jsf 2: myth of panacea? magic world of user interfaces
DESCRIPTION
Presentation about JSF 2 framework, his advantages and shortcomings. Additional information about RichFaces usageTRANSCRIPT
JSF 2: myth or panacea?Magic world of user
interfaces
Сергей Моренец29 августа 2012 г.
Agenda
• The history of Java Web frameworks• JSF specification and roadmap• JSF plugins and extensions• Custom components design• Q & A
Distributed App UI History
Imagination
Reality
The history of Java Web frameworks
The Servlet API• The introduction in March 1998• Enabled Java developers to write server-side code for
delivering dynamic Web content• Java response to CGI
JavaServer Pages• Released in 1999 by Sun Microsystems• High-level abstraction of Java servlets• Java response to PHP• Adds tags and expression language• Works inside JSP container, which handles all JSP page
view requests.
Apache Struts• Introduced by Apache Foundation in 2000• Implementation of the Model-View-Controller
paradigm• Enabled actions to support navigation• Templates in JSP, XML, Velocity• Struts 2 with AJAX and plugins support
Spring MVC• Released under Apache 2.0 license in 2003• Spring response to Struts framework• Tightly coupled to the Spring IOC container• Defines strategy interfaces for the responsibilities• Supports portlet development
The Birth of JSF• Created as JSR #127• Designed by Sun, Oracle, IBM and BEA in May 2001• J2EE framework for building Web applications
The JSF Design Goals• Create a standard UI component framework • Define a set of lightweight Java classes for UI
components, component state, and input events• Provide a set of common UI components• Provide a JavaBeans model for dispatching events
from client-side UI controls to server-side application behavior
The JSF Design Goals• Define APIs for input validation, including client-side
validation• Specify a model for internationalization and
localization• Automatic support of all available client configuration
data, such as the browser version• Support Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI)
History of JSF
• Simple things should be simple. Complex things should be possible.
Alan Kay
JSF 1.0• Initial release in March 2004• Core and performance improvement• Supports Servlet 2.3 and JSP 1.2
JSF 1.1• Bugfix release in May 2004• Performance issues• Based on J2EE 1.3
JSF 1.2• Release in May 2006• Fully detached from JSP as view technology• Unified expression language support• Lack of Ajax out-of-box support• Core part of J2EE 5
JSF 2.0• Release in June 2009• JSP replaced by facelets as view technology• Full Ajax support similar to Ajax4jsf• Annotations and convention-over-configuration
invention• New conversation scope
JSF Sample Page• <html xmlns=http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml• xmlns:h=http://java.sun.com/jsf/html• xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core">• <h:body>• <h:form>• <h2>A Simple JSF Page</h2>• <h:outputText value="#{modelBean.currentDate}">• <f:convertDateTime type="both"
timeZone="#{userLocale.timeZone}" />• </h:outputText>• <h:inputText value="#{modelBean.username}"/>• <h:commandButton value="Click Here"/>• </h:form>• </h:body>• </html>
ModelBean.javapublic class ModelBean {private Date currentDate;
private String username;
public Date getCurrentDate() {return currentDate;
}
public void setCurrentDate(Date currentDate) {this.currentDate = currentDate;
}
public String getUsername() {return username;
}
public void setUsername(String username) {this.username = username;
}
}
Configuration file• <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>• <faces-config xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"• xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"• xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee• http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-facesconfig_2_0.xsd"• version="2.0">• <application>• <message-bundle>message</message-bundle>• </application>• <managed-bean>• <managed-bean-name>modelBean</managed-bean-name>• <managed-bean-class>org.mycompany.ModelBean</managed-
bean-class>• <managed-bean-scope>session</managed-bean-scope>• </managed-bean>• </faces-config>
Component Rendering
Component LifeCycle
Built on JavaBeans concepts
• UIComponent hierarchyPropertiesMethodsEventsValidatorsConvertors• Event modelListener classesEvent objects• Page navigation
JSF Implementations
• Oracle reference implementation
• Sub-project of Glassfish
• UI widgets (MyFaces Tomahawk, MyFaces Trinidad, MyFaces Tobago)
• Extension packages to (MyFaces Orchestra, MyFaces Extensions Validator, MyFaces Extensions CDI)
• Integration modules ( MyFaces Portlet Bridge)
Mojarra vs. MyFaces performance
Testcase MyFaces (ms) Mojarra(ms)
1. JSF Protocol Tests 239 207
2. Full Body Replacement 42 35
3. Multi form situation 4134 4426
4. Testing for decorated api calls 24 34
5. Double Eval Detection 2047 2060
6. Table Test, replacement of table elements
7289 9229
6. Partial Page Rendering Nav Case 2168 2308
7. Event Lifecycle test 130 131
Ajax-enabled components and
frameworks• jBoss RichFaces, Ajax-enabled JSF components for layout, file
upload, forms, inputs and many other features.• ICEfaces, open-source, Java JSF extension framework and rich
components, Ajax without JavaScript• PrimeFaces Ajax framework with JSF components• Oracle ADF Faces Rich Client,
Oracle Application Development Framework• Backbase Enterprise Ajax — JSF Edition, Ajax framework• IBM Lotus Notes - XPages• MyFaces, The Apache Foundation JSF implementation with Ajax
components• Sun Java BluePrints AJAX Components• ZK Ajax framework with JSF components
RichFaces 4
• A full set of AJAX enabled components• Client-side validation• Advanced queuing • Push component upgrades including
JavaMessaging Service (JMS) integrations• Component Development Kit (CDK).• Comprehensive documentation covering
development best practices, and component details.
