Tools for JSF development

The JSF feature provides tools that help you use JSF to develop web applications more effectively.

Page Data view

The Page Data view enables you to add, modify, or delete data objects in JSP, HTML, and XHTML files. Supported data types include:
  • Standard scripting variables that are available to all JSP files:
    • applicationScope enables you to add and modify attributes in the application object
    • param enables you to add and modify attributes to be used in the page object
    • requestScope enables you to add and modify attributes in the request object
    • sessionScope enables you to add and modify attributes in the session object
  • Other data objects, depending on the type of file:
    • Faces component
    • Use Beans
    • Page Bean
    • Faces Managed Beans
    • JPA
    • Services
    • RPC Adapter Services

Properties view

The Properties view displays specific information pertaining to the currently selected tag in a web page. For example, the Properties view shows a variety of information about an HTML table tag. The Properties view lets you edit JavaScript™ and JSP tags while Page Designer is open in the Design or Split pane. When you edit in the Properties view, your changes take effect when cursor focus is changed. If you make changes to tags in the Source pane of Page Designer, the changes take effect immediately in the Properties view.

Quick Edit view

The Quick Edit view lets you add short scripts to your web pages. For example, if you select a button tag on a JSP page, you can then associate a click event with that button and add a script to it.

Validation

You can validate your web application to ensure that the syntax is correct and your markup is well-formed. A validator is a tool that checks that resources conform to a specification or set of rules. You can add and remove validators from your web application. To configure what validators will run on a project, click Window > Preferences > Validation. The JSF validators include:
  • JSF application configuration validator
  • JSF view extended validator
  • JSF view validator

Content assist

Content assist provides context-based proposals at the current text insertion point. A popup of possible tags and attributes are made available as you type. Content assist is available for most of the JSF tag library attribute values. JavaScript content assist is available in JSF 2.0 projects.

JSF Palette tools

Table 1. JSF Palette tools
Drawer Description Example
Standard Faces Components drawer (JSF 1.x and 2.0) The Standard Faces library contains a basic set of JSF tags that are defined by the JavaServer Faces Technology specification.
Standard Faces Components drawer.
Enhanced Faces Components drawer (JSF 1.x) The Enhanced Faces Components drawer contains JSF Widget Library (JWL) tags, standard JSF tags, and some enhanced versions of standard JSF tags.
Enhanced Faces Components drawer.
Facelet Tags drawer (JSF 2.0) The Facelet Tags drawer enables you to drag and drop Facelet UI components onto a Web page.
Facelet tag drawer.
Data and Services drawer The Data and Services drawer enables you to drag and drop page data onto a web page.
Data and Services drawer.
Custom drawer or third party library A component library contains JSF components that you can use in your web applications to create a user interface that connects to a data source. When you add support for a library, the library tags are added to the palette. For more information, refer to Creating custom JSF components and Adding support for third party libraries.
Example of a custom or third party library drawer.

JSF wizards

To access the wizards, click File > New > Other.

Table 2. JSF Wizards
Wizard Description
Faces 1.x Component Library Project A custom component library contains new and modified JSF components that you can use in your web applications and distribute the libraries to your development team. For more information refer to Creating custom Faces JSP component libraries.
Faces Custom Component Use this wizard to create new JSF tags or modify existing JSF tags that you can use in your web applications to create UI. For more information refer to Creating custom JSF components.
Faces Definitions Project Use this wizard to create a project that contains support information for existing JSF libraries. For more information refer to Adding support for third party libraries.
Faces Library Definition Use this wizard to add support for an existing JSF library. For more information refer to Configuring the Faces Library Definition.

JSF trace view and console

In a JSF application every request from the browser goes through a complex series of steps before a response is generated. In a JSF application, this series of steps is known as the JSF Lifecycle. A number of conditions can influence which phases of the lifecycle are executed and therefore which phases are sent back to the browser in response to a request. It is difficult to see all of the steps in the JSF lifecycle when an application is run on server.

For more information on JSF trace, refer to Tracing the JSF lifecycle of an application.

JSF Trace gives you look into the running JSF application by collecting information about the JSF Lifecycle and presenting it in real time in an easy to understand form.

When you add JSF Tracing support to an application, the Trace view collects and presents information about the JSF lifecycle of your application while your request is processed.

JSF Trace view.

For more information about the JSF trace view, refer to JSF Trace view.

In addition to the JSF Trace view, the JSF Trace console presents raw information received over the network socket from the running application.

JSF Trace console.
Related tasks:
Developing Faces (JSF) applications
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