The GlassFish webinar series is, I think, a pretty valuable resource for regular readers of my blog, as it covers a lot of topics that I cover here. Today’s webinar, “From Ajax Push to JSF 2.0: ICEfaces on GlassFish,” is particularly relevant, as it’s a JSF-related session. Here’s the abstract:

Ted will provide details on how to build and deploy rich web applications with Ajax and Ajax Push (aka Comet) and catch a glimpse of the future with an overview of JavaServer Faces 2.0.

This presentation illustrates the fundamentals of Ajax Push, covering application design, development, and deployment, drawing on ICEfaces sample applications and implementation. Topics will include network protocols, application-level push APIs, GlassFish Grizzly integration, and the ramifications of the two-connection limit.

Looking forward to JSF 2.0, we will cover Ajax integration, new scopes and annotations, and custom components.

I had the opportunity to see Ted present Ajax Push (their term for Reverse Ajax or Comet, if you prefer those monikers) at last year’s JSFOne conference. The ICEfaces demos are very, very slick, and the level of simplicity they managed to achieve is absolutely amazing. If you have any interest in Ajax Push/Reverse Ajax/Comet, you should certainly attend this session. If you are currently using JSF, this is a really good example of the power of component-based frameworks like JSF.

Popularity: 14% [?]

One of the issues that has always troubled me with regard to writing JSF applications (or any web application, really) is how hard it is to test them. Some time ago, while discussing various Java web frameworks, I stumbled across a class called WicketTester, which is part of the Wicket project. Using this class, as best as I can tell, Wicket authors can easily test their applications very quickly. Having taken to hear the advice of Dale Hanchey, and old college professor of mine, “Never be too proud to steal a good idea,” FacesTester was born. (more…)

Popularity: 15% [?]