• Detailed and automated testing facilities for components, actions, listeners, and pages.
• Broad cross-browser support
RichFaces Components
• Ajax4JSF • RichFaces
Ajax4JSF• Core Ajax functionality• Page-level Ajax support• Utility components
Rich components• Self-contained and advanced UI components• Extension of standard JSF components• Pluggable customization though Ajax support
A Historical Perspective
• Created as Telamon project in 2005 by Alexander Smirnov
• Released in 2006 as part of Exadel Visual Component Platform
• Split into open-source Ajax4jsf and commercial RichFaces in 2006
• Made open-source in 2007 as Jboss Ajax4jsf and Jboss RichFaces
• Merged as single RichFaces product in September 2007
Alexander Smirnov• Architect of the Jboss Richfaces project• Java Server Faces expert group member• Jboss GateIn portal developer
RichFaces Team
Client Side Validation
Data Table
Popup Panel
Data Grid
Tree
Rich Editor
Pick List
Push
RichFaces Push• Server-side push technique• Based on Atmosphere framework• Client-side support(Comet, HTML5
WebSockets)• Integration with Java Messaging Service
RichBean.java• public Date getDate() {• return new Date();• }• • public void push() throws MessageException {• TopicKey topicKey = new
TopicKey("sampleAddress");• TopicsContext topicsContext =
TopicsContext.lookup();• • topicsContext.publish(topicKey, "empty message"); • }
Index.html• <a4j:commandButton value="Push!"
action="#{richBean.push}" />• • <a4j:push address="sampleAddress">• <a4j:ajax event="dataavailable"
render="outputDate" />• </a4j:push>• • <a4j:outputPanel id="outputDate">• Date: #{richBean.date}• </a4j:outputPanel>
Custom componentsdesign in JSF 1.2
AdvancedDateComponent.java• public class AdvancedDateComponent extends
UIComponentBase {• private HtmlSelectOneMenu dayCmb;• private HtmlSelectOneMenu monthCmb;• private HtmlSelectOneMenu yearCmb;
• @Override• public String getFamily() {• return "advanced.Date";• }
• @Override• public String getRendererType() {• return "renderer.advanced.Date";• }•
AdvancedDateComponent.javapublic Object getValue() { ValueExpression _ve = getValueExpression("value"); return (_ve != null) ? _ve.getValue(getFacesContext().getELContext()) : null; }
public void setSubmittedValue(FacesContext context) { Map<String, String> requestParameterValuesMap = context.getExternalContext(). getRequestParameterMap();
String day = requestParameterValuesMap.get(dayCmb.getClientId(context)); String month = requestParameterValuesMap.get(monthCmb.getClientId(context)); String year = requestParameterValuesMap.get(yearCmb.getClientId(context));
Calendar calendar = Calendar.getInstance(); calendar.set(Integer.valueOf(year), Integer.valueOf(month) - 1,
Integer.valueOf(day));
ValueExpression ve = getValueExpression(“value”); ve.setValue(getFacesContext().getELContext(), calendar.getTime()); }
AdvancedDateRenderer.java• public class AdvancedDateRenderer extends
Renderer{
• @Override• public void encodeBegin(FacesContext context,
UIComponent• component) throws IOException {• if(component instanceof
AdvancedDateComponent) {• CompositeDateComponent dateComponent =
(CompositeDateComponent)component;• dateComponent.refresh();• dateComponent.updateComponents();• }
AdvancedDateRenderer.java• @Override • public void decode(FacesContext context,• UIComponent component) {
• if (component instanceof AdvancedDateComponent) {
• AdvancedDateComponent dateComponent = (AdvancedDateComponent) component;
• dateComponent.refresh();• dateComponent.setSubmittedValue(context);• }}}
