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Apache CXF vs Spring: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will discuss the key differences between Apache CXF and Spring.

  1. 1. Architecture: Apache CXF is a fully-featured web services framework that is built on top of the Java programming language. It provides a comprehensive set of tools and libraries for developing SOAP and RESTful web services. On the other hand, Spring is a lightweight and modular framework that is primarily used for building enterprise applications. It provides a wide range of features and functionalities, including dependency injection, aspect-oriented programming, and transaction management.

  2. 2. Integration with other frameworks: Apache CXF has a built-in integration with the Spring framework. This means that you can easily configure and manage Apache CXF web services using the Spring configuration files. You can also use Spring annotations and features within your Apache CXF web services. On the other hand, Spring can be integrated with various other frameworks such as Hibernate, JPA, and Quartz, providing a more comprehensive set of functionalities for enterprise application development.

  3. 3. Web service protocols: Apache CXF supports a wide range of web service protocols, including SOAP, REST, and CORBA. It provides a flexible and extensible architecture that allows developers to easily add support for custom protocols. Spring, on the other hand, does not have built-in support for web service protocols. However, you can easily integrate Spring with Apache CXF or other web service frameworks to add web service capabilities to your Spring applications.

  4. 4. Development approach: Apache CXF follows a contract-first development approach, where you define the web service contract (WSDL) first and then generate the code from the contract. This approach is more suitable for scenarios where you have a well-defined and stable API. Spring, on the other hand, follows a code-first development approach, where you write the code first and then generate the web service contract from the code. This approach is more suitable for scenarios where you need more flexibility and agility in developing your web services.

  5. 5. Community and support: Apache CXF has a large and active community of developers and users, providing strong community support. It is widely used and well-documented, with a rich set of online resources and forums available for help and assistance. Spring also has a large and active community, with a vast ecosystem of libraries and tools. It is backed by the SpringSource team, which provides professional support and training services.

  6. 6. Performance and scalability: Apache CXF is known for its high-performance and scalability. It provides various optimizations and caching mechanisms to improve the performance of web services. It also supports clustering and load balancing to handle high traffic and ensure high availability. Spring, on the other hand, focuses more on developer productivity and ease of use rather than performance and scalability. However, with proper configuration and tuning, Spring applications can also achieve good performance and scalability.

In summary, Apache CXF is a comprehensive web services framework built on Java, with built-in support for various web service protocols and strong community support. Spring, on the other hand, is a lightweight and modular framework primarily used for enterprise application development, with a focus on developer productivity and ease of use. Both frameworks have their own strengths and are widely used in the industry.

Advice on Apache CXF and Spring
Needs advice
on
DjangoDjango
and
SpringSpring

I am a graduate student working as a software engineer in a company. For my personal development, I want to learn web development. I have some experience in Springboot while I was in university. So I want to continue with spring-boot, but I heard about Django. I'm reaching out to the experts here to help me choose a future proof framework. Django or Spring Boot?

Thanks in Advance

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Replies (5)
Recommends
on
SpringSpring

Kamrul Hasan, Don't choose dying technologies with small communities. How many startups do you think use Spring and Django? Use Google Trends to compare technologies. Study the StackOverflow developer survey and job websites to see what technologies are wanted. Few teams can afford to train you to get up to their level so be a life-long learner. Embrace the dawn of a new industry and become an expert.

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Sulaiman Sanusi
Recommends
on
SpringSpring

I recommend you stick to Java Spring as you already have experience with the technology, i suggest you master this technology and then if Django seam to be very interesting to you, django is a framework you can easily pickup as python is also easy, you have to probably be able to manage the context switching between a static typed language like Java to dynamic language like python

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Christoph Becker
Recommends
on
DjangoDjangoSpringSpring

It depends on what you want. Spring is Java-based whereas Django is Python-based. The question rather is Java vs Python. I personally recommend Python as it's shorter and easy to learn. But Java has advantages in really big systems.

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Gonzalo Fernández
Recommends

Hi Kamrul,

It really depends on the kind of project and whether you feel more comfortable with Java or Python. Both are excellent frameworks, with a huge community and learning material. I've been working with Spring Boot since I started coding almost and I can assure you it's the perfect combination for Java. The learning curve may be harder that Django, but once you know the basics you're good to go. I can't tell you much about Django but you must now by now that it has a great reputation with Python users. In any case I don't think you can go wrong with any of these two. My advice is, if you are already familiar with the Spring framework, give Spring Boot a try, because you're going to find out that it just makes the whole Spring experience so much easier. Let us know what you chose!

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Recommends
on
DjangoDjango

Both are in active development and had huge community support. It really depends on you what you are comfortable with. Both are married to their respective languages. I choose Python over Java because of its simplicity and readability. To develop in java you need to write a lot of code. That's how java is. The best part I love with Django is its synchronization with Databases.

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Pros of Apache CXF
Pros of Spring
    Be the first to leave a pro
    • 230
      Java
    • 157
      Open source
    • 136
      Great community
    • 123
      Very powerful
    • 114
      Enterprise
    • 64
      Lot of great subprojects
    • 60
      Easy setup
    • 44
      Convention , configuration, done
    • 40
      Standard
    • 31
      Love the logic
    • 13
      Good documentation
    • 11
      Dependency injection
    • 11
      Stability
    • 9
      MVC
    • 6
      Easy
    • 3
      Makes the hard stuff fun & the easy stuff automatic
    • 3
      Strong typing
    • 2
      Code maintenance
    • 2
      Best practices
    • 2
      Maven
    • 2
      Great Desgin
    • 2
      Easy Integration with Spring Security
    • 2
      Integrations with most other Java frameworks
    • 1
      Java has more support and more libraries
    • 1
      Supports vast databases
    • 1
      Large ecosystem with seamless integration
    • 1
      OracleDb integration
    • 1
      Live project

    Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

    Cons of Apache CXF
    Cons of Spring
      Be the first to leave a con
      • 15
        Draws you into its own ecosystem and bloat
      • 3
        Verbose configuration
      • 3
        Poor documentation
      • 3
        Java
      • 2
        Java is more verbose language in compare to python

      Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

      - No public GitHub repository available -

      What is Apache CXF?

      It helps you build and develop services using frontend programming APIs, like JAX-WS and JAX-RS. These services can speak a variety of protocols such as SOAP, XML/HTTP, RESTful HTTP, or CORBA and work over a variety of transports such as HTTP, JMS or JBI.

      What is Spring?

      A key element of Spring is infrastructural support at the application level: Spring focuses on the "plumbing" of enterprise applications so that teams can focus on application-level business logic, without unnecessary ties to specific deployment environments.

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      What companies use Apache CXF?
      What companies use Spring?
      See which teams inside your own company are using Apache CXF or Spring.
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      What tools integrate with Apache CXF?
      What tools integrate with Spring?

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      Blog Posts

      What are some alternatives to Apache CXF and Spring?
      Jersey
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      Apache Tomcat
      Apache Tomcat powers numerous large-scale, mission-critical web applications across a diverse range of industries and organizations.
      Spring MVC
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