JavaServer Faces in Action Review Project

Note: JSF In Action has gone into production. The public review process is now over. The author would like to thank members of TheServerSide.com for their invaluable feedback. A sample chapter from the finished book will be posted here shortly. You will also be given the opportunity to sign up for (MEAP) Manning Early Access Program, where you can order subscriptions to a book and download pdf chapters as soon as each one is completed. This book's MEAP subscription will begin in the coming weeks.

The Book

JavaServer Faces is a framework for building web-based user interfaces in Java. Like Swing, it provides a set of standard widgets (buttons, hyperlinks, checkboxes, and so on), a model for creating custom widgets, a way to process client-generated events (like changing the value of a text box or clicking on a button) on the server, and excellent tool support. Since web-based applications, unlike their Swing cousins, must often appease multiple clients (desktop browsers, phones, PDAs, and so on), JSF has a powerful architecture for displaying components in different ways. It also has extensible facilities for validating input (like the length of a field) and converting objects to and from strings for display. And Faces can also automatically keep your user interface components in synch with model objects.

This book is intended to help front-end developers, back-end developers, and architects understand how they can get the most out of JavaServer Faces. In an easy-to-read, light-hearted manner, it explains what JSF is, how it works, and how it relates to other frameworks and technologies like Struts, servlets, and JSP. It also provides in-depth coverage of the features that are a standard part of JSF and provides practical tips and advice on how to use them to create solid applications.

But this book is more than a just a guide to the basics. JavaServer Faces in Action also explains how to build complete JSF applications with an in-depth case study, covering complex user interface layouts, prototyping, and integrating templates with back-end model objects. It also explains advanced techniques like internationalization, integration with existing applications, and how to extend JSF with custom components, converters, and validators.

What's inside:

• Thorough explanations of what JSF is, how it works, and how it relates to existing web frameworks
• Extensive examples of using all standard components, compete with code
• Complete case study with full source code
• In-depth coverage of Struts integration
• How to create custom components, validators, and converters

How you can help

The chapters of the JavaServer Faces in Action book are being made available to allow the community to participate in the review and editing of the chapters of the book. Your comments and suggestions may make it into the final product, if appropriate. You can help us write this book, by just sending a note to kmann@manning.com with your corrections and suggestions.

The Author

Kito D. Mann is an independent hands-on enterprise architect who has developed applications with a wide variety of technologies on several different platforms. He has been working with Java since its debut in 1995, and has written several articles on Java-related products and technologies. He has consulted with Fortune 500 clients, including Prudential Financial and J.P. Morgan Chase & Company, and was recently the chief architect of an educational application service provider. He holds a BA in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University. Kito maintains a JSF FAQ at http://www.jsfcentral.com