Java Based REST framework evaluation

Vert.x

Installation and setup

From reading the introduction at https://vertx.io/ it was clear that this framework offers much more than just a REST framework, but for the purposes of this evaluation I wanted to stick to trying to create a basic service. I wasn’t 100% sure where to start if I’m honest, so I went for the ‘Starter’ link at the top of the main page (http://start.vertx.io/), filled in the details and downloaded my first project.

I then imported this into my IDE to take a look at what had been generated.

As it turns out this generated just what I wanted - a simple service that I could spin up and hit right away.

One of the concepts Vert.x uses is called ‘Verticles’. This is what was generated for me. Although I didn’t find the code as intuitive to follow as some of the other frameworks it was obvious what the ‘Verticle’ was doing.

Following the ‘README’ in the generated project enabled me to package my project using the usual command:

(NOTE: this link also looks like a good place to start https://github.com/vert-x3/vertx-examples/tree/master/maven-simplest)

./mvnw clean package

Unfortunately, the instructions to run the project were wrong. This command was given:

./mvnw clean exec:java

but if I followed this I got an error:

java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: io.vertx.starter.MainVerticle

which was sort of expected as the ‘clean’ phase gets rid of the generated jar. Using this command fixed the issue:

./mvnw clean package exec:java

Now I had a simple server running and going to http://localhost:8080 gave me the good old Hello World text in return

Good things

You can use Vert.x with multiple languages including Java, JavaScript, Groovy, Ruby, Ceylon, Scala and Kotlin Eclipse Vert.x is event driven and non blocking

And the not so good

Lots of features (which is good!) means it may be hard to find what you are looking for in the documentation.

Overall Verdict

Although I did find creating a REST endpoint easy, I didn’t find it as intuitive as some of the other frameworks. The documentation was pretty clear but as Vert.x is clearly much more than a REST it was harder to find the information I needed really quickly. I certainly think more time is required to evaluate the other areas of the framework. If you are looking for a framework that does a whole lot more than just REST endpoints then Vert.x is worth looking at in more detail than I have here.