Fri. Mar 29th, 2024
Development with Java

“A good programmer is someone who always looks both ways before crossing a one-way street.”

                                                                                                        -Doug Linder

Java Tools

Java is one commercial grade programming language, you just can’t avoid if you are a developer.

It’s as true for Java developers as it is for woodworkers: You can’t do the job right without the right tools. Fortunately, for Java developers, there is no shortage of tools for any kind of Java application development project.

However, not every tool is perfect for all types of Java Application development projects. Just because a tool is the most popular doesn’t mean it’s the “best.” What’s best is always context-dependent in any programming language. A careful analysis and sound knowledge is required by the Java Programmers before they choose any tool.

Here in this list, we will be discussing Top Java Development Tools Everyone Should Learn In 2019 that make life easier for Java Developers. And while no one tool is perfect for everyone, we will be discussing 16 top choices to help you consider which ones might be best for you and your projects.

Contents

Top Java Development Tools Everyone Should Learn In 2019:

1. Java Development Kit:

Any Java developer, planning on developing Java-based applets and applications, the first and foremost need is to get yourself is a tool like JDK (JavaDevelopment Kit), which includes the necessary Java Compiler, the Java Runtime Environment, and the Java APIs. It will help you get started with Java.

2. IDE (Integrated Development Environment):

According to Wikipedia, “an integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source code editor, build automation tools, and a debugger.”

IDE

There are dozens of Java-compatible IDEs out there. However, here we will be discussing Eclipse and Netbeans.

  • Eclipse:

Eclipse is an open-source free integrated development environment for Java. Eclipse provides much-needed assistance for code completion, refactoring and syntax checking. It also offers something called the Java Development Tools project (JDT) that provides a range of tool plugin-ins to help develop all kinds of Java applications.

Eclipse for JAVA

  • Netbeans:

NetBeans is another popular free, open-source IDE. It allows developing desktop, mobile and web applications.

Netbeans IDE

It offers complete support for Latest Java Technologies. Support for fast & smart code editing. Easy & Efficient Project Management process. Rapid User Interface Development. Helps to write bug-free code. NetBeans IDE offers superior support for C/C++ and PHP developers. NetBeans IDE can be installed in any OS which supports Java, from Windows to Linux to Mac OS X systems.

3. JUnit:

JUnit logo

JUnit is an open source unit testing framework that helps developers write and run tests. But there is an essential difference between JUnit and other similar frameworks available on the market. With JUnit, you can test one block of code at a time rather than waiting for the module to be completed before you run a test. It is an important tool for test-driven development and deployment.

JUnit testing with Eclipse

Other features include:

  • It assists in the preparation of input data and setup/creation of fake objects,
  • Loading databases with a specific known set of data,
  • It provides annotations so that test classes can have fixture run before or after every test,
  • JUnit provides support for writing and running tests,
  • It provides annotations to identify test methods,
  • Provides assertions for testing expected results, and
  • JUnit tests allow writing codes faster, which increases quality.

4.Mockito:

Mockito logo

Mockito is an Open Source Java Mocking and Unit Testing Tool. Mockito offers tests with a clean and simple API, which deliver clean verification errors. Mockito is primarily a mock library that helps you create, verify and stub mocks – an essential aspect of Java development.

Mockito window

It can be used to write Behaviour Driven Development style tests with syntactic sugar facilitates. It offers nice, easily readable syntax. It also provides some annotations needed for reducing boilerplate code. Mockito allows writing of relaxed tests.

5. Gradle:

Gradle Logo

Gradle is a project automation Java tool. It’s the default build system for Google’s Android operating system. Gradle maintains a good balance between extensibility and structure. Its conventions are way too useful, but you can easily override them if you need to. Gradle files are generally broken up into tasks, which allows for incremental development meaning less time getting stuck in dependency hell. Gradle makes smart decisions about when to avoid unnecessary work; for example, it will reuse build outputs from previous builds and keep a daemon running to keep information in memory. It supports the convention-over-configuration paradigm.

How to start with gradle

It uses the best ideas of Apache Ant and Apache Maven and takes it to the next level. It introduces a Groovy-based domain-specific language (DSL) instead of the XML which is used by Apache Maven for declaring the project configuration, which makes it easier to configure project dependencies and customize it based on your need.

6. Apache Maven:

Maven logo 

Apache Maven is a build and project management tool. It is based on the Project Object Model (POM) concept. Another useful feature of Maven is dependency management.

It is a simple project setup that follows best practices to get any new project or module started in seconds. It allows easy writing of plugins using Java. Offers instant access to new features with very few extra configurations. Ant tasks for dependency management and deployment outside of Maven. Release management and distribution publication. It encourages the use of a central repository of JARs and other dependencies.

Maven Plugin 

7. Groovy:

Groovy logo  

Groovy is a powerful language with static-typing & compilation capabilities which is primarily aimed at improving a developer’s productivity. Groovy can be said as the chiller, more relaxed cousin of Java. Smart design decisions that make Groovy useful for testing make this an exceptional tool.

