14 Replies Latest reply on Jun 1, 2007 4:44 AM by robjellinghaus

    Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application

    robjellinghaus

      http://unrealities.com/gwtjsf/20070427

      It is still very unpolished, but the basic pieces are all there and reasonably well assembled. It may now be of interest to anyone working with a similar technology stack.

      Included is:

      - Seam 1.2.0 + JSF 1.2

      - GWT 1.4 preview build (actually, a slightly earlier SVN build)

      - My patches to the Ajax4JSF G4JSF integration project, to allow JSF integration with GWT 1.4

      - Seam integration to allow GWT components to invoke service interfaces on Seam components

      - A Java 1.4 DTO bean generator to work around GWT's Java 5 incompatibility

      There is more to do:

      - I will be adding a rich-text editing and tree-view browsing interface to the demo.

      - Once GWT 1.4 final version ships, I will be landing my G4JSF changes in the Ajax4JSF Subversion tree.

      - Once I land the G4JSF changes, I will be submitting this to the Seam distribution as an official example. Hopefully they will take it :-)

      All comments very welcome.
      Cheers!
      Rob
      rjellinghaus at gmail dot com

        • 1. Re: Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application
          pmuir

          Pretty cool!

          I think it needs some explanation about *what* makes it different from a Seam+JSF app, and how you've gone about adding GWT widgets in. Perhaps also an intro to how gwt4jsf works would be good (I'm coming at this knowing Seam, knowing a bit of a4j, and nothing about GWT/gwt4jsf).

          Here are a couple of things that will ease adding it into Seam:

          * Make the example run on AS 4.2 (1.3.0.GA will be targeting AS 4.2.0.GA)
          * Write up some documentation using docbook.

          • 2. Re: Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application
            robjellinghaus

            Yer, absolutely. Right now it is definitely not a very compelling use of GWT in a Seam context.

            Gavin told me last month that he was "a complete [expletive deleted] when it comes to documentation and support" :-) So, yes, I will definitely make sure that the feature set, the build process (under Tomcat and JBoss), and the documentation are all up to the very high Seam standard before I submit this for real. I think the docs may need both a "GWT for Seam developers" section, and a "Seam for GWT developers" section....

            Think of this as a preview build. There are some people working with this stack already and they want all the examples they can get, ASAP. But I will certainly polish it up a lot before it's Seam-worthy.

            Cheers!
            Rob

            • 3. Re: Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application

              Rob,

              This sounds really cool. Would you mind if I mention it (or even run a short demo) in my JavaOne talk?

              cheers
              Michael

              • 4. Re: Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application
                robjellinghaus

                Um, well, actually, no, Michael, I wouldn't mind at all :-D I will send you an email momentarily.

                • 5. Re: Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application
                  robjellinghaus

                  Hm, it would seem your email is not easily discernable. Drop me a line at rjellinghaus at gmail dot com and we'll discuss details? Thanks!

                  • 6. Re: Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application
                    robjellinghaus

                    Quick question for Pete and Michael: Any tips on docbook authoring? It looks like doing some quick docbook documentation might be the fastest way to both enhance this example for Seam, and to explain to Michael how it works so he can present it at JavaOne :-)

                    What's the fastest way to spin up on docbook? Should I snarf the documentation build targets out of the Seam distribution? Are there any recommended authoring tools?

                    Any clues you can give will shave a couple of hours off my learning curve, which given my available time could double or triple the amount of documentation I can do by JavaOne....

                    Thanks! Cheers, Rob

                    • 7. Re: Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application

                      I think this could potentially become a "Seam GWT integration" chapter in the Seam reference doc. However, before we start to mess with the Seam official docs (and have Gavin yell at us), perhaps you can write it up like an article? You can discuss why it is a challenge to integrate JSF/Seam with GWT and how it is done in your solution.

                      This way, you can use whatever editor you are comfortable with. If we decide to include it in the official docs, I can help you with the docbook conversion. It is pretty easy.

                      cheers
                      Michael

                      • 8. Re: Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application

                        Plus, we can also try to publish the article on other Java sites or jboss.org -- they will all be very interested in this subject. :)

                        • 9. Re: Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application
                          robjellinghaus

                          Roger that. Michael Neale of Redhat already contributed some remoting-style GWT integration to the head of CVS, but I don't know if he documented it. I'll check. I guess I'll find a decent HTML editor and write it that way, can't go wrong with that....

                          I wasn't planning to mess with the Seam official docs, I was just following Pete's suggestion of contributing example documentation in docbook format. (I was maybe going to import the docbook build targets to my example's build.xml.) But I can noodle with that later. Form follows content....

                          • 10. Re: Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application
                            pmuir

                            I'm coming at this from a tangent to michael ;) - my feeling is that this is an example we are going to want in Seam (as we already have some gwt stuff from michael neale) so I thinking about how you could make the example as great as possible once it's in Seam (and also make Gavin less likely to yell :p)

                            I think this is a bigger conceptual step than integrating (e.g.) RichFaces (here the point is that it should work ootb with Seam) - and hence would need a docs chapter. I like your idea of a two pronged approach - GWT for Seam developers and Seam for GWT developers.

                            Anyway, as Michael says, the important point is the content (whether blog, article or readme) which can easily be made into an article :)

                            • 11. Re: Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application
                              robjellinghaus

                              OK, well how about this?

                              http://unrealities.com/gwtjsf/20070501/

                              Note the article link:

                              http://unrealities.com/gwtjsf/20070501/article_0.2.html

                              I have iterated on the article content once with Michael Yuan. All additional feedback is more than welcome! Also, the demo itself is a lot nicer now -- please give it a try :-D

                              Cheers!
                              Rob

                              • 12. Re: Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application
                                robjellinghaus

                                Fudge, sorry for the non-clickable URLs. Darn "quick post" box.
                                http://unrealities.com/gwtjsf/20070501
                                http://unrealities.com/gwtjsf/20070501/article_0.2.html
                                There you go.

                                • 13. Re: Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application
                                  stu2

                                  Thanks for such a thorough writeup and example on this Rob.

                                  I'm exploring using this now that gwt 1.4RC is out, using the latest seam from cvs. Any updates or other things those of us exploring using your approach should be aware of before I jump in?

                                  Thanks :-)

                                  • 14. Re: Seam + JSF + EJB3 + GWT example application
                                    robjellinghaus

                                    No, go ahead and jump in. I will be working on landing the actual updates to the GWTJSF integration kit in Ajax4JSF's SVN repository in the next week or two, now that GWT 1.4RC1 is out. I'll also work on some additional documentation of what the library is and how it functions.

                                    Then I will likely be setting it aside -- it is at a good stopping place, and the newly announced Google Gears is a quicker path to my original destination. So people who are interested, please contact me so we can establish who might be a logical next maintainer of the project :-)

                                    Cheers!
                                    Rob