Spring Roo is an open source Rapid Application Development tool for Java developers. Spring based applications performing CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) on Entities can be easily build using Roo. It is not an IDE or a runtime. It is just a programming methodology combined with a code generation tool. By just providing the entities and their fields, Spring Roo can generate end to end code for all CRUD operations.

This post analyses the applicability of Spring Roo in building enterprise applications where simple CRUD functionality and auto generated screens may not be sufficient.

Spring Roo acts during compile time and generates necessary artifacts required for the application and this ensures that auto-generated application will be highly customizable. As the generated application is Spring based, it can leverage all the strengths of Spring framework. All the NFRs like security, transaction, audit, logging, validation, internationalization etc. can be easily achieved in a Spring Roo based application.

In short, Spring Roo is a robust and reliable mechanism to perform Rapid Application Development. It can surely improve the productivity without compromising the flexibility and NFRs. 

Features provided by the recent release (Roo 1.2) made it more favorable for enterprise application development. 

Read the details at http://softthoughtsbyjohn.blogspot.com/2011/12/enterprise-application-development.html