Java's enterprise system has actually trended towards the convention-over-configuration of RoR since it was heavily revamped as JavaEE 5 (and obviously renamed)

Java's enterprise system has actually trended towards the convention-over-configuration of RoR since it was heavily revamped as JavaEE 5 (and obviously renamed). JavaEE today is heavily dependent on meta-programming and containers like TomEE and JBoss can be built in minimal configurations. I think Jodd is interesting in the same way NodeJS is interesting. If you're more comfortable building your framework from the ground up, you end up adding only those pieces you require. If you're happier having an entire application server at your beck-and-call, start with a full application server and (if necessary) remove what you don't need.