In this chapter, we've provided an overview of what the Seam Framework is, and the benefits that we as Java developers, will gain by using the framework.
We've learned that Seam is much more than a web framework, and that it provides:
Java 5 annotation support, allowing Seam components to be configured easily
Dependency Bijection facilities and component lookup, without needing to write large amounts of XML
Integration with both JSF and Facelets web view technologies
First-class support for testing Seam components both as POJOs and within the JBoss embeddable Application Server
Tight integration with RichFaces (including AJAX4JSF) and ICEFaces
An application framework for handling database persistence
AJAX support via integration with the AJAX4JSF library
User-based and role-based security access
A tool for generating skeleton applications
After the introduction to Seam, we saw that Seam can be deployed to many different Application Servers such as JBoss Application Server, WebLogic, and Tomcat. We saw how we are going to use the JBoss Application Server throughout this book, and also how to install, start, and stop this server.
Finally, we looked at how to download the Seam Framework, and how to configure it to allow us to compile and deploy the supplied sample applications.
In the next chapter, we are going to look in detail at the Seam Framework, and will begin our journey of learning how to develop with Seam.