Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

If you already have a background in JavaServer Faces (JSF) and you want to start exploring the integration of that with some of the Web 2.0 technologies, Jonas Jacobi and John R. Fallows have a book that might interest you... Pro JSF and Ajax - Building Rich Internet Components.

Contents:
Part 1 - Developing Smarter with JavaServer Faces: The Foundation of JSF - Components; Defining the Date Field Component; Defining the Deck Component
Part 2 - Designing Rich Internet Components: Using Rich Internet Technologies; Loading Resources with Weblets; Ajax Enabling the Deck Component; Ajax Enabling the Date Field Component; Providing Mozilla XUL Renderers; Providing Microsoft HTC Renderers; Switching RenderKits Dynamically
Index

To be honest, this book was beyond my current technology level. While there is a brief overview of JSF technology, you'll get the most out of the book if you already have a relatively solid grounding in it. They use two components, the Date Field and the Deck components, to show how JSF can be used to build internet application components that are able to be reused in other applications. The real value comes in Part 2, where they take those two components and start mixing them up with technologies that allow for rich internet functionality, such as Ajax and XUL. Using the examples provided, you start to see how a JSF application mixed with something like Ajax allows you to start building internet applications that behave more like desktop client apps... no round-trips to the server... no constant screen refreshes to get new content... Pretty cool stuff. I'd also recommend that you be pretty conversant with the rich internet technology already. Like with JSF, there's an assumption that you already understand the basics, so don't think that your first exposure to Ajax could be with this book. You'll be in pain if you try that route...

If you've had the exposure and you're now looking for some really cool project on which to apply your JSF skills, this could easily be the book that helps you make that transition from "Hello World" to "ooooohhh..."

This is the book show you how to leverage the market's leading view technologies for delivering Rich Internet Applications (RIA) - AJAX, Mozilla XUL and Microsoft HTC.

I found this book is very useful for the web component developers who is interested in building rich, interactive, and reusable components utilizing AJAX and XUL with JSF. It's based on developing two sample components to show you a new level of JSF that could take advantage of XUL's presentation layer and AJAX for communication, creating a highly interactive component. It exploits the potential of JavaServer Faces as a UI component technology is without boundaries. Component developers can provide the community with a wide range of components supporting technologies from HTML to XUL, wireless, and even character-based solutions with the imagination as the only limit.

There's a lot of value in this book, and you'll walk away with a few new things to work on every time you read it. Definitely a good volume to have on your bookshelf, a must-have.

Ok to sum it up, if you want to learn jsf from scratch, stay away from it. If you know you way around JSF and want to dive into the the rather complex materia of how to write JSF components, this book is a must buy, there simply is no other book which does the coverage of this topic as extensive as this one.
I have been programming JSF components for almost a year now and still lots of the covered subjects have been new to me. The wealth of information this book gives is simply amazing. Five stars for this one. A must buy.

The authors begin "This book is not, and we would like to emphasize this, not an introductory level book..." That's for certain. Except for quick review material in the first chapter, the authors move quickly into a project that assumes a good amount of experience.

The book effectively follows a pattern that you have seen before. Build a simple component, integrate it, then progressively build in functionality and complexity while dealing with usability and maintainability issues.

One factor that makes this book stand out is the great number of flow diagrams. This book has the expected code printouts and screenshots but the extra emphasis on logic diagrams is exceptional. Also not seen in other JSF books are two chapters on providing Mozilla XUL and Microsoft .htc renderers. Yes, the last is a bit of a surprise!

If you are looking for a concise and practical entry to JSF and Ajax, this is the book to buy.

With other books, you read 400 pages and still can't do anything of industrial strength. This book is different!

I found it didactically great and well written. It develops the basics on a "need-to-know" basis from a (component) developer perspective, and then going on to do things that are relevant for work.

Getting into JSF, if you haven't done it before, can be a daunting task. This books makes it easy by focusing on what is important for real life. The book is also living proof that Ajax and JSF can go very well together, allowing UI componentization in combination with efficient browser-server communication.
5 Stars, definitely.

Wolfgang Gehner

I've read cover to cover prior to posting a review for a few times. It is the bible for my works of JSF and Ajax part. Some part of Ajax or JSF is really deep. But bringing the excellent of user experience, giving your web applications a rich client feel, isn't completely easy. It won't scare you away by using Ajax and JSF in your existing applications, but make you aware of exactly what to expect. From my point of view, the book designed to help developers to use both technologies to create powerful components for web applications. It will provide you more than capable of providing the end user with highly rich and responsive user interface. It also touches platform support, non-standards base, maintenance and etc.

Spend your time and enjoy the book.

I bought this book looking for examples on how to create custom JSF components and AJAX or extend existing components. The book is very light on this. It starts with a general overview of the JSF life cycle. Chapter 2 shows you how to create a date component and chapter 3 a deck component. Unfortunately the information is scattered and does not flow very well. Part 2 of the book has very little to do with JSF. Explains what Rich internet technologies then it give other examples of Rich Technologies which don't help you in developing JSF components It even goes into Microsoft technologies
This book would be better with more JSF/AJAX examples and less fluff. They try to bring you from entry level knowledge to expert knowledge. If I wish to create JSF components I have been using JSF and the components available to me are limit so when I buy a book like this I do not want to start at the beginning and I am not interested in other technologies that are similar to JSF like XUL, Weblets and Microsoft HTC I have choose my technology when I come to a book like this. If you want a general high level overview this book covering technologies besides JSF this book is ok. If you want and indebt book about creating JSF components with AJAX this is not it.