Configuration file• <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>• <faces-config xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee">• <component>• <display-name>advancedDate</display-name>• <component-type>advanced.Date</component-type>• <component-class>org.test.component.AdvancedDateComponent• </component-class>• <component-extension> • <renderer-type>renderer.advanced.Date</renderer-type> • </component-extension>• </component>• <render-kit> • <renderer> • <component-family>advanced.Date</component-family> • <renderer-type>renderer.advanced.Date</renderer-type> • <renderer-class>org.test.component.AdvancedDateRenderer</renderer-
class> • </renderer> • </render-kit>• </faces-config>
Tag configuration file• <?xml version="1.0"?>• <facelet-taglib xmlns="http://java.sun.com/JSF/Facelet">• <namespace>http://test.org/web/tags</namespace>
• <tag>• <tag-name>advancedDate</tag-name>• <component>• <component-type>advanced.Date</component-
type>•
<renderer-type>renderer.advanced.Date</renderer-type>• </component>• </tag>
• </facelet-taglib>
account.xhtml<ui:composition xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:ui=http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:web="http://test.org/web/tags">
<h:outputText value="#{msg['account.birthdate']}" /> <web:compositeDate value=“#{account.birthDate}" />
</ui:composition>
Custom components design in JSF 2.0
Custom components
• No configuration, XML or otherwise.• No Java code.• To which developers can attach functionality.• Hot-deploy.
compositeDate.xhtml<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"xmlns:cc="http://java.sun.com/jsf/composite">
<cc:interface> <cc:attribute name="birthDate" shortDescription="Value of the component" /> <cc:attribute name="days" shortDescription="List of SelectItem objects representing days" /> <cc:attribute name="months" shortDescription="List of SelectItem objects representing months" /> <cc:attribute name="years" shortDescription="List of SelectItem objects representing years" /></cc:interface>
compositeDate.xhtml<cc:implementation> <h:panelGrid columns="3"> <h:selectOneMenu value="#{date.day}"> <f:selectItems value="#{days}" /> </h:selectOneMenu> <h:selectOneMenu value="#{date.month}"> <f:selectItems value="#{months}" /> </h:selectOneMenu> <h:selectOneMenu value="#{date.year}"> <f:selectItems value="#{years}" /> </h:selectOneMenu> </h:panelGrid></cc:implementation></html>
account.xhtml<ui:composition xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"xmlns:tr="http://java.sun.com/jsf/composite/
trainer">
<h:outputText value="#{msg['account.birthdate']}" /> <tr:compositeDate date=“#{account.birthDate}" days="#{days}" months="months" years="#{years}" />
</ui:composition>
Disadvantages
Jobs at dice.com
StackOverflow tagged questions
• High level of understanding• Limited community support• Lack of books and comprehensive documentation• Multiple resource-consuming dependencies• Performance overhead• Migration issues between RF3 and RF4
Love bug story• I am migrating from RF 3.3.1 to 4.0. I'm
experiencing an issue with the tooltip component. Specifying "bottom-left" for the direction attribute results in the following error:
• javax.el.ELException: Cannot convert
bottom-left of type class java.lang.String to class org.richfaces.component.Positioning
• Was this attribute implemented in 4.0? Am I doing
something wrong?
Love bug story• Just in case someone else has the same issue, I've
figured it out. In RF 4, 'bottom-right' positioning is no longer valid. You have to use 'bottomRight'. I am completely shocked that none of these changes have made it to their online documentation. I have wasted time trying to figure out what was happening with this component. I cannot believe users are expected to go to the API JavaDocs and look through each class for possible attribute values.
• • If any RichFaces guys read this, please either update
the online documentation or remove it. There are way too many components in there with information that has not been updated and is just plain wrong
