tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-48996145760288308442024-03-13T11:30:15.547-07:00starting with jsf icefaces and javaAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730825366007127346noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899614576028830844.post-26802065161750243332010-07-04T02:04:00.000-07:002010-07-04T03:14:57.054-07:00icefaces without icefacesFirst thing you think when starting with JSF is how to customize look and feel and add some javascript. JSF itself is not friendly to CSS and Javascript,<br />
for number of reasons:<br />
<ul><li>ids of elements are dynamic, so your script will have difficulties to find it.</li>
<li>components hide actual html from you, you discover it after page is rendered</li>
<li>css styles are not 'visible' to programmer. </li>
<li>actual html parts of a component are almost impossible to change.</li>
</ul>Adding ajax to jsf page is not an easy task. Defining ajax on component level makes your view depends on too many javascripts and you model becames ajax-depended and not-testable.<br />
<br />
Icefaces comes with great solution to ajax. It comes with tons of components, which are great but still difficult to change. For example, tab container render tabs with 'table-tr-td' and quite limited in terms of customization.<br />
<br />
I believe in another approach. Instead of using complex jsf components, write FACELETS. <br />
Reuse your html parts, especially if your skill CSS skills concentrated in hands of one person.<br />
Sure, simple components like h:inputText are perfectly ok.<br />
<br />
Complex components like tabs, tables, trees, menues, popups all can be done in css-html.<br />
Turn your html into facelets, create tag library for you facelets and you will benefit from flexibility in long run.<br />
<br />
So if Icefaces's components are not suit you, still <strong>do use Icefaces.... without its component</strong>. <br />
95% of Icefaces is its AJAX engine. 4% is Push mechanizm. <br />
<br />
When you have free hands to html-design, JSF became your friend forever.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730825366007127346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899614576028830844.post-46858521595039595622010-06-26T03:32:00.000-07:002010-06-26T03:51:53.518-07:00Why and when use ICEFACES?Icefaces is a great(best?) JSF library. Its great mostly becouse it make AJAX easy to use. Its so easy that you even should not know about AJAX at all. <br /><br />You can do almost everything with ICEFACES. All you can do with html, javascript, you can do with ICEFACES. <br /><br />Its good for most business application.<br /><br />And as we said, its limitation are the same as HTML-CSS-JAVASCRIPT. In short, its not applet, flex,flash, javafx.<br /><br />If your primary skills are JAVA, your markup language is HTML, and you must use AJAX in every place in you application, ICEFACES is the best choice.<br /><br />If you need "PUSH" capabilities, ICEFACES will do it in simple but efficient way.<br /><br />You want create your components? No problemo with ICEFACES.<br /><br />Icefaces comes with number of components. But its real value is AJAX engine. Every component you will create will be AJAX enabled. Cool!<br /><br />ICEFACES supports facelets. So its easy to reuse you html code.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730825366007127346noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4899614576028830844.post-21318071840298757252010-06-26T03:26:00.000-07:002010-06-26T03:32:14.616-07:00First steps with jsf and javaCreating dynamic web application is eazy. You will need some basic java skills and some knowledge about HTML. <br /><br />First, download some java development enviroment, Eclipse is free and good.<br /><br />Then dowload ICEFACES jsf library.<br /><br />Follow the instruction how to install it.<br /><br />Download and install some java application server, Tomcat 6 is ok.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03730825366007127346noreply@blogger.com0