Filthy Rich Portlets with ICEfaces and Liferay
When a portlet form is submitted, all the other portlets on the same portal page are forced to redraw themselves. Learn how ICEfaces Direct-to-DOM rendering provides a cure for this disruptive end-user experience, and how ICEfaces Ajax Push supplies a rich alternative for inter-portlet communication. Demonstrations will be performed within Liferay Portal, a JSR 286 (Portlet 2.0) compliant portlet container.
Portal Technology Overview - Explain the advantages of portal technology - Describe what portlets are and how Liferay is an open source portlet container - Explain the advantages of using a framework like JSF for portlet development - JSR 127 and JSR 168 designed to work together - List of new features in JSR 286 - Describe the new Ajax-related features of the JSR 286 spec and what it means for rich portlets
Demo#1: Typical JSF Portlet - Submitting a form causes an HTTP POST and a subsequent redirect that causes the browser to re-render the entire page - Other portlets on the page are forced to re-render themselves
ICEfaces Technology Overview - Describe how ICEfaces makes use of Ajax in order to extend the JSF standard - Explain the ICEfaces Direct-to-DOM (D2D) technology - Explain the idea of partial-submit and why it is an essential feature of JSF 2.0 - List some of the rich user interface components provided by ICEfaces
Demo#2: ICEfaces Portlet - Partial submit provides client-side field validation for free - Submitting a form causes incremental page updates, rather then re-rendering the entire page - Other portlets on the page are not disturbed
ICEfaces Extended Request Scope - Describe how the ICEfaces extended request scope is the perfect match for the lifespan of a portlet
Using ICEfaces Ajax-Push for Inter-Portlet Communication - Describe how ICEfaces server-initiated rendering can be used to perform inter-portlet communication between portlets on the same page and/or between portlets in different user sessions
Demo#3: Sample Portlets Built with ICEfaces - Ajax Push Inter-Portlet Communication - File upload with Ajax Push progress indicator
Summary
Q & A
About Neil Griffin
Neil Griffin is a Liferay project committer and represents Liferay on the JSR 314 (JSF 2.0) expert group. He has 16 years of professional experience in software engineering and serves as a consultant for clients implementing JSF and ICEfaces portlets. Neil is the co-founder of the PortletFaces project which makes it easier to develop JSF portlets that run within Liferay Portal. He has authored JSF and ICEfaces training for Liferay and ICEsoft and has been a speaker at conferences in North America and Europe.
Neil recently finished working on the 2nd Edition of the JSF Complete Reference with Ed Burns in which he helped bring the book up-to-date for JSF 2.0 and contributed an Appendix on JSF Portlets and PortletFaces.
