Ajax Applications with JSF 2 and New RichFaces 4

Max Katz, Exadel

May 5, 2011

Exadel

Max Katz

● Senior Systems Engineer at Exadel

● JSF, RichFaces, Java EE consulting, and training

● Manages exadel.org – Exadel's open source projects and community

● Community manager for gotiggr.com – tool for creating and sharing interactive web and mobile HTML prototypes

Exadel

Author of Practical RichFaces

(Apress)

4

Lead-author of Practical RichFaces, 2/e

(Apress, June 2011)

Summer 2011

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Published April 11, 2011

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Exadel is a global software engineering company.● Founded in 1998,

headquarters in San Francisco Bay Area

● 7 development offices in Europe

● 350+ employees

Exadel

5

Minsk

Homyel

Kharkov

Donetsk

Ekaterinburg

Moscow

Exadel Offices

Munich

Exadel

Open Source with JBoss

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Exadel Products

● exadel.org

◦ Flamingo

◦ Fiji

◦ jsf4birt

◦ JavaFX Plug-in for Eclipse

● gotiggr.com– build and share HTML prototypes

Exadel

Exadel Services

● Professional services

● Rich enterprise application development

● Eclipse development

● Custom rich component development

● Mobile development

● Training

Exadel

The Plan Is Simple

1) Ajax features in JSF 2

2) The new RichFaces 4

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JavaServer Faces™ (JSF) is the standard component-based user interface (UI)

framework for the Java EE (5 & 6) platform

JSF 1.2 Java EE 5

JSF 2 Java EE 6

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JSF 2

● JSF 2 is a major upgrade over JSF 1.x

● Many features, ideas taken from projects such as Seam, and RichFaces, and others

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● Facelets

● Composite components

● Implicit navigation

● GET support

◦ h:link, h:button

● Resource loading

JSF 2 new features

● New scopes

◦ Flash, View, custom

● Configuration via annotations

● Bean Validation support

● Basic Ajax

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JSF 2 <f:ajax>

● Very basic Ajax functionality

● Greatly inspired by RichFaces 3 <a4j:support> tag

● Ajax in JSF in 3 easy steps:

1. Sending an Ajax request

2.Partial view processing

3.Partial view rendering

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<h:form> <h:input value="#{bean.word}"/> <h:commandButton> <f:ajax event="click" execute="@form" listener="#{bean.ajaxListener}" render="out1 out2"/> </h:commandButton> <h:input value="#{bean.text}" id="out1"/> <h:input value="#{bean.phrase}" id="out2"/></h:form>

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<h:form> <h:input value="#{bean.word}"/> <h:selectOneMenu value="#{bean.selected}"> <f:selectItems value="#{bean.items}"/> <f:ajax event="change" execute="@form" listener="#{bean.ajaxListener}" render="@form"/> </h:commandButton> <h:input value="#{bean.text}" id="out1"/> <h:input value="#{bean.phrase}" id="out2"/></h:form>

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Attribute Value

eventEvent on which to fire the Ajax request

execute

@all@this (default)@form@noneid'sEL

render

@all@this@form@none (default)id's EL

Important <f:ajax> attributes

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That's good, but where do you get rich components and

more?

A rich component framework is still(?) needed to build

real-world Ajax applications.

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RichFaces 4 is a lightweight, open source framework for

JSF 2

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RichFaces 4 – rich JSF framework

● UI components

◦ a4j:* tag library (core)

◦ rich:* tag library (UI)

◦ Components' JavaScript API

● Skins

● Client-side validation (Bean Validation based)

● CDK – Component Development Kit

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RichFaces 4

100% built on top of JSF2, just extends functionality in

JSF 2

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RichFaces 4

JavaScript is now entirely based on the popular jQuery

library

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RichFaces 4

● All components are reviewed for consistency, usability

● Redesigned following semantic HTML principles

● Server-side and client-side performance optimization

● Strict code clean-up and review

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RichFaces 4

Zero-configuration.

Just drop RichFaces into the application.

