Overview

Web platforms provide comprehensive frameworks for building modern web applications. This section covers backend web frameworks for Java and Elixir ecosystems.

What You’ll Learn

Framework Fundamentals

• Java Spring Boot - Enterprise-grade web applications on the JVM
• Elixir Phoenix - Real-time web applications with fault tolerance
• REST API Development - Controllers, request handling, response formatting, content negotiation
• Data Access Patterns - ORM integration, repositories, query building, transactions
• Real-Time Communication - WebSockets, server-sent events, push notifications
• Testing Strategies - Unit testing, integration testing, mocking, test containers

Production Patterns

• Security - Authentication, authorization, session management, OAuth2, JWT tokens
• Performance Optimization - Caching, connection pooling, async processing, query tuning
• Monitoring & Observability - Health checks, metrics collection, distributed tracing, logging
• Resilience - Circuit breakers, retries, rate limiting, graceful degradation
• Deployment - Containerization, cloud platforms, environment configuration, scaling

Advanced Features

• Microservices Architecture - Service discovery, load balancing, API gateways, distributed systems
• Event-Driven Patterns - Message queues, event sourcing, CQRS, saga patterns
• API Design - Versioning, pagination, filtering, HATEOAS, GraphQL alternatives

Available Platforms

JVM Spring Boot - Java & Kotlin Web Framework

JVM Spring Boot simplifies enterprise web development with Java and Kotlin:

• Auto-Configuration - Minimal setup with sensible defaults
• REST APIs - Build RESTful web services with Spring MVC
• Dependency Injection - Inversion of control container
• Data Access - Integration with Spring Data JPA and JDBC
• Security - Authentication and authorization with Spring Security
• Testing - Comprehensive testing support with MockMvc
• Production Features - Actuator endpoints for monitoring and health checks
• Ecosystem - Integration with Spring Cloud, Spring Batch, Spring WebFlux

Elixir Phoenix - Real-Time Web Framework

Elixir Phoenix delivers high-performance concurrent web applications:

• MVC Architecture - Model-View-Controller pattern with functional programming
• LiveView - Real-time server-rendered UI without JavaScript
• Channels - WebSocket-based real-time communication
• Ecto Integration - Database access with composable queries
• Fault Tolerance - OTP supervision trees for resilient applications
• Scalability - Handle millions of connections on a single machine
• Generators - Code generation for rapid development
• Testing - Built-in testing framework with async support

Learning Path

Each platform provides By Example tutorials organized by progressive difficulty:

• Beginner (0-40% coverage) - Setup, routing, controllers, views, basic CRUD, dependency injection, configuration
• Intermediate (40-75% coverage) - Authentication, APIs, database integration, testing, security, caching, async processing
• Advanced (75-95% coverage) - Real-time features, microservices, performance optimization, deployment, monitoring, resilience patterns

Learn through practical, annotated code examples you can run immediately. The coverage percentages represent the depth and breadth of framework features you’ll master at each level.

Platform Comparison

When to Use Spring Boot

• Enterprise applications with complex business logic
• JVM ecosystem integration (Kafka, Hadoop, Cassandra)
• Team experience with Java and object-oriented programming
• Microservices architecture with Spring Cloud
• Large teams benefiting from Spring’s structure and conventions

When to Use Phoenix

• Real-time applications (chat, collaboration tools, live dashboards)
• Concurrent workloads with thousands of simultaneous users
• Fault tolerance requirements for always-on systems
• Functional programming preference
• LiveView for interactive UIs without heavy JavaScript

Framework Operations

Common Web Framework Concerns

• Request/Response Lifecycle - Routing, middleware/plugs, controllers, views, response rendering
• Dependency Management - IoC containers (Spring), context management (Phoenix), service registration
• Data Persistence - ORM patterns, migrations, connection pooling, query optimization
• Session Management - Stateless vs stateful, token-based auth, session stores
• Security Patterns - CSRF protection, XSS prevention, SQL injection defense, secure headers
• Error Handling - Exception handling, error pages, logging, debugging

Java Spring Boot Operations

• Bean Lifecycle - Initialization, dependency injection, configuration properties, profiles
• Auto-Configuration - Conditional beans, starter dependencies, custom auto-configuration
• Data Access - Spring Data JPA repositories, JDBC templates, transaction management
• REST API Patterns - RestController, request validation, exception handlers, HATEOAS
• Security - Spring Security filter chain, authentication providers, method security
• Testing - MockMvc, WebTestClient, @SpringBootTest, TestContainers integration

Elixir Phoenix Operations

• Process Architecture - GenServer patterns, supervision trees, process communication
• Request Pipelines - Plug composition, router pipelines, controller actions
• LiveView Patterns - Stateful components, socket assigns, event handling, streams
• Ecto Integration - Schema definitions, changesets, query composition, migrations
• Channels & PubSub - WebSocket connections, topic subscriptions, presence tracking
• Testing - ConnCase, ChannelCase, LiveView testing, async test execution

Production Deployment

• Containerization - Docker images, multi-stage builds, resource limits, health checks
• Cloud Platforms - Heroku, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, Google Cloud Run, Azure App Service, Fly.io
• Configuration Management - Environment variables, secrets management, feature flags
• Monitoring - Application metrics, error tracking (Sentry), APM tools, log aggregation
• Scaling Strategies - Horizontal scaling, load balancing, database read replicas, caching layers
• CI/CD Pipelines - Automated testing, build pipelines, deployment strategies, rollback procedures

Getting Started

Choose the platform matching your language and requirements:

• Java/Kotlin developers → JVM Spring Boot
• Elixir developers → Elixir Phoenix
• Need real-time features → Phoenix with LiveView or Channels
• Enterprise applications → Spring Boot with Spring ecosystem

Both platforms assume programming experience in their respective languages. Complete the Java or Elixir tutorials first if you’re new to the language.