Tutorial: Java Server Faces Integration

What This Tutorial Teaches

This tutorial teaches you how to enable and use Java Server Faces in a Workshop for WebLogic web application.

The application you build here is a hybrid application that uses both JSF and Beehive NetUI technology. JSF supplies the user interface portion of the application, while Beehive NetUI supplies centralized backend data processing.

Note: This tutorial requests that you create a new workspace; if you already have a workspace open, this will restart the IDE. Before beginning, you might want to launch help in standalone mode to avoid an interruption the restart could cause, then locate this topic in the new browser. See Using Help in a Standalone Mode for more information.

The tutorial contains step-by-step instructions for building a simple web application for querying and viewing customer data. As you progress through the tutorial you will learn:

• how Workshop for WebLogic uses JSF and Beehive NetUI technologies to simplify web application development
• how to enable JSF in a Workshop for WebLogic web application
• how to use JSF tags to create user data submission forms
• how to use JSF tags to display complex Java objects as simple HTML tables
• how to call a Beehive NetUI action from a JSF page

Note: this JSF tutorial assumes that you have a basic knowledge of Beehive NetUI web application technology, including the roles of controller classes, JSP pages, form beans and action methods. If you are unfamiliar with these concepts you may want to complete Tutorial: Accessing a Database from a Web Application before continuing.

Tutorial Synopsis

Step 1: Create a JSF-Enabled Web Project

In the first step of this tutorial you will create the foundation for your application by creating two projects: an EAR project and a Web Application Project.

The EAR project has two main purposes: (1) it is a composite application that acts as a container for other applications and (2) it contains resources, in the form of library modules and JARs, for the applications contained in it.

For the purposes of this tutorial, the most important JARs contained in the EAR project are (1) the Beehive NetUI JARs and (2) the JSF JARs.

The Web Application Project accesses these JAR resources in the EAR simply by referencing them, not by copying them directly. This allows multiple web projects to point to the same resources in an EAR, without unnecessary duplication of resources.

Step 2: Create a JSF Web Application

In step you will create a simple web application that uses JSF tags to define the user interface.

The web app contains a page where users can submit queries and another page for viewing the results.

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