possibilities for Java developers looking to create modern web applications.