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RichFaces 4

New client-side validation based on Bean Validation

(JSR 303)

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RichFaces 4

New, and easy to use CDK (Component Development Kit),

allows quickly to build your own custom rich components

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RichFaces 4

Run on: Tomcat 6/7, Resin, JBoss AS 6/7, GlassFish 3.x,

WebLogic

(run on any server when JSF 2 application

can be deployed)

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RichFaces 4

Run on: Google App Engine (GAE), Amazon EC2,

CloudBees

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RichFaces 4

JSF implementations: Mojarra or Myfaces

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RichFaces 4

Any browser

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RichFaces 4

Tooling support through JBoss Tools, IntelliJ,

NetBeans

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RichFaces versions

Version JSF 1.1 JSF 1.2 JSF 2

RichFaces 3.1.x •RichFaces 3.3.3* • •RichFaces 4 •* Note: RichFaces 3.3.3 has basic JSF 2 support

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RichFaces history

2005: started by Alexander Smirnov

2005-2007: Developed by Exadel Ajax4jsf - open source, free RichFaces - commercial

2007: JBoss takes over

Exadel team continues to develop the framework, project is known as RichFaces

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RichFaces 4

Let's look at RichFaces features in more detail...

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RichFaces 4 core – sending an Ajax request

● a4j:ajax

● a4j:commandButton

● a4j:commandLink

● a4j:jsFunction

● a4j:poll

● a4j:push

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RichFaces 4

It's important to say it again, RichFaces only extends and

upgrades JSF 2...

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RichFaces <a4j:ajax>

● 100% based on standard <f:ajax>

● Just replace f: with a4j: and get exactly the same functionality

● But, you get extra features...<h:commandButton> <f:ajax execute="@form" render="output"/></h:commandButton>

<h:commandButton> <a4j:ajax execute="@form" render="output"/></h:commandButton>

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Feature/Attribute Description

onbeginJavaScript to execute before Ajax request

onbeforedomupdateJavaScript to execute after response comes back but before DOM update

oncomplete JavaScript to execute after DOM update

bypassUpdatesAllows to skip JSF phases when validating

limitRender Turns off all auto-rendered panels

status Status to display during Ajax request

Ajax queue Advanced RichFaces client queue

<a4j:ajax> attributes

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<a4j:commandButton/Link> – Ajax button/link

/* standard button with f:ajax */<h:commandButton value="Save" action="#{bean.action}"> <f:ajax execute="@form" render="output"/></h:commandButton>

/* RichFaces button */<a4j:commandButton value="Save" render="output" action="#{bean.action}" />

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<h:form> <h:inputText> <h:selectOneMenu> <h:commandButton> <f:ajax execute="@form"/> </h:commandButton><h:form>

<h:form> <h:inputText> <h:selectOneMenu> <a4j:commandButton/><h:form>

Need to set execute=”@form”(or execute=”id1 id2”)

RichFaces defaultvalue for button/linkexecute=”@form”

When using standard JSF button:

When using RichFaces button:

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<table> ... <td onmouseover="update('yellow')"/> ...</table>

<h:form> <a4j:jsFunction name="update" action="#{bean.change}" render="..."> <a4j:param value="param1" assignTo="#{bean.color}"/> </a4j:jsFunction></h:form>

<a4j:jsFunction> – send Ajax request from any JavaScript function, HTML event

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<a4j:poll> – periodically send an Ajax request

<a4j:poll interval="1000" action="#{bean.count}"

render="output" enabled="#{bean.pollEnabled}" />

<h:panelGrid id="output">...</h:panelGrid>

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<a4j:push>

● Server-side events are pushed to client using Comet or WebSockets.

● Implemented using Atmosphere

● Provides excellent integration with EE containers, and advanced messaging services

<a4j:push address="topic@chat" ondataavailable="alert(event.rf.data)" />

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RichFace 4 core – advanced rendering features● <a4j:outputPanel>

● limitRender attribute

● render=”{bean.renderList}”

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<a4j:outputPanel> – auto rendered panel

<h:selectOneMenu value="#{bean.fruit}"> <a4j:ajax listener="#{bean.change}"/></<h:selectOneMenu>

<a4j:outputPanel ajaxRendered="true"> <h:panelGrid> ... </h:panelGrid></a4j:outputPanel>

