Sun's JavaServer Faces (JSF) technology (JSR-127) is the standard Java API for building user interface components in web applications. JSF defines a component-based web application framework, enabling vendors and open source projects to create sophisticated user-interface widgets that you can then develop to create easy-to-use web applications, with portability between tools and application servers. Its list of features is as follows:
JSF also includes the Visual Web JavaServer Faces framework, enabling drag and drop functionality and providing a more visual approach to web application design.
For a complete description of the JSF framework, including documentation and tutorials, see:
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The IDE provides sample applications that make use of JSF Visual Web technology. Press Ctrl-Shift-N, and expand the Samples > Java Web (Visual JSF) folder. Select any sample, click Next, and then click Finish. The sample opens in the IDE. |
Other web application frameworks are available. They can be integrated with the IDE just as easily as the JSF technology. Some of the more popular alternative web application frameworks are as follows:
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When you use the IDE to add the framework's tag libraries in your web application's WEB-INF/lib folder, and the JSP file has taglib directives with URIs for the parts of the libraries that you are using, the Source Editor provides code completion for these libraries. |