In the previous chapter, we looked at how to use standard JavaServer Faces components to implement a number of common web development tasks, such as rendering forms containing simple UI components and accepting and validating input from users. We also discussed several features and extension points of the JSF framework, such as the managed beans facility and message bundle support.
Indeed, the JSF framework was designed with extensibility in mind, enabling both application and framework developers to leverage its infrastructure to build even more sophisticated technologies on top of an already excellent platform for web development. One of the most interesting extension points of the JSF framework is the ViewHandler mechanism.
In this chapter, we will discuss one of the most important technologies in the JSF ecosystem —the Facelets view definition framework. The Facelets framework includes a pluggable ViewHandler implementation that provides an alternative...