Rendered on every Ajax request

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Advanced rendering options: limitRender

<a4j:commandButton render="output"/><a4j:commandButton render="output" limitRender="true"/>

<h:panelGrid id="output">...</h:panelGrid>

<a4j:outputPanel ajaxRendered="true">...</a4j:outputPanel>

Turns off all auto rendered panels,only renders what is set in currentrender

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render=”#{bean.renderList}”

1) Ajax request sent

2) Component id's to be rendered resolved

3) Component id's are rendered into the page

4) 2nd Ajax request is sent. In this request the components (resolved in step 2 are sent with request) will be rendered

1) Ajax request sent

2) Component id's to be rendered resolved

3) Component id's are rendered

JSF RichFaces

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RichFace 4 core – advanced execute features● <a4j:region>

● bypassUpdates attribute

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<a4j:region> – declaratively define execute region<h:form> <a4j:region> <h:inputText /> <h:inputText /> <a4j:commandButton execute="@region"/> <a4j:region></h:form>

<h:form> <a4j:region> <h:inputText /> <h:inputText /> <a4j:commandButton /> <a4j:region></h:form>

Execute options: ● @all● @this● @form● @none● id's● EL● @region

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Skipping phases when validating

<h:inputText id="name" value="#{bean.name}"/> <a4j:ajax event="blur" bypassUpdates="true"/></h:inputText><rich:message for="name"/>

1.Restore View2.Apply Request Values3.Process Validation4.Update Model5.Invoke Application6.Render Response

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JavaScript interactions

<a4j:commandLink value="Link" onbegin="ajaxOnBegin()" onbeforedomupdate="ajaxOnBeforeDomUpdate()" oncomplete="ajaxOnComplete()"></a4j:commandLink>

<h:commandLink value="Link" <f:ajax onevent="ajaxEvent();"></h:commandLink>

Called three times:1) begin2) success3) complete

Events are separated for easier development

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JSF 2 queue

● JSF 2 has very basic queue functionality

● Events are queued and fired one at a time

● Only one request is processed on the server at a time

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RichFaces queue upgrades

● Combine requests from one or more components

● Delay firing Ajax request

● Cancel DOM updates if “similar” request was fired

● Define queue as:

◦ Global (all views have queue)◦ View-based◦ Form-based◦ Named (used by particular components only)

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<a4j:queue> – “combining” events from the same component

<a4j:queue requestDelay="2000"/>…<a4j:commandButton value="Button A1"/><a4j:commandButton value="Button AB"/>

Events (clicks) from the same component are “combined” which results in just one request from a component being sent. Prevents sending multiple request from the same component.

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<a4j:queue> – “combining” events from different components

<a4j:queue requestDelay="2000"/>...<a4j:commandButton> <a4j:attachQueue requestGroupingId="ajaxGroup"/></a4j:commmandButton><a4j:commandButton> <a4j:attachQueue requestGroupingId="ajaxGroup"/></a4j:commmandButton>

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<a4j:queue> delay<a4j:queue requestDelay="2000"/>...<a4j:commandButton value="Button1"/><a4j:commandButton value="Button2"/>

<a4j:queue requestDelay="2000"/>...<a4j:commandButton> <a4j:attachQueue requestDelay="1000"/></a4j:commmandButton><a4j:commandButton />

Delay request by 2 seconds

Overwrite default delay request by 1 second

Delay is a “wait” to combine similar events (events from the same components) together.

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<a4j:queue> – ignoring “stale” responses

<a4j:queue requestDelay="2000 ingoreDupResponses="true"/>

<h:inputText value="#{bean.state}"> <a4j:ajax event="keyup" listener="#{bean.load}" render="states"/></h:inputText>

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RichFace 4 core – more advanced features● <a4j:status>

● <a4j:param>

● <a4j:log>

● JavaScript interactions

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<a4j:status> – Ajax request status

<a4j:status name="ajaxStatus"> <f:facet name="start"> <h:graphicImage value="ajaxStatus.jpg"/> </f:facet></a4j:status>

<h:form> <a4j:commandButton status="ajaxStatus"/></h:form>

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<a4j:param>

● Similar to <f:param> but simpler as it also assigns the value to a bean property automatically

