Java Packages

This is a list of some of the opensource Java packages that I am currently using in my programs:

• Apache Commons is a great collection of packages that are not part of the core Java APIs
• Apache Commons HttpClient that adds features the Java internal HTTP client lacks
• log4j is the defacto standard Java logging package superseding the included java.util.logging official SUN package. Even SUN includes Apache Commons Logging with its Java Pet Store Web Application Blueprint. SLF4J should be used for new projects
  
• Apache POI great module to read and write Microsoft Excel files. POI has some bugs like Bug 45260 - Excel file unreadable due to applyFont() but it is ready for production. Which is better open source for Excel file parsing in Java?
  
• opencsv a CSV parser and writer. Can you recommend a Java library for reading (and possibly writing) CSV files?
  
• iText best PDF creation and manipulation library. Creating a PDF from Java and Displaying it in a webpage
  
• JasperReports best Java reporting framework
  
• JFreeChart is the best way to create any kind of chart in Java
• HtmlUnit great module to automate interaction with a website (formely I used HttpUnit but it lacks good JavaScript support)
• NekoHTML best Java HTML parser
• Jersey JAX-RS reference implementation you can use to write REST Web Services
• Apache CXF JAX-WS implementation for SOAP Web Services (I previously used Apache Axis2 but found Apache CXF to be better engineered and easier to use than Apache Axis2. I also preffer using Java to specify the interface in my code and have WSDL autogenerated instead of having to write WSDL)
  
• Quartz job scheduler. The classic cron for use in any Java program
• Spring Framework great framework for developing any Java application
• Spring Security easy and powerful way to add security to your site with many ways to authenticate
  
• Spring LDAP best Java library for LDAP with a correct API for query building to prevent LDAP injection
• Lucene full text indexing and searching