This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by dion. Original Post: Putting configuration in annotations doesn't mean "no configuration!" Feed Title: techno.blog(Dion) Feed URL: http://feeds.feedburner.com/dion Feed Description: blogging about life the universe and everything tech Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by dion Latest Posts From techno.blog(Dion)

I read Matt's posting on a new web framework called Stripes that is trying to make Java web dev simpler (aren't they all these days? :).

What jumped out at me immediately is that the framework claims to have less configuration. Great.

Then you see the Quick Start Guide and see:

...

@UrlBinding("/quickstart/Calculator.action")
public class CalculatorActionBean implements ActionBean {

...

I don't know about you, but that smells of configuration to me.

It is just HARD CODED in my Java source file, instead of in an EVIL XML configuration file :)

Rails' convention over configuration builds the URL for you based on its own defaults, or your rules. Then you don't have to put in any configuration.... else you get explicit.

Not that annotations are evil too.... just not a True Saviour to put all configuration into. Some of the annotation usage in Stripes is very nice.