Ajax and Java Server Faces Tools in Eclipse

Discussed what the JavaServer Faces Technology Tooling Project is and how it can help developers. This project was released in 2007 and is part of the Web Tools Platform (WTP) 2.0 release. The main new feature is the web page editor, taken from Sybase contributions. Also, in the tooling project is a Faces configuration model, editor, wizard, and validation for JSF technology within JSP pages.

A set of JSF libraries was created to group inter-dependent jar files needed in JSF. An editor to manage the JSF configuration file exists in the toolkit. When creating a new JSF page, the page can be viewed in design and/or source mode. In viewing a demonstration, code completion was available in the JSP page source mode. A new backing bean could be created from a wizard off the faces configuration file. Content assistance is available in the web page editor to access methods on page backing-beans.

Navigation can be defined by dragging-and-dropping pages onto the faces configuration file, when in a navigation mode.

In summary, many of the changes did look similar to a current plugin we are using in Eclipse to build JSF applications.

JSF Technology Tooling Project URL: http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/jsf

Swithing gears, an Ajax toolkit was discussed.

This presentation covered what the Ajax Toolkit Framework (ATF) Tools in Eclipse project provides is, how to write and run a simple application using ATF, and what it can do for a developer. The project was started by IBM. The toolkit provides support for developing Ajax and advanced JavaScript technology applications with Eclipse. The project is usable but is still in it's infancy as version 0.2 was released in April 2007.

ATF provides the following:
- A JavaScript technology editor
- Drag and drop editing
- A JavaScript debugger (in browser)
- DOM and XMLHttpRequest inspection
- Mozilla integration
- Easier coding and learning of JavaScript technology and JS libraries
- Deep "in browser" introspection and debugging capabilities
- Faster development...of course

In seeing a demonstration, a project with necessary JavaScript libraries (js files) are imported. The debugger shows a complete DOM tree inspection as well as the code processing that part of the DOM. A JavaScript script can have breakpoints set and then run in Mozilla (IE debugging is coming). In fact, the presenter demonstrated debugging JavaScript by going to a web page on the Internet, using a URL. After the page loaded, breakpoints could be set on the JavaScript.

Different Ajax libraries could also be downloaded and made available to the ATF toolkit.

ATF URL: http://www.eclipse.org/atf