JAVA PUREFACES

Pittsburgh Java User Group– Dec 9 2009

Java PureFaces: A JSF Framework Extension

Web development and JSF review

Java PureFaces - a JSF extension

Briefly discuss current state of the

project

Q&A

First, static web content Written in HTML

Sent directly to the browser

Next, dynamic web content Web containers, Java servlets, JSP

HTML is dynamically generated and then sent to

browser

Web Development

JSP - Java Server Pages

UI code writing in JSP and on the server

Difficult to maintain

Not a programming language

Attempts to solve JSP downfalls – new frameworks

Struts, Tapestry, WebObjects, Spring MVC, JSF, Wicket, GWT, etc.

Try to solve issues such as error handling, validation, code reuse,

etc.

Use tags to bind data to the server

Wicket and GWT provide Java solutions

Web Development

Java is the way to go.

What is it? A server side user interface component framework for Java™

technology-based web applications – wikipedia A specification and reference implementation for a web application

development framework containing components, events, validators & converters, navigation, etc. – wikipedia

Developed by SUN and part of the J2EE SPEC!

Uses static template pages (containing mix of JSF special tags and HTML tags)

Uses “backing-bean” on the server side for binding. Ex: #{address.city}

Navigation & backing-beans are defined in static files

Quick JSF Overview

What JSF looks like..

http://www.exadel.com/tutorial/jsf/jsftutorial-guessnumber.html

JSP Page Backing Beanfaces-config.xml

It can get very big quickly.

(Each thing needs to be set up for each view)

You can see the JSF GuessNumber demo here

But… JSF supports UI Component creation through

Java.

Ex: <h:panelGroup binding="#{root.render}"></h:panelGroup>

An extension of JSF.

Uses standard JSF and RichFaces to create PureFaces components

All UI development is in Java

CSS and JavaScript are easy to plug-in

Can be added to an existing application

Add a purefaces bean in the configuration file and easily bind into

existing pages using :

<h:panelGroup binding="#{root.render}"></h:panelGroup>

Simple API.

new PureOutput(“Hello World”);

What is Java PureFaces?

Java PureFaces vs. JSF

Very simple.…and the JSP page and simple bean only need to be defined once at the beginning of the project.

Source code available at http://www.b6systems.com/javaPureFaces.html

Java Purefaces components

PureFaces online component demo

The demo source is available at http://www.b6systems.com/javaPureFaces.html

To run it locally, unzip it and run “mvn tomcat:run”. Get maven here

Direct wrappers of existing JSF components

Encapsulation of the JSF components has advantages:

Simplifies the API for the developer

PureComponents are serializable

Creating Custom components is simplified

Components can quickly be created in PureFaces – no tags or

configuration

Application-specific components are POJO

PureComponents

To create a component or whole view, just implement PureComponent

Custom componentspublic class LabelAndInputComponent<E> implements PureComponent {

    private String label;            private PureEditableValue<E> editableValue;            public LabelAndInputComponent(String label, E value) {                    this.label = label;                    this.editableValue = new PureEditableValue<E>(value);            }            public PureComponent createUIComponent() {                    PurePanelGrid grid= new PurePanelGrid(2);                    grid.add(new PureOutput(label).setStyleClass("labelStyleClass"));                    grid.add(new PureInput(editableValue).setStyleClass("inputStyleClass"));                    return grid;            }            public E getValue(){                    return editableValue.getValue();            }    }

Custom components

      private LabelAndInputComponent<String> field =           new LabelAndInputComponent<String>("A Label", "default text"); // example      /** Create a DIV element that contains a label component */      public PureComponent createUIComponent() {            PureDiv div = new PureDiv();                    div.setStyleClass("divStyleClass");                    div.add(field);          return div;      }

// ex: get the value from the field now using field.getValue();

Source code from PureFaces article on The Server Side

Simplified with maintenance in mind: 80% of your cost

Simple: Straightforward SWING-like API (without having to have a

member for each UI component)

Single UI Location : Changing the UI can be done in one place.

