Facelets Essentials: Guide to JavaServer(TM) Faces View Definition Framework (Firstpress) [Paperback]

Bruno Aranda (Author), Zubin Wadia (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1430210494 | ISBN-13: 978-1430210498 | Publication Date: May 26, 2008 | Edition: 1

Facelets Essentials is a brief but nonetheless comprehensive tour of the open source lightweight JavaServer Faces View Web framework. This firstPress book is the first on the Facelets project.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bruno Aranda is a MyFaces committer and Facelets user.

Product Details

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (May 26, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430210494
• ISBN-13: 978-1430210498
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,770,258 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A mixed bag, June 25, 2008

By 

Damodar Chetty (Minnesota, US [www.swengsol.com]) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Facelets Essentials: Guide to JavaServer(TM) Faces View Definition Framework (Firstpress) (Paperback)

This book is light enough to be read in one sitting. And, given how important Facelets is to JSF development, is a worthwhile read for any JSF developer. (Note that this book is focused primarily on Facelets - and by extension takes familiarity with JSF for granted.)

The upsides?
I found very broad coverage of everything that Facelets provides. Whether its templating support, the jsfc attribute, the EL, extending Facelets with custom tags, etc. ... its all in here.

The downsides?
Trying to cover so much ground in 80 pages is a losing proposition. As a result, some topics are covered in detail, whereas others seem to be included just for completeness sake.

The difference in writing styles between the two authors is noticeable - and some chapters (like the earlier ones) are treated much better than others. I can't imagine why a short book like this one might have merited more than one author.

The high point of this book is in its first chapters - it provides good information on how to setup Facelets (esp. the libraries you will need), and provides a very well presented introduction to its templating support.

However, shortly thereafter you run into the Facelets Tag Reference chapter. For over 15 precious pages, the Facelets documentation is re-packaged with very little value addition.

Bottom line - this book tries to be much more ambitious than its short format will allow it to be. In some places it succeeds, but in most others, it tends to be constrained by a lack of space.