The Spring framework is the most ubiquitous Java framework today and the easiest way to solve many problems. At some point, however, developers start to feel Java applications just can't be any simpler because Java itself is not very simple. It is at this juncture that most people look for alternatives.

Spring Roo goes a step beyond the Spring Framework by bringing true Rapid Application Development to Java—just as Grails has done with Groovy. This concise introduction shows you how to build applications with Roo, using the framework's shell as an intelligent and timesaving code-completion tool. It's an ideal RAD tool because Roo does much of the tedious code maintenance.

You'll get started by building a simple customer relationship management application, complete with step-by-step instructions and code examples. Learn how to control any part of the application with Roo's opt-in feature, while using this open source framework to automate the rest of the code.
* Set up a Spring application and working Maven build to see Roo in action
* Address persistence with JPA and the Neo4j graph database—and learn how Roo supports NoSQL databases
* Use Roo’s database reverse-engineering feature to generate a data model from an existing schema
* Build Roo applications with Spring MVC, Spring WebFlow, Google Web Toolkit, Vaadin, and other web frameworks
* Secure and test your application