There is no need to keep a JSP page in-sync with its bean.

Easy refactoring: Everything is in Java. Use of existing, robust

refactoring tools makes it easy.

Testing: All bindings can be tested by creating the component or

view in a simple JUNIT test.

Java PureFaces features

Ajax-enabled Built-in by using RichFace

PureFaces API includes methods for adding Ajax

CSS & JavaScript

PureFaces makes it easy to use semantic HTML and add CSS / JS

RichFaces jQuery component makes it easy to target complex JSF

component elements by adding scripts only where necessary (no

additional JS files to load).

Java PureFaces features

PureFaces Demo Link

Binding attributes to any object Get around using backing beans by using the JSF ValueChangeListener to

go back into the application and set up values when the form is submitted

We created a class called InputValueChangeListener to set these values

like this:

PropertyUtils.setNestedProperty(obj, attribute, changeEvent.getNewValue());

Bindings are tested when the object is created, so they can be tested with

JUNIT

Under the hood...

PureFaces Demo Link

Binding buttons and links to any objects Get around backing beans by using JSF ActionListeners

We created an ActionListener called CommandActionListener to

execute Runnables, and a Runnable named MethodCommand to execute a

method in an object. MethodCommand does this using reflection:

runningClass.getDeclaredMethod(methodName, classes).invoke(obj, args);

Bindings are tested when the object is created, so they can be tested with

JUNIT

Under the hood...

PureFaces Demo Link

Creating a new UI on Ajax event We add an ActionListener to the RichFaces AjaxSupport

component.

We then use a Runnable to update the JSF component tree with

whatever is configured to be updated on a specific ajax-event.

Under the hood...

PureFaces Demo Link

UI with Java PureFaces in practice Start with the interface requirements Design the behavior of the implementation (standard OO design) Break up the view per the application design Create any new components or custom application components Add basic CSS, and jQuery to target HTML only accessible after HTML

is created Use firebug in FireFox to tweak and get the final CSS, & test in all

browsers (and most likely fix some IE compatibility issues)

Tools Eclipse: for just about everything. In debug mode, changes are

immediately available without reloading app Browser tools: firebug in FireFox, developer tools in IE8 and Chrome.

IETester for previous versions of IE. Also, Web Developer in FireFox has some nice features

AjaxLog: component included in RichFaces to help debug any ajax interactions not working as expected

UI design+getRender() : UIComponent+getPureComponent() : PureComponent

PureBaseBean

+header() : PureComponent+createComponentLinksView() : PureComponent+createComponentDemoPanel() : PureComponent+setSelected(in demoComponent : DemoComponent)

-demoComponents : DemoComponent-selectedDemoComponent : DemoComponent

DemoView

+createUIComponent() : UIComponent

«interface»PureComponent

+getSourceCode() : <unspecified>+createDemoView() : PureComponent

DemoComponent

InputDemo InputAjaxDemo

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Virtually all development is in Java There is a single JSP page and a simple bean to connect it to the

application All PureComponents are POJO.

Extremely dynamic Views are created directly from the application and can easily be

redefined on the fly (ex: panelGrid demo)

Direct object-model access No need to worry about what is accessible only through the bean

Simpler maintenance, Faster development Views can be tested through JUnit. Everything can be done using Java tools (refactoring, etc.) Simpler, documented API

Ajax- enabled

To summarize...

Component development Need to implement more components. Built on as-needed basis

Depends on Session to store the UI

Combines aspects of UI Development with Java Developer role many JSF developers handle both

Current state

We are trying to raise awareness in the community so that: We can get outside opinions and suggestions Others can help expand and grow the framework extension.

There is more information available: http://www.b6systems.com/blog http://www.theserverside.com/tt/articles/article.tss?l=IntroducingJa

vaPureFaces Source code at http://www.b6systems.com/javaPureFaces.html Demo available at

http://www.b6systems.com/pureFacesComponents/demo.jsf

What’s next?

JSFRichFacesJava PureFaces

Want more information? Email JavaPureFaces@B6Systems.com