On 1/23/07, James Watkin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I'm looking for a new web application framework. From attending various conferences and selected readings, it appears that a framework which supports JSF and AJAX is probably what we're looking for. Again, based solely on conferences and selected readings, the following frameworks appear to have merit: * Apache Shale or JBoss Seam for a high-end code-centric framework. http://shale.apache.org/ http://www.jboss.com/products/seam * ICEfaces for superior JSF/AJAX integration. http://www.devx.com/security/Article/33533 http://www.icesoft.com/products/icefaces.html http://theserversidecom.bitpipe.com/detail/RES/1163445089_619.html?src=wc_atssc_sitepost_11_14_06 * NetBeans Visual Web Pack (or Sun Java Studio Creator) for rapid development. http://www.netbeans.org/products/visualweb/ http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/javatools/jscreator/index.jsp * Spring Web Flow combined with JSF? http://opensource.atlassian.com/confluence/spring/display/WEBFLOW/Home
You might want to add one more category of things to look at ... JSF-based libraries that enable the use of non-Ajax-aware JSF components in an Ajax environment (partial page submit, partial page refresh). Two libraries at java.net that do this kind of thing: * https://ajax4jsf.dev.java.net/ * https://jsf-extensions.dev.java.net/ I notice that JBoss Seam appears to have support for ICEfaces. Does
Apache Shale plan to do the same? If not, why not, and does Apache Shale have some other plan to support AJAX, and what will be the benefit of that other approach?
You will see two "attitudes" in Shale towards this issue: * Shale does not contain any components itself ... it is designed to add value on the server side while working with *any* component library. Therefore, in principle, it should work with any of the JSF-Ajax component libraries that you like. That being said, if there are compelling advantages to be gained by an explicit integration layer for particular libraries, we will certainly look at that. But, in the particular case of ICEFaces, there shouldn't be anything required other than just putting all the right libraries together. * For the particular use case of a client side application that wants to do asynchronous callbacks *without* updating the JSF component state (perhaps because the server side application is not based on JSF components), the Shale Remoting library provides facilities for doing that sort of thing directly. Since my only hands-on web development experience is with Struts, I'm
looking for a discussion of these JSF/AJAX frameworks by those that have actual experience using them. If you're qualified, could you please share your experiences, assess these frameworks (or others I have omitted), and while you're at it, predict their futures?
As if you did not have enough to read :-), one other item to keep track of is the "Web Beans" JSR (http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=299). This is an attempt (just getting started) to standardize the relationships between the JSF and EJB3/JPA component models, using Seam as a model of what might be possible (plus contributions from other frameworks, of course). Thank you.
- Jim
Craig
