Core JavaServer Faces

JavaServer Faces promises to bring rapid user-interface development to server-side Java. It allows developers to painlessly write server-side applications without worrying about the complexities of dealing with browsers and Web servers. It also automates low-level, boring details like control flow and moving code between web forms and business logic.

JavaServer Faces was designed to support drag and drop development of server-side applications, but you can also think of it as a conceptual layer on top of servlets and JavaServer Pages (JSP). Experienced JSP developers will find that JavaServer Faces provides much of the plumbing that they currently have to implement by hand. If you already use a server-side framework such as Struts, you will find that JavaServers Faces uses a similar architecture, but is more flexible and extensible. JavaServer Faces also comes with server-side components and an event model, which are fundamentally similar to the same concepts in Swing.

JavaServer Faces is quickly becoming the standard Web-application framework. Core JavaServer Faces is the one book you need to master this powerful and time-saving technology.

Without assuming knowledge of JSP and servlets, Core JavaServer Faces:

• shows how to build more robust applications and avoid tedious handcoding

• answers questions most developers don't even know to ask

• demonstrates how to use JSF with Tiles to build consistent user interfaces automatically

• provides hints, tips, and explicit "how-to" information that allows you to quickly become more productive

• explains how to integrate JSF with databases, use directory services, wireless apps, and Web services

• teaches best practices and good habits like using style sheets and message bundles

• covers all of the JSF tags and how to create new tag libraries