The JSF add-on allows you to conveniently scaffold JSF managed beans and XHTML views for an existing domain model. Currently this domain model is derived from the Roo supported JPA integration through the entity jpa and related field commands. The following features are included:
Automatic update of JSF managed beans and converters reflecting changes in the domain model
Choice of either Oracle Mojarra or Apache MyFaces JSF 2 implementations
Server-side validation based on JSR 303 constraints defined in the domain layer
Integration of PrimeFaces JSF Component Suite, including automatic scaffolding of PrimeFaces controls such as:
AutoComplete
Calendar
FileUpload
InputText
InputTextarea
Media
SelectManyMenu
Spinner
User-selectable PrimeFaces themes
The JSF add-on contains four commands:
roo> web jsf setup --implementation --library --theme
When this command is run for the first time in a single-module project or an empty module, the necessary JSF artifacts are copied to the project or module such as the pom dependencies and repositories and the web.xml file. A default PrimeFaces theme called "south-street" is configured as well in the web.xml.
The web jsf setup command can be run as many times as you like to change the JSF implementation and the theme.
The --implementation option when specifed allows you to chouse either the Oracle Mojarra or Apache MyFaces JSF implementations.
The --library option has only one selectable value, being PRIMEFACES.
The --theme option lets you select one of 30 PrimeFaces themes for your UI.
roo> web jsf all --package
The web jsf all command creates JSF managed beans and converters for all entities in the specified package. A JSF XHTML page is also created in the src/main/webapp/pages directory for each entity.
roo> web jsf scaffold --class --entity --beanName --includeOnMenu
The web jsf scaffold command lets you create a managed bean for a particular entity in your project.
The --class option is where you specify the name of the managed bean class.
The --entity option lets you specify the entity for the managed bean and is only required if the focus is not on the entity you want to create the managed bean for.
If you do not wish the 'create' and 'list' menu selections to appear for the entity in the menu on the generated UI, specify false in the --includeOnMenu option.
roo> web jsf media --url --player
The web jsf media command is used for embedding multimedia content such as videos and music on your JSF home page.
The --url option is where you specify the url of the the media content, such as a YouTube video.
The media player used is automaticallly selected based on the url or file extension of the media file in the url if applicable, however, where this cannot be determined you can use the --player option to select a suitable player.
The @RooJsfManagedBean annotation is added to all new classes created by the web jsf all and web jsf scaffold commands. The annotation causes the introduction of the javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean and javax.faces.bean.SessionScoped annotations in the *_Roo_ManagedBean.aj ITD. Note that if you specify a scope other than @SessionScoped in the managed bean .java file, the scope annotation is removed from the ITD. For example, if you want your bean to be @RequestScoped, simply annotate your managed bean with the @RequestScoped annotation.
Use the beanName attribute to force the naming of the managed bean referred to by other beans and in XHTML pages.
As mentioned before, the includeOnMenu attribute when set to false prevents the 'Create' and 'List all' menu selections for the entity from showing in the UI's menu.
When a new managed bean is created, a converter class is also created containing the @RooJsfConverter annotation. The JSF converter class implements the javax.faces.convert.Converter interface and has implementations of the getAsObject and getAsString methods (introduced in an ITD) to perform Object-to-String and String-to-Object conversions between model data objects and a String representation of those objects that is suitable for rendering.
Whenever a managed bean is created for the first time, Roo will install a class containing the @RooJsfApplicationBean annotation. The ITD generated from this annotation contains the PrimeFaces menu with the 'Create' and 'List all' operations for each entity. Whenever a managed bean is created, provding the @RooJsfManagedBean includeOnMenu attribute is either not specifed or set to 'true', new menu selections are automatically added to the *__Roo_ApplicationBean.aj ITD. Similarly, when a managaed bean is deleted or the includeOnMenu attribute is set to false, the menu selections are removed.
The Roo distribution contains a script called bikeshop.roo that demonstrates the JSF add-on capability. Please note that the --equals attribute should be specified as true on the entity jpa command for all entities intended to be scaffolded with JSF. Alternatively, add the @RooEquals annotation to existing entities.
In the Roo shell, type:
roo> script bikeshop.roo
When complete, exit the shell and run Jetty as follows:
mvn jetty:run-exploded
View the application at http://localhost:8080/bikeshop:
