JavaServer Faces

Chapter 2. JSF Development Process Overview

Imagine building a flight reservation application with a web interface. The user first enters the departure and destination airports and dates, and preferences such as ticket type, airlines, and number of stops. This information is then validated and the user is presented with matching flight choices. When the user picks his preferred flights, the application ensures that the seats are available and marks them as reserved, calculates the cost, verifies credit card information, and finalizes the purchase.

People who are not computer gurus use applications like this, so the user interface must be intuitive and easy to use, error messages must be understandable, and the underlying problems must be simple to correct. For instance, the interface may let the user pick the destination airport by first asking for a country, state, or city name, and then present a selection of airports matching the criteria, provide calendars for choosing the dates, and display tables with flights to choose from. And the interface must be easy to enhance with accumulated user feedback and usage log analysis. The backend code requirements are also complex: accessing real-time flight schedules and reservation information, interfacing with credit card companies, and providing secure tracking of all transactions.

Clearly, this is not an application that can be slapped together without careful design. Applying the Model-View-Controller (MVC) principles briefly introduced ...