In this article, we will compare two web frameworks: Apache Struts Web Application Framework (Struts) and JavaServer Faces (JSF).

Both Struts and JSF support basic navigation operations among pages, validation and internationalization. However, JSF surpass Struts because of its interface and events components model processed on server.

If you want to develop complex user interfaces using traditional technologies such as servlets, JSP’s or even Struts, you will have to write plenty of codes in pages in order to show results and to handle user events. In a JSF implementation, interface elements are represented by standardized components and user actions are represented by events handled by application on server side.

This kind of components model based on events has made easier to develop complex desktop applications interfaces and it also may simplify web development.

Some people defend a hybrid usage of Apache Struts and JSF, as if they were supplementary. According to them, we should use JSF interface components in Struts applications. However, JSF supports all existent stages, since the begging of requisition until generation of response content. Hence, a hybrid approach would only be interesting to help on the gradual migration from Struts to JSF.