Frameworks Evaluation Criteria

Each Web framework can be evaluated using an exhaustive set of criteria with detailed feedback obtained from creating a rich application. Heck, there is no need to even create an application and you can just refer to the framework's website, blogs or API docs.

But the criteria given below uses a a very simple application for evaluating each framework. Basically the application is built, from scratch, using each framework so that real-life experience is gained. This however does not evaluate a framework if it's more suitable for "greenfield development" or "legacy integration". This may be a key factor when choosing a framework but is out-of-scope here.

In some cases the application may not be following the best practices recommended by the framework, mainly because of ignorance, and recommendations (aka RFEs) are encouraged in that case.

Please share your feedback on the forums.

Here is the list of criteria:

1. MVC separation - Does it form basis of the framework ? Are the MVC principles defined (or can be adopted) in the framework ?
2. DRY (Dont Repeat Yourself) and CoC (Convention-over-Configuration) principles - Whether they form the basis of the framework or just a side effect ? DRY is more important.
3. Ajax - Do the framework contain Ajax libraries by default or need 3rd party integration ?
4. ORM - Does it come with an ORM or require an extension ?
   1. CRUD generation - how many commands/scripts/coding it takes to create a basic CRUD ?
   2. Table creation - Do the tables need to be externally created or can be created using the framework ?
   3. Loading data in the table - Do the tables need to be externally loaded ?
   4. Customizing queries - Can ORDER BY be easily added ?
5. Customization
   1. CSS & JavaScript - Standard place for adding them or no guidance.
   2. Form Validation & Default Error Handling - specifying/generating error messages easily - ideally one step
   3. Templates - Can templates be applied to all pages in a DRY manner ? Are pluggable templates supported ?
6. 3rd party libraries
   1. Extending the functionality of framework using components/widgets/gadgets/gems/plugins
      1. Date picker - may be it's built in the framework. How much effort it is to add it ?
      2. Pagination - ditto
   2. Integration with 3rd-party JavaScript libraries, YUI in this case
7. IDEs - Do any IDEs support developing, running, and debugging the apps ?
8. Browser compatibility (Firefox, Safari, IE) - Are there any inconsistencies for the generated apps in 3 browsers ?
9. Production deployment - How easily can a deployable artifact be generated ? How many other supporting artifacts need to be provided ?
10. Maintainability - How easy it is to read the code ? How neatly the code is organized ? How many LOCs ?
11. Any outstanding feature ?
12. Any pain point ?

Framework Evaluation

1. Ruby on Rails Evaluation
2. Wicket Evaluation