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Seven simple reasons to use AppFuse is some good propaganda to get you started.

AppFuse is an application for "kickstarting" webapp development. Download, extract and execute ant new to instantly be up and running with a kick-ass Java webapp running on Tomcat/MySQL. Uses Ant, XDoclet, Spring, Hibernate (or iBATIS), JUnit, jMock, StrutsTestCase, Canoo's WebTest, Struts Menu, Display Tag Library, OSCache, JSTL and Struts (Spring MVC, WebWork, Tapestry and JSF are also options). To learn more about AppFuse, its history, goals and future, checkout AppFuse: Start Your J2EE Web Apps on java.net. You can also watch this video, which shows you how to create a project with AppFuse - as well as gives you a tour of its out-of-the-box features.

AppFuse 2.x is currently under development. This version includes support for Maven 2, as well as many other features that make AppFuse easier to use.

AppFuse Light is a simpler version of AppFuse that allows you to use Maven 2 or Ant for building/testing/deploying.

The Spring Framework has greatly enhanced AppFuse since February 2004. It's used throughout for its Hibernate/iBATIS support, declarative transactions, dependency binding and layer decoupling. This clean and simple framework has greatly reduced the complexity of AppFuse, and also eliminated many lines of code. In short, for J2EE - it's the best thing since sliced bread.

Special thanks to all the sponsors of this project.

Latest News

If you know nothing about AppFuse, the best thing to do is read the article: AppFuse: Start Your J2EE Web Apps or watch this video.

• October 23, 2006: AppFuse 1.9.4 Released. Spring 2.0, Hibernate 3.2, Facelets, Ajax4JSF and many other library upgrades.
• July 11, 2006: AppFuse 1.9.3 Released. Bug fixes and upgrades to several dependencies.
• June 6, 2006: AppFuse 1.9.2 Released. CSS Framework integration, EMMA code-coverage support and AppGen sub-package support.
• April 7, 2006: AppFuse 1.9.1 Released. This release includes XFire 1.0, Tapestry 4.0.1 and WebWork 2.2.2, as well as support for using AppGen to reverse engineer database tables (using Middlegen). iBATIS is now supported by AppGen and a Create iBATIS DAO Tutorial has been put together.
• January 14, 2006: AppFuse 1.9 Released. This release includes full Acegi Security integration, support for Ajax with DWR and Scriptaculous and many bug fixes/upgrades.
• December 28, 2005: Equinox 1.5 Released. This release's major new feature is dependency downloading using Maven 2's Ant tasks. It also includes support for Ajax with DWR and Scriptaculous.
• June 15, 2005: Thomas Gaudin has put together a couple of detailed and easy-to-follow tutorials on his site: Handling Dates with AppFuse and Struts and Building a persisted dynamic web tree.
• May 6, 2005: AppFuse Videos created and setup a new JIRA Issue Tracker. Thanks to Atlassian for the free JIRA license and to Contegix for hosting it. Also thanks to KGB Internet Solutions for sponsoring the hosting of the AppFuse Demos.

Developer Weblogs: Matt Raible (Raible Designs and Spring Live), Dave Carter, Sanjiv Jivan and Thomas Gaudin.

Project Information

• Project Name: AppFuse
• Latest Release: 1.9.4
• Latest Release Status: Production
• Project Type: Starter Web Application

Contents

Screenshot and Demos

Download and Installation

Features

Building From Source

Usage Instructions

Support

Participation

Sponsors

Revision History

Screenshot and Demos

Screenshot:


Live Demos:

• Struts + Spring + Hibernate
• Spring + iBATIS
• WebWork + Spring + Hibernate
• JSF + Spring + Hibernate
• Tapestry + Spring + Hibernate

Demo Videos:

Below are are videos that are up-to-date with version 1.9.3. The setup video is around 3 minutes, and the AppGen one is around 3:30.

New Project and Feature Tour

Code Generation with AppGen

Download and Installation

To download and install AppFuse, see the QuickStart Guide.

