Events

Caelum Day in Rio – Part 2: VRaptor 3 with Guilherme Silveira and Filipe Sabella

Discover Brazil's answer to Ruby on Rails—explore how VRaptor 3's convention-over-configuration philosophy and annotation-driven approach makes Java web development feel surprisingly elegant and productive

Series: Caelum Day 2009 | Part 2 of 7 > Comprehensive coverage of cutting-edge talks from Rio’s premier Java event

Continuing our series, I’m still buzzing from Guilherme Silveira and Filipe Sabella’s presentation on VRaptor 3. As someone who’s been wrestling with Struts and Spring MVC, what I saw on stage felt like a breath of fresh air for Java web development.

Finally, Convention Over Configuration for Java

What really got my attention was how VRaptor 3 tackles the XML configuration hell that we Java developers know all too well. While we’re used to frameworks like Struts requiring tons of XML setup, VRaptor is embracing the “convention over configuration” philosophy that’s making Rails so popular.

What Made Me Sit Up and Take Notice

The live demo was pretty impressive. Here’s what stood out:

  • Smart URL mapping: Controllers and methods just work without configuration files
  • Dependency injection: Built-in IoC that actually makes sense
  • View resolution: No more mapping every JSP manually
  • JSON/XML support: AJAX responses that just work out of the box
  • Interceptors: Clean way to handle things like authentication and logging

Brazilian Software on the World Stage

There’s something really exciting about seeing Brazilian developers building something that could compete internationally. VRaptor feels like a “made in Brazil” solution that doesn’t compromise on quality or features. The documentation is in Portuguese, which makes it more accessible for local teams.

The Live Demo Was Eye-Opening

Watching Guilherme and Filipe build a working application in real-time was incredible. They showed how to:

  1. Create a controller with just a few lines of code
  2. Handle form submissions without any configuration
  3. Return JSON for AJAX calls automatically
  4. Build clean, readable URLs

The amount of boilerplate code they eliminated compared to what I’m used to was remarkable. It felt like they were coding at the speed of thought.

I Want to Try This

VRaptor is open source and I’m definitely planning to check it out: VRaptor on GitHub

Could This Change Java Web Development?

If VRaptor 3 delivers on its promises, it might prove that Java web development doesn’t have to be the painful, verbose experience we’ve accepted. Maybe we can have Rails-like productivity without giving up the Java ecosystem we know and love.

I’m curious to see how this plays out. The Java community has been looking for something like this for a while.

Next in the series: How Sergio Junior and Luiz Costa are making REST finally make sense!

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