Notable Advantages
Although covering all the aspects of the JSF framework and
discussing the best practices behind using it JSF is simply not
possible in just one article, the following section discusses
some of the reasons why so many developers are using this
standardized Java Based Web Application Developing tool.
The primary design of JSF is to simplify Java web application
development by providing a standard web user interface
framework. In that its standard means that vendors such as IBM,
Oracle, Sun and Borland will support this design. With this kind
of support developers can visually build web pages by dragging
and dropping user interface components for the client side and
connecting them to the server-side using data sources, JavaBean
classes and event handlers. This means that for most development
projects, your team will have tools for developing JSF apps. You
won't need to waste time wading through some 20 different
framework tools to find the one that best suits your projects
needs and that means there should be a solution ready to go,
right out of the box.
Advantages to Using a Standard Frameworks Design
- JSF being a specification of Sun, means that it will be
included in all future versions of the J2EE specification
standard and just about all major vendors have pledged strong
support for JSF.
- JSF uses the "Page Controller Pattern" and therefore aids
in Page rich applications. Components can respond to events from
components on a given page.
- JSF has well-defined request lifecycles allowing for
plugability at different levels. An example of plugability is
the ability to build your own render toolkit and to separate the
rendering portion from the controller portion of the framework.
In addition, the render toolkit is not tied to JSP.
- Because JSF has a rich component model. This favors a Rapid
Application Development(RAD) style of development using drag and
drop technology.
- JSF gives the developer a way to link visual components to
back model components without breaking the layering.
Minor Disadvantages
- JSF is still quite new and evolving. It will take some time
to see successful deployments and wide usage. In addition, as
vendors write components, they may not do everything you want
them to.
- Developing with JSF by hand may not be easier than Struts
for some. The goal of JSF was more oriented to RAD.
- Long time Struts users may find navigation of Struts just a
bit more flexible and adhere to more complex controller logic
Conclusion
There are many obvious reasons why JavaServer Faces is becoming
the standard framework. Although it's still new, much
development has gone into its predecessor. With Craig McClanahan
behind the creation of Struts and also serving as the
specification co-lead for JavaServer Faces, there is no doubt
that both JSF and Struts will continue to coexist for some time.
The Struts and other development communities are well aware of
JSF and are positioning themselves to include strong support for
JSF. This will help further make this the standard. Ultimately
JavaServer Faces will provide a standard framework for
developing extensible Web-based UI applications with quick
turnaround times for your development teams. JSF is a step in the right
direction towards rapidly developing fully loaded Web framework
applications.
Article Resources
Information on Struts Framework Application
Information on Swing
Information on Cocoon
Information on XWT
Information on Norpath
JSP
JSF
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