Book Review - Pro JSF and Ajax by Jonas Jacobi and John R. Fallows
Category Book Reviews
If you already have a background in JavaServer Faces (JSF) and you want to start exploring the integration of that with some of the Web 2.0 technologies, Jonas Jacobi and John R. Fallows have a book that might interest you... Pro JSF and Ajax - Building Rich Internet Components.
Contents:
Part 1 - Developing Smarter with JavaServer Faces: The Foundation of JSF - Components; Defining the Date Field Component; Defining the Deck Component
Part 2 - Designing Rich Internet Components: Using Rich Internet Technologies; Loading Resources with Weblets; Ajax Enabling the Deck Component; Ajax Enabling the Date Field Component; Providing Mozilla XUL Renderers; Providing Microsoft HTC Renderers; Switching RenderKits Dynamically
Index
To be honest, this book was beyond my current technology level. While there is a brief overview of JSF technology, you'll get the most out of the book if you already have a relatively solid grounding in it. They use two components, the Date Field and the Deck components, to show how JSF can be used to build internet application components that are able to be reused in other applications. The real value comes in Part 2, where they take those two components and start mixing them up with technologies that allow for rich internet functionality, such as Ajax and XUL. Using the examples provided, you start to see how a JSF application mixed with something like Ajax allows you to start building internet applications that behave more like desktop client apps... no round-trips to the server... no constant screen refreshes to get new content... Pretty cool stuff. I'd also recommend that you be pretty conversant with the rich internet technology already. Like with JSF, there's an assumption that you already understand the basics, so don't think that your first exposure to Ajax could be with this book. You'll be in pain if you try that route...
If you've had the exposure and you're now looking for some really cool project on which to apply your JSF skills, this could easily be the book that helps you make that transition from "Hello World" to "ooooohhh..."
If you already have a background in JavaServer Faces (JSF) and you want to start exploring the integration of that with some of the Web 2.0 technologies, Jonas Jacobi and John R. Fallows have a book that might interest you... Pro JSF and Ajax - Building Rich Internet Components.
Contents:
Part 1 - Developing Smarter with JavaServer Faces: The Foundation of JSF - Components; Defining the Date Field Component; Defining the Deck Component
Part 2 - Designing Rich Internet Components: Using Rich Internet Technologies; Loading Resources with Weblets; Ajax Enabling the Deck Component; Ajax Enabling the Date Field Component; Providing Mozilla XUL Renderers; Providing Microsoft HTC Renderers; Switching RenderKits Dynamically
Index
To be honest, this book was beyond my current technology level. While there is a brief overview of JSF technology, you'll get the most out of the book if you already have a relatively solid grounding in it. They use two components, the Date Field and the Deck components, to show how JSF can be used to build internet application components that are able to be reused in other applications. The real value comes in Part 2, where they take those two components and start mixing them up with technologies that allow for rich internet functionality, such as Ajax and XUL. Using the examples provided, you start to see how a JSF application mixed with something like Ajax allows you to start building internet applications that behave more like desktop client apps... no round-trips to the server... no constant screen refreshes to get new content... Pretty cool stuff. I'd also recommend that you be pretty conversant with the rich internet technology already. Like with JSF, there's an assumption that you already understand the basics, so don't think that your first exposure to Ajax could be with this book. You'll be in pain if you try that route...
If you've had the exposure and you're now looking for some really cool project on which to apply your JSF skills, this could easily be the book that helps you make that transition from "Hello World" to "ooooohhh..."


