ICEfaces is an extension of the Java Server Faces platform that enables Java Enterprise developers to create interactive applications using Ajax technologies, Java language and Java EE platform. One of the strengths of ICEfaces is the transparent integration with Ajax technologies, but especially with Ajax Push, being among the first platforms to support these technologies.
ICEfaces, from ICEsoft Technologies, is a JSF-derived framework that integrates elements made with AJAX.
For those who have not yet heard of them, ICEsoft is a Java application developer and developer toolkit for Java developers, which previously released ICEbrowser SDK, a Java SDK (Software Development Kit) client that provides functional navigation technology for the development of web applications
ICEreader, a robust HTML/XML rendering element that allows developers to use searches and HTML browsing capabilities in Java applications.
From the perspective of a web interface, ICEfaces is the perfect solution.
Allows the developer to use JSF and AJAX technologies together.
Why is that so great?
It is excellent because you are not required to write any piece of JavaScript code to create the web interface.
The magic of AJAX is made by the “AJAX bridge” component, which works in such a way that it only updates the part of the application that has changed.
It’s really amazing how the old web interface components are rendered without any refresh on the page.
Even if you use many of the components provided by ICEfaces and JSF to create web interfaces, you may need to write your own component. You can generate shapes, form fields, grid boards, data tables. This is the most powerful feature. So you can dynamically create your own components to use in your own web interfaces. Another interesting feature is validators. You can attach, for example, an entry field, any type of validator you want.
There are some pre-defined ones such as: LengthValidator, DoubleRangeValidator, etc. and if it is not enough, you can write your own validator. ICEfaces provides their own set of rich components, which you can study here with which you can create amazing web interfaces.
ICEfaces seems to be the best solution when you want the ease of use, high interactivity, and proper code maintenance.
There is a separation between the actual development of the application and the design of the web interface. This can be done with the existing libraries and the power of the Java language.
The ICEfaces platform is based on three components:
1. Framework ICEfaces – is an extension of the standard JSF, the only notable difference being in the display phase of the interface. In standard JSF, to reflect changes in the status of the interface, the application reloads the entire current page while in ICEfaces, this is no longer necessary to reflect changes, only those sections that have changed are loaded, without the page being totally loaded.
2. Ajax Bridge (Ajax Bridge) – is composed of two components, one on the client side and the other on the server side. In principle, it ensures asynchronous communication between the two parties, detecting the changes in the interface (user events) or those at the server level that may require an Ajax Push (server events).
3. Graphics Socket – provides an extension of the JSF standard component suite, with desktop-like components that take full advantage of Ajax. Transparency is also transparently integrated with the JavaScript library script.aculo.us.