Features

AppFuse has the following features:

• Cross-platform, implemented using Java^TM technology.
• Should run on all J2EE 1.3+ compatible application servers that support J2SE 1.4.
• Authentication (using Acegi Security), Remember Me, Self Registration, Password Hint, GZip Compression
• Support for SSL throughout, including login only
• i18n, with built-in translations for Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Chinese
• Label Tag Library for displaying validation errors next to fields
• Rich Unit Testing environment using DBUnit, JUnit, jMock and Canoo's WebTest
• Easy configuration and rapid development using XDoclet, Spring and AppGen.
• Web Framework Options: Struts, Spring MVC, WebWork, JSF and Tapestry
• Persistent Framework Options: Hibernate or iBATIS

Build Instructions

To build AppFuse, follow these steps:

1. Download and install ant 1.6.5 from https://ant.apache.org, or use the command asant provided with the J2EE 1.4 SDK.
2. Download and install MySQL 3.23.53 or greater from https://dev.mysql.com/downloads. By default, AppFuse expects a "root" user with no password (mysql defaults to this).
3. Download and install Tomcat 5.0.x+ from https://tomcat.apache.org. As part of the installation, make sure an admin/admin user exists with a "manager" role in $CATALINA_HOME/conf/tomcat-users.xml.
4. Check out or download the source code from java.net. You can find Subversion instructions at: https://appfuse.dev.java.net/source/browse/appfuse/.
5. Run 'ant setup'. An appfuse database will be created in MySQL and a WAR will be expanded into $CATALINA_HOME/webapps.
6. Login to the application at https://localhost:8080/appfuse.

Usage Instructions

To use AppFuse, first, download it and then complete the tutorials below.

Creating Objects and DAOs

A HowTo for creating Java Objects (that represent tables) and creating Java classes to persist those objects in the database. View Tutorial »

Creating Managers

A HowTo for creating Business Delegates that talk to the database tier (DAOs) and the web tier (Struts Actions). View Tutorial »

Creating Actions and JSPs

A HowTo for creating Actions and JSPs in the AppFuse architecture. View Tutorial »

Adding Validation and List Screen

Adding validation logic to the personForm so that firstName and lastName are required fields and adding a list screen to display all person records in the database. View Tutorial »

Support

AppFuse is a community-supported open-source product. You can find support by subscribing to the various mailing lists offered in this java.net project. You can also checkout the AppFuse FAQ.

Participation

At this point, the best way to participate in this project is to use AppFuse. By using it, you will likely find some things that you'd like to improve. Talk to us on the mailing list and let us know what you'd like to see improved.

Goals for the 2006 include improved useability with IDEs and other tools. This includes Maven 2 support and JDK 5 support. For more details, see the AppFuse Roadmap

Revision History

• Version 1.9.4 - [October 23, 2006]
  • Spring 2.0, Hibernate 3.2 and Facelets integration.
  • Read Announcement
  • Release Notes
• Version 1.9.3 - [July 11, 2006]
  • Bug fixes and dependency upgrades.
  • Read Announcement
  • Release Notes
• Version 1.9.2 - [June 6, 2006]
  • CSS Framework, EMMA and AppGen sub-packages.
  • Read Announcement
  • Release Notes
• Version 1.9.1 - [April 7, 2006]
  • Tapestry 4, XFire 1, WebWork 2.2 and iBATIS AppGen support.
  • Read Announcement
  • Release Notes
• Version 1.9 - [January 14, 2006]
  • Security fixes and bug fixes.
  • Read Announcement
  • Release Notes
• Version 1.8.2 - [August 27, 2005]
  • Security fixes and bug fixes.
  • Read Announcement
  • Release Notes
• Version 1.8.1 - [June 15, 2005]
  • Bug fixes and library upgrades.
  • Read Announcement
  • Release Notes
• Version 1.8 - [April 29, 2005]
  • Integrated Acegi Security and lots of bug fixes.
  • Read Announcement
  • Release Notes
• Version 1.7 - [December 8, 2004]
  • Added JSF and Tapestry as web framework options.
  • Read Announcement
  • Release Notes
• Version 1.6.1 - [November 9, 2004]
  • Added AppGen tool to generate all code needed to CRUD a database table.
  • Read Announcement
  • Release Notes
• Version 1.6 - [October 9, 2004]
  • Replaced Tiles with SiteMesh, added WebWork, improved Mail support and made tests faster.
  • Read Announcement
  • Release Notes
• Version 1.5 - [May 27, 2004]
  • Removed j2ee.jar dependency, removed Struts from services layer and added Spring MVC as an option.
  • Read Announcement
  • Release Notes
• Version 1.4 - [March 1, 2004]
  • Open source release to java.net.
  • Read Announcement
  • Release Notes

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