Chapter 1 provides an overview of the Seam Framework, and describes the benefits that we, as Java developers, will gain by using the framework. We learn that Seam is much more than a framework, and that it comes packed with support for numerous other features.

Chapter 2 teaches you how to develop applications using Seam, and explains some of the features discussed in previous chapter. In this chapter, we will learn the basic structure of a Seam application and learn more about Seam components. We will also see exactly how Seam bridges the gap between the Web tier and the Server tier.

Chapter 3 takes you through page navigation using Seam page flows. We also see how we can define page flow within the pages.xml file of our applications by defining both static rules and rules encompassing JSF expression language.

Chapter 4 shows you why Facelets is recommended, and what it offers over JSP. We'll also look at the SeamGen tool and see why this is a much better way of creating Seam applications and building scripts. Finally, we bring both SeamGen and Facelets together and re-create the Vacation Planner project that we wrote in Chapter 3, (realizing in the course of doing so how much easier and more advanced it is), using these technologies

In Chapter 5, we take a look at TestNG and see how it can be used to build sets of test suites. We have a look at how Seam provides excellent facilities by allowing us to perform testing of our applications, at the class, Seam component, and user interface levels.

In Chapter 6, we take a look at RichFaces and learn that it's a JSF component library that allows us to easily build rich user interfaces within web applications. This chapter explains how Seam is fully integrated with RichFaces, and that applications generated by SeamGen require no special configuration to allow RichFaces to be used. This chapter also lists all of the components available within RichFaces.

Chapter 7 introduces database persistence with Seam. We take a closer look at how SeamGen helps us to create and configure our applications, allowing test, development, and production profiles to be configured.

Chapter 8 takes a closer look at what exactly a conversational application is and why they make web application development easier and more functional. We also take a look at different component scopes and see why they are important to Seam.

In Chapter 9, we take a look at AJAX and how it can be applied to Seam applications. We also take a closer look at the two different AJAX technologies within the Seam framework: Seam Remoting and AJAX4JSF.

Chapter 10 discusses how security is implemented within a Seam application highlighting the most common features, such as logon pages, user access rights, CAPTCHAs, and so on, which are used to secure Seam applications. We also highlight some of the more advanced security features that can be used.

Chapter 11 walks through some of the more advanced features of Seam, such as internationalization, URL rewriting, PDF document generation, and so on, and also discusses how these can be used within our web applications.

This book is for Java EE application developers who are new to Seam and who are interested in developing with Seam 2.x.

You need a basic understanding of Java EE and must also be aware of EJB3, although you do not need to know it in detail. Experience with JBoss AS would be an advantage, but all you really need is to be comfortable using any application server. Knowledge of AJAX and JavaScript would also be beneficial, although not 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: "The <page> element defines the pages to which the enclosed navigation rules are applicable."

A block of code will be set as follows:

<exception class="com.davidsalter.HolidayException">
<redirect view-id="/error.jsp">
<message severity="ERROR">
Whoops. Better make sure we write some better tests !
</message>
</redirect>
</exception>

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items will be shown in bold:

@Entity
@Name("customer")
@Table(name="CUSTOMER_TABLE")
public class Customer {
// .. Omitted for brevity
@Id
@GeneratedValue
@Column(name="CUSTOMER_ID")
public Long getId() {
return id;
}

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

[input] Enter the JDBC URL for your database [jdbc: hsqldb:.] [jdbc:hsqldb:.]

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 our text like this: "The following action that is within this class is executed when the user clicks on the Select button on our web page."

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