RichFaces 3.3.1 GA release

Team RichFaces is proud to announce the release of the next version of the library - 3.3.1 GA. A special Photo Album demo application was also developed, which is available for download. The application is built using RichFaces components.


New components and functionality
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With the 3.3.1 release, several new components have appeared. The most long-awaited were components designed for HTML page layout. Also with this release, it became possible to use themes that will complement the already existing functionality for defining the appearance of components (skinnability). In addition to the named components, another component has appeared - <rich: colorPicker />.

Components for HTML markup, themes

The <rich: page /> component provides a convenient way to organize page layout by creating separate blocks: “header”, “footer”, “content”, and “sidebar”. In addition, using this component, you can set various parameters of the HTML page such as DOCTYPE, page meta information, page title, etc.

<rich: layout /> and <rich: layoutPanel /> are based on the Yahoo UI CSS Grid and form blocks (grids) that you can use to organize the page structure. These components provide the developer with a wide range of options for page layout.

With this release, a conceptually new feature has appeared - themes. Themes - configured page markup that defines how the user interface will look. Themes are set using the theme attribute of the <rich: page /> component. Themes allow you to experiment and customize the look of the user interface, just like skins do. You can create your own theme using the Maven archetype, which creates a template for a theme.

You can learn more about these components by reading the article Layout components for RichFaces 3.3.1 , as well as the official documentation for RichFaces.

The Maven Resource Dependency Plugin was created, the main goal of which is to reduce the number of JavaScript and CSS files loaded per page. The plugin allows you to load into the application only those resources that are necessary for those components used in the application. This functionality greatly facilitates the “weight” of the application and reduces its download speed.

Corrected bugs and improvements aimed at stabilizing the operation of components

More than 1,100 shortcomings and errors reported through Jira were eliminated - details can be obtained by reading the Release Notes

RichFaces developers have improved automated tests (using Slenium), which will provide higher quality components.

Photo Album demo app.

The developers made a lot of effort to make a full-scale application, where most of the user controllers are implemented using RichFaces.

The application is available for download and contains illustrative examples of how RichFaces can be used in practice. The application uses such components and functionality as: drag-n-drop, <rich: fileUpload />, <rich: editor /> (WYSIWYG editor) and others.

Future Plans: Release 4.0

The focus of the RichFaces development team will be mainly on the 4.0 release: the main goal of this release is integration with JSF 2.0, as well as stability, higher performance and ease of use of RichFaces components. All discussions and plans are available on the following pages:
www.jboss.org/community/wiki/RichFacesTeamMeetingInformation
www.jboss.org/community/wiki/RichFaces40Planning

In the middle of the summer will be 3.3.2 release, which will focus only on the correction of errors and omissions.

Useful links:

RichFaces Developer Guide www.jboss.org/file-access/default/members/jbossrichfaces/freezone/docs/devguide/en/html_single/index.html
A page where you can download the RichFaces library www.jboss.org/jbossrichfaces/downloads
RichFaces Twitter twitter.com/richfaces
RichFaces Jira jira.jboss.org/jira/browse/RF
Forum powered by RichFaces www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=viewforum&f=261
Branch form where architecture and design of RichFace is discussed. Www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=viewforum&f=262