JavaServer Faces, Components, and The Next Big Thing*

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JavaServer Faces, Components,and The Next Big
Thing

• Jacob Hookom
• McKesson Medical-Surgical
• JavaServer Faces Web Tier Alignment EGs

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Presentation Goals

• MVC Fundamentals 101
• Advantages of Component Design
• Going Under the Hood
• Room For Improvement
• The Next Big Thing
• Questions and Answers

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MVC 101 The Landscape

• The Client-Server Disconnect
• Representational State Transfer (REST)
• Extreme Fragmentation in Java
• 50 Frameworks Available
• Struts
• WebWork
• JavaServer Faces
• Tapestry

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MVC 101 Past Present
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What Does Model 2 Give Us?

• Handles More Complex Requirements than Model 1
• Single Event Architecture (The Request)
• Wraps/Validates Transmitted State
• Controller uses Transmitted State to Control Flow
• Considered the Best Solution for Years

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MVC Framework Responsibilities (Server)

• Interpret the Request or Event
• Validate the Event Data Coming In
• Apply that Data to the Model
• Invoke Behavior on the Model
• Render Model Data back in the Response
• Repeat as Desired

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Rich Applications in Traditional MVC

• Example
• Display Editable Table
• Manage Validation
• Tree Menu
• Routing Events
• Managing State
• Coordinating Re-Use
• Desperate Solutions

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Introducing The Component

• Has State and Behavior
• Self Sufficient
• Participates in the Full MVC Lifecycle
• Are not just for Rendering
• Event Driven
• Encapsulates Programmer Concerns
• Easy to Use

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Component Examples

• Form Controls (Buttons and Fields)
• A Pagable Sortable Table
• Financial Chart Generation
• Pop Up Calendar for Date Entry
• Google Maps
• Custom Layout or Panel
• Collapsible Tree Menu
• Whatever Marketing Comes up With

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Going Under the Hood

• Hidden Details of JavaServer Faces

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Simple Example (Abbreviated)

• ltfviewgt
• lthpanelGridgt
• ltmtaskPane /gt
• ltmstatusBar /gt
• lt/hpanelGridgt
• ltmmenu /gt
• lthdataTablegt
• lthinputText /gt
• lthcommandButton /gt
• lt/hdataTablegt
• lt/fviewgt

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Component Trees Compositions
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Component Trees Compositions
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Component Trees Compositions
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Component Trees Compositions
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Component Trees Compositions
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Component Trees Compositions
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Component Trees Compositions
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Component Trees Compositions
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Component Trees Compositions
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Component Trees Compositions
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Component Trees Compositions
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Component Tree State Management

• All Components Post-Back to the Same View (Model
  1-ish)
• Components must first be Encoded
• Both the View and the State are Captured during
  Encoding
• Previous State is Used to Process Post-Back

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Representational vs. Actual State
lthdataTable valueemployees varemp/gt
lthcolumngt lthinputText valueemp.salary/
gt lt/hcolumngt lthcolumngt lthcommandButton
actionemp.delete/gt lt/hcolumngt lt/hdataTab
legt
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Problems with Current Solution

• Stale State in Layered Architectures
• Encode before Decode Issues
• Breaking Web Semantics
• Is this Even True MVC?
• AJAX Partial Tree Processing
• True Compositions
• How do We Fix These Issues?

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A Few Ideas to Ponder (Importance of Identity)

• Declarative vs. Imperative UIs
• State Preservation vs. Reconstruction
• Extending Resource Identifiers for Partial Tree
  Processing
• Other Types of Hypermedia can be delivered

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The Future Landscape

• Web Tier Alignment Group (W.A.G)
• The 5 Requirements of MVC are Constant
• Component-based Development is here to Stay
• Big Business Yahoo, Google, ESPN
• Opportunity to Deliver new Ideas around
  Components on the Web

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Questions And Answers

• JavaServer Faces
• Java EE 5
• JSP EL
• EJB 3 / JBoss Seam
• How to Get Involved