Tabular data is very commonly used in web applications, and this chapter is a tribute to the powerful JSF DataTable component (<h:dataTable>). JSF 2.2 brought even more power by allowing developers to render more collections than before, by adding the new CollectionDataModel class. This chapter covers the most common tasks that a table should accomplish, such as sorting, filtering, lazy loading, and CSS support. Notice that a cool and comprehensive extension of the <h:dataTable> tag is provided by PrimeFaces (http://primefaces.org/) under the tag named <p:dataTable> (http://www.primefaces.org/showcase/ui/datatableHome.jsf).

In the next chapter, we will be covering the AJAX technique for JSF applications.