The JHipster application generator is enabling developers to blend their Java and JavaScript development skills on the same Web applications.

Reaching a 1.0.0 release milestone on Sept. 1, the open source offering leverages a multitude of technologies, including the Angular.js JavaScript framework, the Spring Java framework, and the Yeoman scaffolding tool (JHipster serves as a Yeoman generator). The technology has been used for building business applications and games, says JHipster founder Julien Dubois, of Ippon Technologies, a consultancy specializing in Java.

With JHipster, Dubois set about to blend Angular.js and JavaScript on the client and Java on the back end via Spring. “They all work together out of the box,” he says. Other tools leveraged with Hipster include the Maven build tool for Java, Spring MVC REST, and Spring Data JPA, all on the server side.

On the client, JHipster utilizes the Grunt JavaScript task runner, for building JavaScript and CSS assets, and the Bower package manager for installing JavaScript libraries. Google’s Angular.js framework has offered dependency injection as a differentiator from other Web frameworks. Spring, also featuring dependency injection, has been leveraged for years as another option for developing Java applications besides using only the Java EE (Enterprise Edition) platform.

Applications can be accessed on desktops or mobile devices, such as tablets, and Heroku cloud deployment is supported. JHipster can build either Java 7 or 8 applications. Developers can use JHipster with a SQL database or the MongoDB NoSQL database; Red Hat OpenShift cloud support is planned as well. WebSockets can be enabled in JHipster via the Atmosphere Framework for asynchronous application development with Java. Upcoming minor releases of JHipster will focus on stability and compatibility between all options provided by JHipster.

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