Pro JSF and Ajax: Building Rich Internet Components (Expert's Voice in Java) [Paperback]

Jonas Jacobi (Author), John R. Fallows (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1590595807 | ISBN-13: 978-1590595800 | Publication Date: February 16, 2006 | Edition: 1

JavaServer Faces (JSF) technology is a Java user interface (UI) framework that simplifies the building of Java Web applications. Pro JSF shows developers how to leverage the full potential of JavaServer Faces. It is not an entry-level tutorial but a book about building effective JSF components for sophisticated, enterprise-level Rich Internet Applications, moving straight to what makes this such a powerful and flexible technology: the JSF component.

Whereas current books on the market don't stray far beyond basic HTML-rendering, this book's whole focus is on building custom JSF UI components that allow you to target your application at any client – IE, the Mozilla browser, or a PDA. It demonstrates best-practice development of common UI components (such as date field and menu) and goes on to provide practical, end-to-end JSF techniques for building versatile client-agnostic Java web applications, utilizing best-of-breed RIA rendering technologies such as XUL and HTC.

Written by JSF experts and verified by established community figures – including Adam Winer (member of JSF Expert Group) and Kito Mann (JSFCentral.com and JSF in Action) – this book provides reliable and groundbreaking JSF components for developers who are looking to fully exploit the power of JSF in their Java Web applications.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jonas Jacobi is a Principal Product Manager for Oracle’s Java/J2EE tool offering - JDeveloper and has over the last 2.5 years been responsible for the JSF, ADF Faces, ADF UIX, and ADF Rich Client development features within JDeveloper. Jonas has been in the software business since the early 90’s and before joining Oracle, he worked at several software companies in Europe, covering many roles ranging from support, consulting, development and project team leader.

John Fallows is a Consulting Member of Technical Staff for Server Technologies at Oracle Corporation and has been working in distributed systems for over a decade. During the last 5 years, he has been focused on designing, developing and evolving Oracle web application frameworks, from Oracle ADF UIX to Oracle ADF Faces and now Oracle ADF Rich Client

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 1 edition (February 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590595807
• ISBN-13: 978-1590595800
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #723,877 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #77 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > Ajax

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tightly focused on component development, February 25, 2006

By 

S. Peterson (Bloomington, MN USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pro JSF and Ajax: Building Rich Internet Components (Expert's Voice in Java) (Paperback)

The first round of books on JSF were survey books that attempt to cover all of this complex, sophisticated framework. Pro JSF and Ajax focuses on one important facet of JSF -- component development -- and does it well.

It starts with a quick overview of the major architectural elements of JSF, and then quickly moves to building custom components in Chapter 2. The first component built is a simple date entry component; a second, more sophisticated example is a 'deck' implementation (a deck is a collapsing navigational/browsing UI element).

The authors then provide a succinct overview of client side rich internet technologies -- Ajax, XUL (supported by Firefox) and HTC (the DHTML behavior language that is supported by Internet Explorer). They then deploy these technologies to build rich client versions of the date and deck components.

The book does a good job of bridging the gap between JSF 1.1 and 1.2 implementations; the code in the book targets 1.1, but discusses how implementation would differ in 1.2.

For someone starting out developing in JSF, I'd recommend this book in combination with the strong survey of JSF in JavaServer Faces by Hans Bergsten.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unique material but too scattered and a bit heavy to read, May 12, 2006

By 

Lasse Koskela (Helsinki, Finland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pro JSF and Ajax: Building Rich Internet Components (Expert's Voice in Java) (Paperback)

First of all, let it be known that I have no working experience with JSF. As such, I could imagine it not being too pleasant a surprise to some readers that the authors start by recommending other, more basic JSF books because the content will dive right into the deep end. It would be quite alright--it is a "Pro" book, after all--except that the graphic on the back cover implies that no prior JSF knowledge is required. Probably not an issue with most readers, but still worth mentioning, I think.

Regarding the book's content, there's a quite robust structure in place where the authors begin by developing a couple of JSF components (a "deck" container and a date field) through chapters 2 and 3, after giving a run-through overview of JSF in chapter 1. Even though the examples are growing in somewhat large leaps, it is helpful to see the components develop rather than getting them "off the shelf"--otherwise chapters 6 and 7 where the authors show us how to Ajaxify the two JSF components (deck and date field) would've likely been too much information in too short a timeframe.

The examples are thorough and come with loads of readable code listings. In addition, many complex topics were further clarified with a good use of graphics.

The book's scope is a bit too scattered, I think. The authors have dedicated chapter 5 for a useful open source add-on called Weblets, which I consider a good decision. I do not, however, agree with the decision to allocate over a hundred pages for Mozilla XUL and Microsoft HTC. XUL, for example, is a nice technology and serves as a good example of an "alternative" render kit for the de facto HTML one. Still, I would've preferred seeing more complex Ajax techniques such as file uploads demonstrated with JSF instead of just talking about them.

To summarize, I consider the strengths of this book being the thorough examples developed through the chapters and the effective use of graphics to illustrate architectures, execution sequences, and class diagrams. On the negative side, the text was rather heavy and thus difficult to keep up with. Furthermore, some of the more "exotic" content should've been traded in for additional Ajax material, in my opinion. All in all, there's a bunch of information packed into these covers that you're not likely to find elsewhere in such a compact format.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Next Level of JSF Development, March 27, 2006

By 

J. Sager (Baltimore, MD USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pro JSF and Ajax: Building Rich Internet Components (Expert's Voice in Java) (Paperback)

I recently bought this book due to the reputation its authors have built in the JSF community, and I was not disappointed.

This book is for those who are ready to delve deep into what makes JSF tick - its components.

After a strong and concise overview of the JSF technology, they take the kid gloves off and delve right into the practical how tos of professional grade component development.

They cover how to build components from the ground up with two case studies. They cover the weapons a developer should have in his toolkit when buliding rich components.

I read the one star review and feel that the reviewer may have missed or misunderstood the point of this book. It is not a book about Java Server Faces, and then, seperately, a book about Ajax technologies. Rather, it is a book designed to help developers who are interested in leveraging both technologies together to create powerful components for their applications.

I have found it invaluable in the short amount of time I have owned it.