<a4j:commandButton value="Save"> <a4j:param name="#{bean.product}" value="1009"/></a4j:commandButton>

@ManagedBeanpublic class Bean { private String product; // getter and setter }

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<a4j:log> – Ajax request information● Levels:

◦ debug, info, warn, error

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RichFaces UI components

● Output, panels

● Input

● Menu

● Data iteration

● Tree

● Drag and drop

● Client side validation

● Miscellaneous

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rich:tab

rich:accordionrich:accordion

rich:progressBar

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More rich output, panels

● rich:panel

● rich:togglePanel

● rich:popupPanel

● rich:collapsiblePanel

● rich:toolTip

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rich:calendar

rich:inplaceInput

rich:inputNumberSlider

rich:autocomplete

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More rich input

● rich:inputNumberSpinner

● rich:inplaceSelect

● rich:select

● rich:fileUpload

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rich:panelMenu

rich:toolBar

rich:dropDownMenu

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rich:dataTable

rich:dataTable withrich:collapsibleSubTable

rich:dataScroller

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Partial table update

render="@row"

render="@column"render="@header"

render="@footer"

render="@body"

render="cellId"

To render from outside the table:render="tableId@header"render="tableId@body"render="tableId@footer"

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Partial table updaterender="tableId:rows(bean.rowsSet)"

render="tableId:rows(bean.rowsSet):cellId"

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More rich data iteration● a4j:repeat

● rich:extendedDataTable

● rich:collapsibleSubTable

● rich:list

◦ list | ordered | definition

● rich:dataGrid

● rich:column

◦ Column and row spanning

◦ Filtering, sorting

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rich:tree

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Drag and drop

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Client-side validation based on Bean Validation

(JSR 303)

New in RichFaces 4

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Bean Validation (JSR 303)

● JSF 2 has support for Bean Validation (server-side)

public class Bean { @Pattern(regexp="...") private String email;}

<h:inputText id="email" value="#{bean.email}"> <a4j:ajax event="blur"/></h:inputText><rich:message for="email"/>

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RichFaces client validation <rich:validator>

public class Bean { @Pattern(regexp="...") private String email;}

<h:inputText id="email" value="#{bean.email}"> <rich:validator/></h:inputText><rich:message for="email"/>

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RichFaces <rich:graphValidator>

<rich:graphValidator value="#{bean}" id="gv"> ... <h:inputText value="#{bean.password1}"/> <h:inputText value="#{bean.password2}"/> <rich:message for="email" for="gv"/></rich:graphValidator>

@Size(min=5,max=15,message="...")private String password1;@Size(min=5,max=15,message="...")private String password2;

@AssertTrue(message="Passwords don't match")public boolean isPasswordsEquals() { return password1.equals(password1);}

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RichFaces client functions

Function Description

rich:client(id) Returns component client id

rich:element(id) Returns DOM element

rich:component(id)Returns RichFaces client component instance to call JS API method

rich:isUserInRole(role) Returns if the user has specified role

rich:findComponent(id)Returns component instance for given short id

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Many RichFaces components provide client-side JavaScript API

Method name Description

getTop() Return the top co-ordinate for the position of the pop-up panel.

getLeft() Return the left co-ordinate for the position of the pop-up panel.

moveTo(top,left) Move the pop-up panel to the co-ordinates specified with the top and left parameters.

resize(width,height) Resize the pop-up panel to the size specified with the width and height parameters.

show() Show the pop-up panel.

hide() Hide the pop-up panel.

