Programming Jakarta Struts

Looking Ahead to JavaServer Faces

JavaServer Faces (JSF) is designed to provide a standard set of JSP tags and Java classes that will make it easier to build Java server application GUIs. One of the problems that JSF is trying to address is that the Servlet and JSP technologies don’t provide specific enough APIs for creating the client GUI, and developers have to rely on HTML components and one of several alternatives to facilitate style and behavioral changes to all of the views. The mechanism to manage all of this eventually takes on a life of its own and overshadows the business of the application. Instead of performing maintenance on business operations and logic, more and more time is needed to manage the presentation controls.

JSF plans to fix this by creating a standard way to define complex HTML forms and other GUI elements. This will enable developers to focus their attention on a single component framework.

The first release of the framework includes the following design goals:

1. Create a standard GUI component framework, which can be leveraged by development tools to make it easier for tool users to both create high-quality GUIs and manage the GUIs’ connections to application behavior.

2. Define a set of simple, lightweight Java base classes for GUI components, component state, and input events. These classes will address GUI lifecycle issues, notably managing a component’s persistent state for the lifetime of its page.

3. Provide a set of common GUI components, including the ...