Need help on Visual JSF Development

[Edisandro Bessa]

Hi guys,

I've been used to create web applications by using JSP and Servlet technologies as well as NetBeans 5.5 for business classes development and Dreamwaver for visual web pages development.

So far so good, however, from now on, due to customer requirements, some new small projects must be created by using JSF technologies.

I've already read both JavaServer Faces in Action book from cover to cover and J2EE 1.4 Tutorial chapters which covers JSF, so that I could gain a good understanding and knowledge regarding commmon things needed to start developing by using JSF.

The problem which I need your help guys is regarding which tools you "JSF Developers" use to create your web applications.

Althrough Dreamwaver is a great tool for visual html formatting and I'm very used to, I found very painful to replace the common html tags by the jsf tags right after the page layout is done.

I would like to include such jsf tags in the first time I design the web page layout instead of first develop the page layout and then replace the html tags.

Maybe Facelets could help but I have no knowledge on how to use it. Could you please clarify ?

Trying to solve such problem, I gave a try to NetBeans Visual WEB Pack but I found it poorer than Dreamwaver for page layout design.

What you guys have been using to create your JSF applications.

Could you please give me some light on this ?

Thanks in advance.

[Fabio Lin]

Take a look at Netbeans Visual Web Pack.

Hope that helps.

[]'s

[Kito Mann]

Edisandro,

First, thanks for purchasing JSF in Action, and for reading the whole thing!

If you like Dreamweaver much better than The NetBeans Visual Web Pack, then you should probably check out JSF Toolbox, which includes Dreamweaver plugins for JSF. If that doesn't satisfy your needs, Facelets helps by allowing you to design using pure HTML tags with special attributes that associate the tags with JSF components. For a good overview of Facelets, check out JSF Central's Faclets series.

[Fabio Lin]

I'm taking a look at JSF Toolbox and it seems GREAT!

Good tip man

[Edisandro Bessa]

Hi Kito,

Thanks a lot for your prompt reply.

For sure your book is a top of mind when referring to JSF. You did a great job. Well done man !

I personally feel proud for having my question replied by you.

Regarding JFToolbox and Facelets, I've tried both and I personally found JSFToolbox very exciting.

Thanks a lot for your so valuable tip.