JBoss RichFaces is a rich component library for JavaServer Faces and an AJAX framework that allows easy integration of Ajax capabilities into complex business applications. Do you wish to eliminate the time involved in writing JavaScript code and managing JavaScript-compatibility between browsers to build an Ajax web application quickly?
This book goes beyond the documentation to teach you how to do that. It will show you how to get the most out of JBoss RichFaces by explaining the key components and how you can use them to enhance your applications. Most importantly, you will learn how to integrate Ajax into your applications without using JavaScript, but only standard JSF components. You will learn how to create and customize your own components and add them to your new or existing applications.
First, the book introduces you to JBoss RichFaces and its components. It uses many examples of Ajax components which, among others, include: Calendar, Data Table, ToolTip, ToolBar, Menu, RichEditor, and Drag 'n' Drop. All these components will help you create the web site you always imagined. Key aspects of the RichFaces framework such as the Ajax framework, skinnability, and Component Development Kit (CDK) will help you customize the look of your web application. As you progress through the book, you will see a sample application that shows you how to build an advanced contact manager. You're also going to be amazed to know about the advanced topics you will learn such as developing new components, new skins, optimizing a web application, inserting components dynamically using Java instead of XHTML, and using JavaScript to manage components. This book is more than a reference with component example code: it's a manual that will guide you, step by step, through the development of a real Ajax JSF web application.
Chapter 1: What is RichFaces covers the aims of the RichFaces framework, its components, and what you can do by using it in a web application.
Chapter 2: Getting Ready explains how to configure your environment by creating a simple project using the seam-gen tool, adding support to Seam and Facelets, and the manual configuration for the RichFaces libraries. We will understand the IDE that we can use while developing with the framework.
In Chapter 3: First Steps, you will learn to build Ajax applications by developing a simple example, the basics of RichFaces step by step, from creating the project to editing the code, using very important components and their Ajax properties.
Chapter 4: The Application covers how to create the basics of our project by having a look at the side technologies we might know, in order to build good applications. It will cover templating with Facelets, JBoss Seam authentication, and customization of the entities.
Chapter 5: Making the Application Structure explains us how to create the login and registration system of the website. We'll look at all the features that a real application might have.
In Chapter 6: Making the Contacts List and Detail, we will develop the core feature of our application—contact management. We'll learn about Ajax interaction and containers, and about new Ajax components that RichFaces offers.
Chapter 7: Finishing the Application explains how to finish building the application using the RichFaces components, and about customizing them.
In Chapter 8: Skin Customization, we'll see all the powerful customization capabilities that the RichFaces framework offers.
Chapter 9: Creating a New plug 'n' skin covers how to create, customize, and package and deploy a new pluggable skin.
Chapter 10: Advanced Techniques explains you how to use and implement pushing, partial updates, and session expiration handling in order to develop advanced applications.
In Chapter 11: Component Development Kit, we'll see how to start a project in order to develop a simple JSF Ajax component in a simple and effective way using the features the CDK offers.
Appendix: RichFaces Components Overview covers a list of all the components of RichFaces with their functionalities.
This book targets Java Developers who want to enhance their JSF applications by adding AJAX, but without having to use JavaScript. If you want to learn how to use the wide set of AJAX components that you find in the RichFaces framework, this book is for you.
You are expected to have basic knowledge of JSF, but no previous experience with AJAX is necessary.
In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text are shown as follows: "Notice that the myNewSkin.skin.properties file contains the properties of the skin."
A block of code is set as follows:
<jsp:scriptlet>
<![CDATA[
Float ratingValue =
(Float) component.getAttributes().get("value");
variables.setVariable("ratingValue", ratingValue);
]]>
</jsp:scriptlet>When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:
<f:resource f:key="org.richfaces.renderkit.html.CustomizeableGradient"> <f:attribute name="valign" value="middle" /> <f:attribute name="gradientHeight" value="22px" /> <f:attribute name="baseColor" skin="myNewProperty" /> <f:attribute name="gradientColor" skin="headerGradientColor" /> </f:resource>
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
mvn install
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: "clicking the Next button moves you to the next screen".
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