Icefaces or Richfaces ?

[Rahul Juneja]

Does anybody have any idea about which of the two frameworks is better then the other. I have worked with Icefaces but not with Richfaces.

Any clues or pointers are appreciated ?

Thanks,
Rahul

[Hayrol Reyes Mejía]

IMHO, ICEFaces is better than RichFaces in almos the whole framework. ICEFaces allows you to concentrate on doing JSF development and, then, build you Business Logic of your application (using everything you know to do that, I like EJB3+JPA btw) instead of be worry about details of the UI layout and integration. Using RichFaces you have more domain of the middle level of AJAX scripting, but it has a cost because you need to worry on the presentation layout too much.

Also, ICEFaces is fully integrated with Facelets and you can forget abut use of JSP at all ... I really love facelets. On RichFaces even though you can do same things you can do with ICEfaces, you need to do more NO productive work to create something. The components into RichFaces looks to be most customizable, but again you need to work even with (x,y) coordinates, i.e.

Another thing I like from ICEFaces is the AJAX Push technology, I never have seen something so powerfull (in that topic) and too easy to configure and develop.

[David Hibbs]

Hayrol Reyes Mejía wrote:
Also, ICEFaces is fully integrated with Facelets and you can forget abut use of JSP at all ... I really love facelets. On RichFaces even though you can do same things you can do with ICEfaces, you need to do more NO productive work to create something. The components into RichFaces looks to be most customizable, but again you need to work even with (x,y) coordinates, i.e.

Another thing I like from ICEFaces is the AJAX Push technology, I never have seen something so powerfull (in that topic) and too easy to configure and develop.

RichFaces not only works with SEAM, it's nicely integrated with SEAM. The chosen view technology for SEAM is... facelets.

Also, newer versions of the RichFaces framework DO provide an AJAX Push mechanism.

I'm not saying that one is strictly better than the other... just to make sure you're looking at all the factors involved!

[Matt Kohanek]

I have worked a bit with both, but admittedly more with RF. I will say, IF had a lot more as far as plug ins for Eclipse IDE, that made development much easier. I was really attracted to that with IF, but in the end I had to go with RF (not my decision).

[Rainer Eschen]

Develop a prototype for your most important/risky functionality your project has to deliver. The decide about how good each framework helps to cope with your requirements.

From the technical point of view RF and IF have different programming models. If you like to have a bit more control in your hands you may prefer RF. If you trust your framework you will like IF. Will be pretty interesting how this will look like with the implementations for the new JSF 2.0. The new standard itself is more like RF today ;-).

[Hayrol Reyes Mejía]

RichFaces not only works with SEAM, it's nicely integrated with SEAM. The chosen view technology for SEAM is... facelets.

I know that RichFaces is fully integrated with SEAM, of course it's from the same comunity. But ICEFaces is also integrated with SEAM, and of course with other frameworks. So, if you are using SEAM the comunity encourage the use of RF, or IF as you want.

Also, newer versions of the RichFaces framework DO provide an AJAX Push mechanism.

Never have tested RF Ajax Push but ICEFaces Ajax Push, and it works almost excelent.

Of course, it's a matter of several variables decision. What you have knowledge, what is using in your company, what is more standard (relative), what you like more :-), etc.

I still using IF (and have worked with both) when I have the opportunity to choose.

If you like to have a bit more control in your hands you may prefer RF. If you trust your framework you will like IF

Completely agree.

Will be pretty interesting how this will look like with the implementations for the new JSF 2.0. The new standard itself is more like RF today ;-)

Well, IF already did it the first time when JSF 1 didn't come with an easy AJAX extension capability, so you can bet that they do it again ... and they will use the new JSF 2 features and will bring us the new IF framework ... it's why JSF was conceived, to allow this kind of frameworks development above it.

I was really attracted to that with IF, but in the end I had to go with RF (not my decision)

When you can decide then give a try to IF more deep, then (as you know more RF) you will take a better final decision.