RichFaces 4Rich Ajax Components For Your JSF Applications

Max KatzExadel

Vienna, Sept. 9, 2011

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 prototypes and mobile apps builder

4

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

headquarters in San Francisco Bay Area

● 7 development offices in Europe

● 350+ employees

5

Minsk

Homyel

Kharkov

Donetsk

Ekaterinburg

Moscow

Munich

Open Source with JBoss

Exadel Products

exadel.org ◦ Flamingo

◦ Fiji

◦ jsf4birt

◦ JavaFX Plug-in for Eclipse

gotiggr.com

Exadel Services

● Professional services

● Rich enterprise application development

● Eclipse development

● Custom rich component development

● Mobile development

● Training

The Plan Is Simple

1) Ajax features in JSF 2

2) The new RichFaces 4

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

JSF 2 is a major upgrade over JSF 1.x

Many features, ideas taken from projects such as Seam,

RichFaces, and others

● 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

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

<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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2

3

<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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2

3

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

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.

RichFaces 4 is a lightweight, open source framework for

JSF 2

Official RichFaces logo

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

RichFaces 4

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

JSF 2

RichFaces 4

JavaScript is now entirely based on the popular jQuery

library

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

RichFaces 4

New client-side validation based on Bean Validation

(JSR 303)

RichFaces 4

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

allows quickly to build your own custom rich components

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)

RichFaces 4

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

CloudBees

RichFaces 4

JSF implementations: Mojarra or MyFaces

RichFaces 4

Any browser

RichFaces 4

Tooling support through JBoss Tools, IntelliJ,

NetBeans

RichFaces 4

Zero-configuration, just drop RichFaces into the application

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

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

RichFaces 4

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

RichFaces 4 core – sending an Ajax request

● <a4j:ajax>

● <a4j:commandButton>

● <a4j:commandLink>

● <a4j:jsFunction>

● <a4j:poll>

● <a4j:push>

RichFaces 4

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

upgrades JSF 2...

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>

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

<a4j:commandButton/Link> – button and link with built-in Ajax behavior

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

<a4j:commandLink value="Save" action="#{bean.action}" render="output" />

<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:

<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> – fire Ajax request from any JavaScript function, HTML event

<h:commandButton action="#{bean.change}"> <a4j:ajax render="id"/></h:commandButton>

If you had to pick just one Ajax control, you would want <a4j:jsFunction>

<h:commandButton onclick="sendAjax();"/>

<a4j:jsFunction name="sendAjax" action="#{bean.change}" render="id"/>

Is the same as:

<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>

<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)" />

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

● limitRender attribute

● render=”{bean.renderList}”

<a4j:outputPanel> – auto rendered panel<a4j:commandButton value="Save" action="#{bean.save}"><a4j:commandButton value="Edit" action="#{bean.edit}">

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

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

Turning off auto rendered panels

<a4j:commandButton value="Save" action="#{bean.save}"><a4j:commandButton value="Edit" action="#{bean.edit}" render="edit" limitRender="true">

<a4j:outputPanel ajaxRendered="true"> <h:panelGrid> ... </h:panelGrid></a4j:outputPanel><h:panelGrid id="edit"> <rich:dataTable> ... </rich:dataTable></h:panelGrid>

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

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

● bypassUpdates attribute

<a4j:region> – defining execute region declaratively

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

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

JavaScript callbacks during Ajax request

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

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

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

While a request is executing on the server, all requests from button A or button B will be combined (merged) if the last event in the queue is of the same type.

<a4j:queue />...<a4j:commandButton id="buttonA" value="Button A"/><a4j:commandButton id="buttonB" value="Button B"/>

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

<a4j:queue /><a4j:commandButton id="buttonA" value="Button A"> <a4j:attachdQueue requestGroupingId="ajaxGroup"/></a4j:commandButton><a4j:commandButton id="buttonB" value="Button B"> <a4j:attachdQueue requestGroupingId="ajaxGroup"/></a4j:commandButton>

While a request is executing on the server, all requests from button A or button B will be combined (merged).

<a4j:queue> – setting request delay allows “waiting” for requests from same component in order to merge events

<a4j:queue requestDelay="1000"/>

<a4j:commandButton id="buttonA" value="Button A"> <a4j:attachdQueue requestDelay="2000"/></a4j:commandButton>

<a4j:commandButton id="buttonB" value="Button B"/>

<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>

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

● <a4j:param>

● <a4j:log>

● JavaScript interactions

<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>

<a4j:param> - like <f:param>, but simpler as it also assigns the value to a bean property automatically

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

public class Bean { private String product; public void setProduct (String product) {...}}

Another great feature is that <a4j:param> value can contain any JavaScript expression or JavaScript function, when noEscape="true"

<a4j:param name="width" value="(jQuery(window).width()/2)" assignTo="#{bean.screenWidth}" noEscape="true" />

<a4j:log> – Ajax request/response information, logging

RichFaces UI components

● Output, panels

● Input

● Menu

● Data iteration

● Tree

● Drag and drop

● Client side validation

● Miscellaneous

rich:tab

rich:accordionrich:accordion

rich:progressBar

More rich output, panels

● rich:panel

● rich:togglePanel

● rich:popupPanel

● rich:collapsiblePanel

● rich:toolTip

<rich:popupPanel> can be modal and non-modal

<rich:popupPanel modal="false"> <f:facet name="header"> Edit User </f:facet> ... ...</rich:popupPanel>

rich:calendar

rich:inplaceInput

rich:inputNumberSlider

rich:autocomplete

More rich input

● rich:inputNumberSpinner

● rich:inplaceSelect

● rich:select

● rich:fileUpload

rich:panelMenu

rich:toolBar

rich:dropDownMenu

rich:dataTable

rich:dataTable withrich:collapsibleSubTable

rich:dataScroller

RichFaces data iteration components support partial updates

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"

