MyFaces and Facelets

[Kołoszko Paweł <pa...@atena.pl>]

I need an advice. 
I have almost finished my first project using MyFaces as JSF implementation
and I think that I know now pros and cons of that technology. I know that I
need to improve few things in development process of web applications. I
think that some features of Facelets could solve some of my problems. So
could you tell me what are your experiences with Facelets? Are they really
much better than JSP? How do they increase my productivity?
I checked Facelets mailing lists and I saw that there are some problems with
MyFaces components like Tree2 or JsCookMenu. So this my next question: what
are your experiences with MyFaces in Facelets?
 
PawelK
 
 

Re: MyFaces and Facelets

[Boris Kovalenko <bo...@tagnet.ru>]

Kołoszko Paweł wrote:
Hello!

I'm newbie too so can't be really usefull.

> I need an advice.
> I have almost finished my first project using MyFaces as JSF 
> implementation and I think that I know now pros and cons of that 
> technology. I know that I need to improve few things in development 
> process of web applications. I think that some features of Facelets 
> could solve some of my problems. So could you tell me what are your 
> experiences with Facelets? Are they really much better than JSP? How 
> do they increase my productivity?
> I checked Facelets mailing lists and I saw that there are some 
> problems with MyFaces components like Tree2 or JsCookMenu. So this my 
> next question: what are your experiences with MyFaces in Facelets?
> PawelK

With respect,
Boris

Re: MyFaces and Facelets

[Mike Kienenberger <mk...@gmail.com>]

I am not using a lot of the advanced facelets features, but I've found
some of the basic features to be quite helpful.

 * Building composite components is trivial (although t:aliasBean can
also do this)
 * The error reporting from facelets quickly and accurately shows me
what's wrong.   It can take me hours to figure out why a jsp error is
occurring.
 * Facelets supports both JSF 1.1 and JSF 1.2, so some JSF 1.2
features are already available to fix problems with JSF 1.1 issues
(like converters and validators being recreated each request).
 * Facelets supports JSF EL functions, which is currently not possible
with MyFaces alone.
 * You can design components without writing JSP Tag handlers.

There are some downsides, though.

 * You have to create a facelet tag configuration file if the
components you want to use don't come with them.   Most of the time
this is pretty (identify the namespace, the component tag, the
component type, and the component renderer type), but components that
do complex things in the JSP Tag or support unusual method binding
signatures can require work to get working again.  
t:updateActionListener, sandbox:graphicImageDynamic, and
jenia4faces:popupFrame (and probably Tree2 and JsCookMenu) are
examples of these.  However, it's pretty easy to write facelet tag
handlers (easier than the original Tag class in most cases).  We're
starting a collection of these at
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/jsf-comp/facelets/tagHandlers. 
But if no one else has needed the component yet, you'll have to write
the first draft of the tag handler.

 * Facelets exposes bugs in the JSF implementation.   Sometimes the
JSF implementation only works for the JSP ViewHandler.   Facelet use
tends to expose bugs that you won't see when you're using JSP, and it
can sometimes take a while before the facelets team and JSF teams get
them worked out.

On 11/7/05, Kołoszko Paweł <pa...@atena.pl> wrote:
>
> I need an advice.
> I have almost finished my first project using MyFaces as JSF implementation
> and I think that I know now pros and cons of that technology. I know that I
> need to improve few things in development process of web applications. I
> think that some features of Facelets could solve some of my problems. So
> could you tell me what are your experiences with Facelets? Are they really
> much better than JSP? How do they increase my productivity?
> I checked Facelets mailing lists and I saw that there are some problems with
> MyFaces components like Tree2 or JsCookMenu. So this my next question: what
> are your experiences with MyFaces in Facelets?
>
> PawelK
>
>