Java vs Groovy

Other features include:

  • It is concise, readable and expressive syntax.
  • It integrates easily with any Java program to deliver an effective application with powerful features.
  • Seamlessly integrates with Java and other third-party libraries.
  • Flexible & malleable syntax, advanced integration & customization.
  • Great for writing concise and maintainable tests.

8. YourKit:

YourKit Logo

Java profilers like YourKit help you identify memory leaks, compare the consequences of different code paths and diagnose other performance problems to help ensure the code you write. On-demand profiling basically means the profiled application can be run without incurring any overheads.

Yourkit Java Profiler

YourKit integrates seamlessly with major IDEs, making it a major part of the development process. Another important feature of YourKit is that it also has powerful exception-profiling capabilities: it shows you the type of exception being thrown and the number of times it was thrown. Therefore, you can profile various kinds of database calls and also right down to the queries that were executed.

9. Apache Spark:

Apache Spark

Apache Spark is a lightweight Java web framework which is intended for rapid development with as little overhead as possible. It is an open source framework that is used for large scale applications across clustered computers. It can handle both batch and real-time data processing workloads. It is developed to speed up processing jobs in Hadoop Systems. It is written in Scala language for interacting with Spark core engine.

Apache Spark for Java

Other important features include:

  • It has the ability to support multiple languages.
  • It comes with tools for interactive/declarative queries, streaming data, machine learning.
  • Spark code can be reused for batch-processing.
  • Spark streaming can handle real-time stream processing.
  • It has a provision for real-time stream processing.
  • Active, progressive and most expanding community.

10. FindBugs:

FindBugs Logo

FindBugs is an open source Java project used for static analysis. It scans Java bytecode to identify potential bugs. It is free, easy to run and really very good.

FindBugs for Java

It can identify bug patterns with complete accuracy. It also provides support for the Guava library, recognizing many common misuse patterns. It supports detection of problems identified by JSR-305 annotations.

11. JRat (Java Runtime Analysis Toolkit):

JRatLogo 

JRat is an analysis toolkit used to measure an application’s performance. With JRat, you can then identify possible problems that can affect application performance with the use of this tool.

JRat for Java

Data can be viewed and analyzed on JRat Desktop (Swing application).

12. VisualVM:

VisualVM

VisualVM is a utility included in the JDK for monitoring, reviewing the performance of Java applications and integrating command-line JDK tools. It detects and attaches to active JVM instances to retrieve diagnostic information about a process. It is designed for both development and production time use.

VisualVM for Java

It provides a full suite of profiling tools including JConsole, Jstack, Jmap, Jinfo, and Jstat.

Additionally, it displays both local and remote Java Processes, monitors Process Performance and Memory, visualize Process Threads, profile performance and memory usage, takes and displays Thread Dumps, it can read basic information about the crashed Java process and also helps to analyze Core Dumps.

13. Clover:

Clover for Java

Atlassian’s Clover is an open source and free to use Java tool for generating code coverage reports from unit tests and can be executed simply as a plugin in Ant, Eclipse, or Maven. It is a source code instrumentation technique that can collect code metrics.

Clover for Java

14. Apache JMeter:

Apache JMeter Logo

Apache JMeter is an instance of open source software, and a 100% pure Java application for load testing. It is a testing tool that will measure functional behavior and also the performance of your websites, databases, web services etc.

Other important features of Apache JMeter include:

  • JMeter allows performing load and performance test for various server types.
  • This load testing tool store its test plans in XML format which further allows users to generate the test plan using a text editor.
  • This tool can also be used for automated and functional testing of the applications.
  • Data analysis and visualization plugins allow extensibility as well as personalization.
  • Functions should provide dynamic input to test data manipulation.

15. Cobertura:

Cobertura Logo 

Cobertura is a code coverage utility for Java. It generates HTML-based reports based upon the amount of code that isn’t covered by testing i.e., it calculates the percentage of code accessed by tests. It can also be used to identify which parts of the Java program are lacking test coverage.

Cobertura for Java 

It allows line and branch coverage in a detailed tree view and allows to view source code which is colored according to line coverage. It launches Scala, Eclipse JUnit, and PDE in covered mode. It filters out uninteresting classes and packages. Further, it instruments Java bytecode after finishing compiling and also allows you to generate reports in HTML or XML. It displays the percentage of lines, branches covered for each class, package, and the entire project.

16. IntelliJ Idea:

IntelliJ IDE Logo

IntelliJ IDEA is a multi-purpose IDE which focuses on Java development. It offers advanced support for the web, mobile, and hybrid application development and helps developers come up with innovative Java solutions. It has features that help boost productivity such as ‘Smart Code Completion’ and ‘On-the-fly Code Analysis’.

Intellij IDE for Java

IntelliJ IDEA also forms the base of Android Studio – Google’s Android IDE – after replacing the Android Development Tools plugin for Eclipse.

Conclusion:

Since Java is widely used by developers all around the world every day, there are a number of development tools available in the market at a free of cost for developers to use and they, in turn, make their work easier and quicker and result in an error-free code. In ths list I have tried to cover up all the major tools every Java developer should be aware of in order to make their task easier. However, there are so many tools out there and I may have missed out on some other important tools but just drop a comment and let me know and I will make sure to include them too.

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