You are viewing an old version (v. 9) of this page.
<< View previous version | view page history | view next version >>
ICEfaces 2.0
Overview
ICEfaces 2.0 is the new version of the ICEfaces framework that integrates with JavaServer Faces (JSF) 2.0. With ICEfaces 2.0, our goal is to deliver existing ICEfaces features and additional enhancements, cleanly integrated into the JSF 2.0 platform.
Benefits
Standard Integration
Adhering closely to the standard extension points allows ICEfaces to work even more transparently with the stock JSF framework. It also allows ICEfaces to painlessly co-exist with other component suites and frameworks.
Direct-to-DOM Rendering
A key feature of ICEfaces 1.x that provides the simplest and cleanest way to use Ajax in a JSF application, it has been re-implemented for JSF 2.0. Simply adding the ICEfaces 2.0 library to an application will provide dynamic page updates for all standards-based components.
Component Compatibility
While looking forward to the availability of all new components that fully leverage JSF 2.0, ICEfaces 2.0 also provides a compatible component library and compatibility layer based on the ICEfaces 1.x component suite. This allows developers to build ICEfaces 2.0 applications without being restricted to the standard components. It also allows ICEfaces 1.8.x applications a smooth migration path for porting to ICEfaces 2.0. More details are available in the [Compatibility] documentation.
For documentation on the components themselves you can refer to the latest 1.8.x documentation found in the Documentation section of the ICEfaces.org website.
Enhanced Ajax
While JSF 2.0 has basic support for Ajax, ICEfaces extends and enhances this support by making Ajax requests and page updates completely transparent to the page developer while remaining compatible with JSF 2.0's f:ajax tag. ICEfaces 2.0 also provides additional flavours of form submission to help optimize communications.
APIs
In addition to enhancing the basic Ajax features provided by JSF 2.0, ICEfaces extends an API for monitoring interesting events that occur on the client. More details are available in the JavaScript Client API documentation.
ICEfaces 2.0 also introduces a new custom scope called Window. This new scope is designed to fill in a gap in the existing scopes available for JSF 2.0. A window-scoped instance exists for the life of a browser window or tab but is also built to survive reloads and refreshes. As there is a mechanism for custom scopes in JSF 2.0, you can specify your bean use the ICEfaces Window scope by adding an annotation. For example:
@ManagedBean(name = "windowBean") @CustomScoped(value = "#{window}") public class MyBean implements Serializable { ...
| Perhaps a more comprehensive explanation of Window scope? |
| Any other server-side APIs or artifacts of interest other than for Ajax Push? |
Ajax Push
Ajax Push is an integral part of ICEfaces 1.x and is still one of the defining feature of ICEfaces 2.0. The foundation of the Ajax Push technology has been factored into a separate product. This allows integration with ICEfaces as well as future intergration with other non-JSF and non-Java platforms. More details are available in the [ICEpush] documentation.
Streamlined Configuration
While JSF 2.0 simplifies configuration by leveraging annotations, ICEfaces also streamlines configuration in several areas. The ICEfaces-specific servlets and many of the configuration parameters in ICEfaces 1.x are no longer necessary with ICEfaces 2.0. This makes it even quicker and easier to add ICEfaces to your JSF application.
Tooling
NetBeans 6.8 supports Java Enterprise Edition (JEE) 6, the official version that includes JSF 2.0. With this version of NetBeans, which comes with Glassfish 3.0, you can quickly start to write JSF 2.0 web applications and simply include the ICEfaces 2.0 libraries to enhance them.
An ICEfaces 2.0 plugin for NetBeans 6.8...
| Need a blurb about where we are with Netbeans 6.8 |