question to authors of "Mastering Java Server Faces" book

[Kishore Dandu]

One of the bulleted items in the Amazon description mentions "help move from struts to JSF".
My question is "Is JSF mature enough to move on from Struts to JSF".
Curiously waiting,
Dan.

[Nicholas Cheung]

I think JSF and Struts do similar things but in different aspects.
Structs tries to improve the MVC in the web side, and JSF is focus on providing standardize way for HTML *creation*. Or as Ko Ko said, it is sth feel like Swing components!
Thus, it seems not to take over each other, but is to supplement each other.
Am I rite?
Nick.

[Ko Ko Naing]

Originally posted by Nicholas Cheung:
Or as Ko Ko said, it is sth feel like Swing components!
Thus, it seems not to take over each other, but is to supplement each other.

Yeah, Nick, SWING is like client side component and JSF is server side generation of interfaces... It seems that the fame of SWING is fading with its performance... Since once I did follow the SWING's concept and progrmmed it seriously, I am to hear that the role of SWING in window-based application is going down...

[Faisal Khan]

The point of how struts and JSF will work together is one of interest to many people so it will be great to hear the author's view on this issue.

[Nicholas Cheung]

I do think, if the 2 things can be worked together, many of the problems will be solved. But there may produce other issues.
Nick.
[ March 02, 2004: Message edited by: Nicholas Cheung ]

[Bill Dudney]

Hi All,
JSF is able to completely replace Swing for the most part. Since Struts is so much more mature it obviously will have a deeper and richer feature set but JSF is more or less a complete replacement of Struts.
That being said, no one wants to run out and rewrite their whole web app(s) so there are some great integration points between the two. You can continue to use Struts navigation model but use JSF Components.
I think both frameworks have a lot of legs so they will both be around for quite some time to come. However since JSF is receiving major investment from just about every major Java vendor involved in web development (app servers, ide makers etc) I think the time will come quickly when JSF will be more feature rich than Struts (but that is just my $0.02 worth).

[Bill Dudney]

Dooh! of course I meant Struts in the last post where I put Swing...
always read it one more time before hitting the submit button

[Kishore Dandu]

I have two more questions to Bill Dudney.
1) If I am new to Struts, can I just ignore it and go for JSF learning curve or is it worthwhile to have some exposure to struts aswell. I haven't experienced Struts because we have a different framework at my present project.
2) This is more of a personal question. I want to know is it possible to keeup with latest happenings like JSF, JCA, Webservices(which is not so new) and go after writing a book if someone is married and has a kid.
I try my best to update my skills(in addition to being productive at work with older frame works and JavaScript which I hate). But usually I need to put in 9 hours to work, 2 hours to commute and still make up for these new things. Let me know if it is really feasible.
Thanks,
Dan.

[Bill Dudney]

Hi Dan,
on the personal front.. I have 5 kids, yes that is five. I have the amazing blessing of being able to work from home so I don't have the commute problem. It is not all that easy to keep up with the latest and greatest stuff but if you read a lot (JavaRanch, Blogs, etc.) then you will know enough about what is out there to be able to keep your head above water. Then since you are so widely read when a new problem comes up at work you can offer innovative solutions because you know what the rest of the Java community is doing. Always fun being the goto guy
However you can't do it all... I don't know much about webservices. I wish I did but I just haven't had time to dig into it. I keep a really big 'stack of stuff' to look at and I try to start with the top thing and dig enough into that I'm satisfied that I know if I currently need it and if I don't need it now I file it in the gray matter for looking into if I do. I went to Colorado Software Summit last year and bloged a ton about it. That trip helped a bunch on getting through that 'stack of stuff'.
Mike Clark has a great post on this front...
OK enough personal stuff...
I think its worth your while to move straight to JSF and keep a passing interest in Struts. However that comes with the caveat that if you must deliver something in the next 6 months you will probably have to go with Struts. I would not build a production system on the current RI (the license might even prevent that). IBM currently has a beta (on the old spec) and I know Oracle and Sun are both working hard to get something out. Give it 6 months and you will have lots of choices.
Hope this helps!