JavaServer Faces in Action (In Action series) (Paperback)

~ Kito Mann (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A good introduction to . . . Faces out in the real world." -- Books-On-Line

Product Description

Helping front-end developers, back-end developers, and architects understand how they can get the most out of JavaServer Faces (JSF), this guide to the new official standard for simplifying Java web development explains what JSF is, how it works, and how it relates to other frameworks and technologies like Struts, Servlets, Portlets, JSP, and JSTL. Also provided is coverage of all the standard components, renderers, converters, and validators, along with advice on how to use them to create solid applications. The building of complete JSF applications is demonstrated with an in-depth case study covering complex user interface layouts, prototyping, and integrating templates with back-end model objects. Also covered are advanced techniques like internationalization, integration with Struts, and extending JSF with custom components, renderers, converters, and validators.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 702 pages
• Publisher: Manning Publications (January 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932394125
• ISBN-13: 978-1932394122
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.3 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #522,233 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kito's book is a "must-read" for JSF developers, February 16, 2005

By	JSF aficionado (Los Gatos, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Kito Mann's JSF book is superb. In addition to the twenty book chapters there are also five on-line chapters (which I haven't read yet), for a total of 1,000 pages.

Before reading this book, I had read the Wiley book and part of the OReilly JSF book. There's a great deal of information in Kito's book, and absolute neophytes will probably need to re-read the material (it obviously depends on how fast they learn).

I also liked the discussion on integrating JSF with Struts, which (AFAIK) is the only place where I've seen such a discussion. After I saw the Struts+JSF diagram I had an "aha" experience, and I'm sure it has saved me hours of effort trying to cull the same information from a variety of other sources.

One of the book's primary strengths is its even-handed focus on the what/why/how of JSF, along with examples that are incremental developed and presented in a lucid manner. I'm planning to develop some custom JSF components, and I'll definitely have Kito's book within arm's reach!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good coverage, Practical Examples, November 16, 2004

By	Riyad Kalla - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

What I enjoyed so much about Kito's book was the fact that he doesn't just present the entire gamut of JSF to you in this book, he also uses it for about 6 chapters to take you (step-by-step) on a journey building a full fledged project tracking application complete with nicely laid out user interface (using JSF technologies and CSS... not just plain HTML), comprehensive feature sets, user role and security logic, database interactions... pretty much the works. I always think this is important because no matter how many API docs or Developer Guides you read, you still have questions about how XYZ component will behave in the "wild" or how you can make it do something that wasn't covered in the docs. After Kito's book I not only find it to be an excellent resource when trying to remember how a certain component worked but also a truely comprehensive proof-of-concept for JSF... the tracking system developed in the book actually struck me as something that would be much appreciated if I were to deploy it at work.

You definately get the sense from this book that it was written by someone that loves developing and is extremely versed with JSF; not someone that wanted to make some money and picked up a few tutorials on it before writing a book. Also to his credit, Kito runs the immensly helpful jsfcentral.com site that supplements the book beautifully with more resources, articles and applications (even components) for your picking after you are up and running with JSF.

A little information on me: I am a JSP/Servlet web application developer, I've done Java client side for about 5 years and server side for 3. I've played with EJBs, done a lot of Struts applications, and attempted to learn Tapestry. I wanted to learn JSF and wanted a good paced yet deeply informative book that would teach me best practices right off the bat with JSF and also talk about WHY they were best practices... this is exactly what I found this book to be. 5/5 stars from me.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Why the long face?, July 8, 2005

By	Thomas Paul (Plainview, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

JavaServer Faces (JSF) is one of the newest technologies in the Java toolbox and is designed to make developing web applications as easy in Java as it is in .Net. JSF is designed mainly to be used inside of an IDE by dropping JSF components onto a screen from a palette. This book is an introduction to JSF and although it is far from perfect, it is still a worthwhile read.

The book starts with an introduction to JSF with a good overview of the component technology and how it works as well as a brief discussion of some of the IDEs that support JSF. The next few chapters discuss the components in depth and the book bogs down. There is too much detail with very little in the way of code samples. To some extent this might make sense since the components are meant to be dropped from a palette, but at the same time it makes it very difficult to follow along without some understanding of how the components would be used in an application. Starting with chapter 8, the author tries to put it all together with a sample application. Unfortunately, it is presented as a development case study instead of a JSF case study. We get three chapters of screens with no code behind it that includes prototype versions and final versions. This seemed very unnecessary and helped to inflate the page count. It isn't until chapters 12 and 13 that we finally get to see some detail code but by then I had forgotten what the screens introduced four chapters earlier were supposed to be doing. The book ends with a chapter on Struts integration and a chapter on developing your own custom components.

There are bonus chapters available on the Manning web site, but since some of the bonus chapters are important to understanding the material in the book, unless you are reading the book while sitting at your computer, this isn't very helpful. The book would have been much better with some serious editing and rearranging of topics. The sample application should have been simplified and combined with the component reference material presented earlier. Code and screens should have been discussed together. The bonus chapters should have been incorporated into the printed version of the book.

I don't want you to get the impression that this is a poorly written or useless book. In fact, there is a lot of good material here and after reading this book you will have a thorough understanding of JSF. The author gives very clear (if not concise) explanations but the book is too long and parts are difficult to wade through.