This whole thing happened about 4 years ago now, and the original application was written several years before that, before the rise of React and Angular, which have BECOME popular (IMNTBHO) because they try to address the gaping hole which is the frontend of using Java for web apps.
Around that same timeframe, I tried using JHipster, which sort of attempts to do for Java everything that a Rails app stack does for Ruby. It took 45 minutes for my top-of-the-line Dell laptop/workstation to bootstrap it, and it was... unapproachable.
Why did you use Struts 4 years ago? That framework died at least a decade ago.
But don’t get me wrong, I see where you are coming from, I’m just saying that your experience may not have been up-to-date even then, let alone now. In practice, with spring boot, quarkus and the like developing a backend app is plenty productive in java.
Ay yi yi. Maybe go back and reread what I wrote. I didn't use Struts, and the original app was written at a time when that was an accepted "meta."
I've used Spring Boot. We'll have to "agree to disagree" that it's "productive."
All these things that people are stacking on top of Java are just trying to implement concepts and features that Rails has had for 15 years, and they're still nowhere near as "productive."
Around that same timeframe, I tried using JHipster, which sort of attempts to do for Java everything that a Rails app stack does for Ruby. It took 45 minutes for my top-of-the-line Dell laptop/workstation to bootstrap it, and it was... unapproachable.