I know there are some leading edge JSF and Shale gurus who monitor this list. I have a basic question: Can rich web application interfaces be created in JSF?
I've looked at MyFaces and Tomahawk (http://myfaces.apache.org/). The source code that can be found in the examples at http://www.irian.at/myfaces/home.jsf is perplexing. I see data tables, panel groups, and panel grids for the page layout. I do not see standards based CSS design. I don't see how you could create rich web application interfaces with externalized styles using JSF components. I know the concept is that JSF components can be "rendered" for different viewing devices; however, I'm not sure the creators of JSF really thought through the process of how most web applications are created. I think the usual case is that a mock up of the web interface is created by marketing execs and web designers, then that mock up is "wired" by software engineers (in our case we use Struts for the wiring). CSS design is very advanced (see: http://www.csszengarden.com/). It is unrealistic to think companies are going to retrain their web designers on a new technology that is less capable then the one they are currently using. As a specific example, the use of such tags in JSF as, "<f:verbatim><br></f:verbatim>" is horrible. I think JSF has missed the mark. Rather than tossing out Struts I think Sun should have enhanced Struts by creating a simple process for plugging in web components (perhaps some sort of enhanced Tiles strategy) and they should have also enhanced Struts by adding a better page flow process (similar to Spring WebFlow). One of the most promising projects for web application frameworks is a project named, "Clarity" (http://www.jsfcentral.com/listings/A6020?link). The goal of this project is to consolidate and enhance existing frameworks. I hope this is the path to nirvana. I like the JSF concept of pluggable components. My major problem with JSF is the design strategy that states an application is a collection of components and these components have renderers for different devices. I suppose that you could try to wrap CSS design around "<f:view>" tags if you are creating a web application, but this seems contrary to the JSF model. Please share some guiding thoughts. Especially, if you have a link to some cool example pages created with JSF, I'd like to see them. Thx. Mike __________________________________ Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click. http://farechase.yahoo.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
