In This Book

This book covers Version 1.0 of the JSF specification, which was released in March 2004.

The first four chapters gives an introduction to what JSF has to offer and how it relates to other Java enterprise technologies. You'll also learn about the fundamentals technologies—HTTP, Java web containers, servlets, and JSP—and how to install and setup a Java web container.

Next, you will learn how to use all the standard JSF components and other features (such as input validation, data type conversion, page navigation, and internationalization), as well as how to develop customized versions of these items. Each chapter illustrates how to use a specific feature through stepwise refinement of a sample web application. In addition to showing you what to do, the book also describes what's happening behind the scenes, helping you gain a deeper understanding of how JSF works and how to use this technology in your own applications.

The sample application used in this book is an expense report system, where users create, edit, and submit expense reports for approval, and managers accept or reject reports. It's a realistic example that guides you through solutions to common JSF application design problems, such as authenticating users, connecting the business logic objects to the user interface while still keeping each aspect decoupled, distinguishing between user interface events and application events, customizing and localizing messages, and building a complete user interface in a modular fashion. The last three chapters describe advanced topics, such as how to develop custom components and custom presentation layers.