<rich:popupPanel> JavaScript API

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Using <rich:component('id')>

<input type="button" onclick="#{rich:component('popup')}.show();"

value="Open" />

<rich:popupPanel id="popup"> <h:outputLink value="#"

onclick="#{rich:component('popup')}.hide(); return false;">

<h:outputText value="Close"/> </h:outputLink></rich:popupPanel>

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Rich miscellaneous

● <rich:componentControl>

● <rich:hashParam>

● <rich:jQuery>

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<rich:componentControl>

● Allows to call JS API on a component in declarative fashion

<h:outputLink id="openLink" value="#"><h:outputText value="Open" /><rich:componentControl event="click"

operation="show" target="popup" /></h:outputLink>

<rich:popupPanel id="popup">... </rich:popupPanel>

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<rich:hashParam>

● Group client side parameters into a hash map to be passed to component client API

<h:commandButton value="Show popup"> <rich:componentControl target="pp" operation="show"> <rich:hashParam> <f:param name="width" value="500" /> <f:param name="height" value="300" /> <f:param name="minWidth" value="300" /> <f:param name="minHeight" value="150" /> </rich:hashParam> </rich:componentControl></h:commandButton

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<rich:jQuery>

<input type="button" id="changeButton" value="Change title" /><rich:jQuery selector="#changeButton" query="click(function(){

$('#panel #panel_header').text('Capital of Russia');})"/>

<rich:panel header="Moscow" id="panel"> Moscow is the capital, the most populous ...</rich:panel>

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Skins

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Skins

● Lightweight extension on top of CSS

● Change look and feel of all rich component with a few minor changes

● Can be applied to standard JSF and HTML tags as well

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Ready-to-use skins

● classic

● wine

● blueSky

● ruby

● emeraldTown

● deepMarine

● plain

● japanCherry

<context-param> <param-name>org.richfaces.skin</param-name> <param-value>ruby</param-value></context-param>

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Skin file (just a property file)

#ColorsheaderBackgroundColor=#900000headerGradientColor=#DF5858headerTextColor=#FFFFFFheaderWeightFont=bold

generalBackgroundColor=#f1f1f1generalTextColor=#000000generalSizeFont=11pxgeneralFamilyFont=Arial, Verdana, sans-serif

controlTextColor=#000000controlBackgroundColor=#ffffffadditionalBackgroundColor=#F9E4E4

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Skins

● Modify existing or create your own

● Change skins in runtime

<context-param> <param-name>org.richfaces.skin</param-name> <param-value>myCoolSkin</param-value></context-param>

<context-param> <param-name>org.richfaces.skin</param-name> <param-value>#{bean.skin}</param-value></context-param>

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Overwriting skins<style> .rf-p-hr { // your custom style, applied to all panels on // on page } .panelHeader { // custom header style } </style>

<rich:panel id="panel1">... </rich:panel id="panel2"><rich:panel headerClass="panelHeader">... </rich:panel>

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Skinning standard JSF tags and HTML tags

<h:button style="background-color: '#{richSkin.tableBackgroundColor}'"/>

Apply to each control:

<context-param> <param-name> org.richfaces.enableControlSkinning </param-name> <param-value>true</param-value></context-param>

Apply to all standard controls (JSF and HTML):

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Skinning standard JSF tags and HTML tags

<context-param> <param-name> org.richfaces.enableControlSkinningClasses </param-name> <param-value>true</param-value></context-param>

<div class="rfs-ctn"> <h:panelGrid columns="1"> <h:outputText /> <h:inputText /> <h:commandButton /> </h:panelGrid></div>

Can be applied to <h:panelGrid>, <rich:panel>, <div> Any standard controls inside the container will be skinned using standard controls skinning classes.

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Where can I try the new RichFaces 4?

http://richfaces.org/showcase

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How can we help with RichFaces

● Web development with RichFaces

● Version 3 to 4 migration

● Performance tune-up

● Custom component

development

● On-site training

Training Days

JSF 1.2, 2 1-2

RichFaces 3, 4 1-2

JSF and RichFaces 2-3

RichFaces 3 to 4 1-2

Exadel

RichFaces

Rich, flexible, robust, and proven enterprise-level extension to JSF 2

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That's it for RichFaces, there is one more thing I want to

show you.

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http://gotiggr.com

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Tiggr Mobile Demo*http://gotiggr.com

*Preview version

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● Build and share interactive HTML prototypes

● Highly-interactive, define events/actions

● View, test in any browser, get feedback

Tiggr Prototypes Tiggr Mobile● First of a kind, Web-

based IDE for building and deploying hybrid mobile apps

● Connect and invoke remote services

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mkblog.exadel.com

@maxkatz

max@exadel.com

gotiggr.com

Thank you!