Deciding what rows/cell to update in run-time

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

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

New collapsible sub table component

<rich:dataTable> supports column and row spanning

<rich:extendedDataTable> provides lazy loading, column resizing, reorder and more

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

rich:tree

Drag and drop

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

Invoking component JavaScript API using #{rich:component(id)} function

<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>

Invoking component JavaScript API using <rich:componentControl> component<h:outputLink value="#"> <h:outputText value="Open" /> <rich:componentControl event="click" target="popup" operation="show" /></h:outputLink>

<rich:popupPanel header="RichFaces" id="popup"> <h:outputLink value="#"> <h:outputText value="Close" /> <rich:componentControl event="click" target="popup" operation="hide" /> </h:outputLink></rich:popupPanel>

<rich:accordion id="c"> <rich:accordionItem header="New York" name="nyc"> <h:outputText value="You selected New York"/> </rich:accordionItem> <rich:accordionItem header="San Francisco" name="sf"> <h:outputText value="You selected San Francisco"/> </rich:accordionItem> ...</rich:accordion>

<input type="button" value="New York City" onclick="#{rich:component('c')}.switchToItem('nyc')"/><input type="button" value="San Francisco" onclick="#{rich:component('c')}.switchToItem('sf')"/><input type="button" value="Los Angeles" onclick="#{rich:component('c')}.switchToItem('la')"/>

<input type="button" value="First" onclick="#{rich:component('c')}.switchToItem('@first')"/><input type="button" value="Next" onclick="#{rich:component('c')}.switchToItem('@next')"/><input type="button" value="Previous" onclick="#{rich:component('c')}.switchToItem('@prev')"/><input type="button" value="Last" onclick="#{rich:component('c')}.switchToItem('@last')"/>

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

Standard Java EE security with #{rich:isUserInRole(role)} function

<rich:panel header="Admin panel" rendered="#{rich:isUserInRole('admin')}"> Very sensitive information</rich:panel>

<rich:panel header="User panel"> General information</rich:panel>

● Calls facesContext.getExternalContext.getUserInRole(role)

● What's good is that security roles can be defined anywhere

Client-side validation based on Bean Validation

(JSR 303)

New in RichFaces 4

Bean Validation (JSR 303)

JSF 2 has support for Bean Validation (validation done on server)

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"/>

Bean:

JSF page:

Client-Validation Based on Bean ValidationValidation is performed on the client. If no client implementation available, validation automatically falls back to standard, server validation

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

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

Bean:

JSF page:

Cross field validation with <rich:graphValidator>

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

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

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

Rich miscellaneous

● <rich:componentControl>

● <rich:hashParam>

● <rich:jQuery>

<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>

<rich:hashParam> - creates JavaScript hash, can be passed to another client function.

<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

Using jQuery with <rich:jQuery>

<input type="button" id=" value="Update panel"/><rich:jQuery selector="#changeButton" event="click" query="$('#nycInfo .rf-p-hdr').text('New York City'); $('.rf-p-b').css('color', 'blue');" />

Using jQuery when page rendered to create zebra-like styling for table

<style> .even-row { background-color: #FCFFFE; } .odd-row { background-color: #ECF3FE; }</style>

<rich:dataTable id="gamesTable"> // columns</rich:dataTable>

<rich:jQuery selector="#gamesTable tr:odd" query="addClass('odd-row')" /><rich:jQuery selector="#gamesTable tr:even" query="addClass('even-row')" />

Invoking <rich:jQuery> as a regular JavaScript function

<h:graphicImage width="100" value="/images/venice.png" onmouseover="larger(this, {})" onmouseout="normal(this, {})" />

<rich:jQuery name="larger" query="animate({width:'241px'})" /><rich:jQuery name="normal" query="animate({width:'100px'})"/>

with mouse over

Skins

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

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>

RichFaces Skin file

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

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

controlTextColor=#000000controlBackgroundColor=#ffffffadditionalBackgroundColor=#F9E4E4

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>

Overwriting Skin CSS<style>.rf-p-hdr { color: … font-size: … font-weight: … font-family: …}</style><rich:panel>...</rich:panel>

Overwriting Skin CSS<style>.rf-p-hdr { // overwrite skin CSS properties}.specialHeader { // define custom CSS for specific panel}</style>

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

Skinning standard JSF tags and HTML tags

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

Apply to each control:

Skinning standard JSF tags and HTML tags automatically

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

Apply to all standard controls (JSF and HTML):

Skinning standard JSF tags and HTML tags only when special CSS class is applied to parent container <context-param> <param-name> org.richfaces.enableControlSkinningClasses </param-name> <param-value>true</param-value></context-param>

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

Where can I try the new RichFaces 4?

http://richfaces.org/showcase

RichFaces 4.1 (Fall 2011)

Mobile support

New components: Pick list Ordering list Rich text editor

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

RichFaces

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

mkblog.exadel.com

@maxkatz

max@exadel.com

gotiggr.com

Thank you!