the preface of core JavaServer™ Faces

core JavaServer™ Faces

Preface

When we heard about JavaServer^™ Faces (JSF) at the 2002 Java One conference, we were very excited. Both of us had extensive experience with client-side Java programming, and had lived to tell the tale—David in Graphic Java, and Cay in Core Java, both published by Sun Microsystems Press. When we first tried web programming with servlets and JavaServer Pages (JSP), we found it to be rather unintuitive and tedious. JavaServer Faces promised to put a friendly face in front of a web application, allowing programmers to think about text fields and menus instead of fretting over page flips and request parameters. Each of us proposed a book project to the publisher, who promptly suggested that we should jointly write the Sun Microsystems Press book on this technology.

It took the JSF expert group (of which David is a member) another two years to release the JSF 1.0 specification and reference implementation. This release fulfills many of the original promises. You really can design web user interfaces by putting components on a form and linking them to Java objects, without having to write any code at all. The framework was designed for tool support, and the first batch of drag-and-drop GUI builders is now emerging. The framework is extensible—you are not limited to the standard set of HTML components, and you can even use completely different rendering technologies, to support, for example, wireless devices. And finally, unlike competing technologies that let you tumble down a deep cliff once you step beyond the glitz, JSF supports the hard stuff—separation of presentation and business logic, navigation, connections with external services, and configuration management.

Of course, being a 1.0 release, the current version of JSF is far from perfect. Some of the APIs are awkward. We supply you with utility classes in the com.corejsf.util package to reduce your pain. Also, there are fewer components than we originally expected. While JSF has a powerful and convenient data table component, some useful components such as tabbed panes, scrollers, file uploads, and so on, were not included for lack of time. In the book, we show you how to implement these features. Of course, we expect the next release of JSF to remedy many of these shortcomings.

We are still excited about JSF, and we hope you will share this excitement when you learn how this technology makes you a more effective web application developer.

         当我们在2002年的Java One研讨会上听到JavaServer^™ Faces (JSF)时，我们非常激动。我们在客户方的Java编程有着丰富的经验，并且以亲身经历来讲述Graphic Java and Core Java，这些书都由太阳微系统公司出版社出版。当我们第一次尝试使用servlets和JSP进行web编程时，我们发现这实在是太麻烦了。JSF承诺过可以把友好的界面放置到web应用中，允许程序员文本框和菜单而不用再受翻页和申请参数之苦。我们两曾打算就这一技术为太阳微系统公司出版社写本书。

        这一技术花费了JSF专家组（David是成员之一）两年的时间发布了JSF 1.0标准和参考实现。这个发布版本兑现大多数当初的构想。你的确可以通过放置组件于表单上，然后链接到Java对象，而不必以写任何代码的方式来设计web用户接口。这个框架被设计为工具支持的，并且首批可托放的GUI构件已经出现。这个框架还是可扩展的－你不必受限于标准的HTML组件，甚至你还可以使用完全不同的程序技术以支持不同的设备，如无线设备。最后，与那些激烈竞争的技术不同，JSF不会是昙花一现的，它支持MVC模式中硬骨头－表现与商业逻辑，导航，链接到外部设备，以及配置管理的分离。

        当然，已经发布的1.0版本与完美的JSF标准还相去甚远。一些API还是相当不成熟的。我们给读者一些位于com.corejsf.util中的功能类以减少大家的编程痛苦。同样，与最初设想的组件比起来少了一些。由于时间上的紧迫，JSF中强大并且方便的数据表格组件，和其他一些有用的组件，如标签表格，卷轴，文件上传等都没有包括在内。在书中，我们将会向读者展示如何实现这些特效。当然，我们也非常希望下个版本的JSF能够很快弥补这些缺失。

    我们仍为JSF所激动，我们也希望你们在学习这项技术如何使你们成为一名更有效的web应用开发者的过程中分享这份激动。