The approach in the Java world for many years have been to implement Services (or Repository if it doesn't need a complex operations) and wrap them via facade pattern by utilizing:
- JAX-RS (RESTful)
- JAX-WS (WebService)
- MVC (view-based web-app)
And in contrast to what people believe, you don't need to write tons of code and still get full re-usability from the Services/Repositories layer.
On the front-end, you have a choice of:
- GWT for thick-client via RPC (return serialized Java object) or AJAX (return JSON)
- JAX-RS (RESTful)
- JAX-WS (WebService)
- MVC (view-based web-app)
And in contrast to what people believe, you don't need to write tons of code and still get full re-usability from the Services/Repositories layer.
On the front-end, you have a choice of:
- GWT for thick-client via RPC (return serialized Java object) or AJAX (return JSON)
- JSP, JSF, any templating available
- Mobile, Desktop, anything