ICEfaces® v1.8 DR#2 Release Notes December 23rd, 2008

Overview

This document contains the following sections:

• Changes in v1.8 DR#2 (This Release)
• Changes in v1.8 DR#1
• Supported Platforms
  • Java 
  • Browsers
  • Application Servers
  • Portal Containers
  • IDE Tools
• Known Issues
  
  • Documentation
  • General
  • JSP Markup
  • ICEfaces Component Suite
  • Portlets
  • Sample Applications
  • Application Servers
• Support
• About ICEfaces
• License information

Changes in v1.8 DR#2 (This Release)

ICEfaces v1.8 DR#2 is a Development Build that provides an early-access preview of new features, enhancements, and fixes that will be included in the upcoming ICEfaces v1.8 release. This build has been lightly tested and is unsuitable for production use.

Review the Known Issues prior to using this release. Please report any issues with this build to the ICEfaces Development Build Feedback forum.

This release includes over 100 fixes and enhancements. Refer to the ICEfaces JIRA Change Log for detailed information on all the changes included in this release.

Notable Improvements & Enhancements

• Framework 
  
  
  • Support for Clustered Fail-Over. ICEfaces now supports clustered fail-over configurations whereby an ICEfaces application can be run in a clustered deployment and, when a failure one one server node in the cluster occurs, user sessions are seamlessly transferred to another node in the cluster (without interruption to the users). 
  • Fail-over is generally supported for synchronous mode applications (com.icesoft.faces.synchronousUpdate="true" in web.xml).
  • For asynchronous mode (Ajax Push) applications, fail-over support requires specific coding practices and application server and load-balancer combinations.
  • For more information, see the new ICEfacesFailOverGuide.pdf included in the ../icefaces/docs directory. This guide provides detailed instructions on using asynchronous failure with Tomcat 6 and Apache 2.2. For information on using asynchronous fail-over with other app. server / load balancer combinations please contact ICEfaces product support.
  
  
  • Support for JSF State-Saving. In previous releases ICEfaces used a persistent component-tree model but starting with this release JSF state-saving is now supported. 
  • ICEfaces now uses state-saving by default when running in JSF1.2 runtime environments (equiv. to com.icesoft.faces.doJSFStateManagement="true" in web.xml).
  • State-saving is neither supported, nor enabled by default, in JSF1.1 environments.
  • Client-side state-saving is not supported.
  • ICEfaces support for state-saving has not been optimized in this release.

• JSF 1.2 Support. ICEfaces can now be used in JSF 1.2 environments utilizing the JSF 1.2 document schemas for the faces-config.xml and web.xml files when used with Sun JSF 1.2_09 or greater. Previous ICEfaces versions (and  1.7.2+ used with older JSF 1.2 runtimes) still require the use of the JSF 1.1 document DTDs (so-called "compatibility mode").
  

• SessionRenderer is now an official API.  The SessionRenderer API was introduced as an experimental API in ICEfaces 1.7.1. Based on positive feedback from the community it has been repackaged and is now an official API (as of 1.8 DR#2). The SessionRenderer provides a very simple API for adding Ajax Push into ICEfaces applications that don't require the more specialized asynchronous update capabilities provided by the existing RenderManager API. 
• Former package-name (experimental): org.icefaces.x.core.push.SessionRenderer.
• New package-name (official): com.icesoft.faces.async.render.SessionRenderer.
• Existing applications utilizing the SessionRenderer will need to be updated to use the new package-name.

• Improved Browser Support. Support for the following new browsers is added in this release:
• BlackBerry Bold
• Preliminary support for using ICEfaces on RIM Blackberry devices is provided in this release.
• Requires newer Blackberry browser capable of supporting Ajax applications, such as that available on the Blackberry Bold.
• See ICE-3574 for more information.
• Google Chrome v1.0
• Microsoft Internet Explorer v8 (beta)

• 3rd Party Libraries
• The Sun JSF 1.2 runtime libraries included in the icefaces/lib directory has been updated to JSF1.2_10.
• The commons-fileupload.jar included in the icefaces/lib directory has been updated to v1.2.1.

• Asynchronous HTTP Server (AHS)
  
  
  • Simplified AHS Configuration. The ICEfaces AHS packages are now included in the core icefaces.jar and just-ice.jar libraries. Previously the standalone icefaces-ahs.jar was required to use AHS.  
  • In order to configure your application to use AHS you must now specify "icefaces-ahs" as the blockingRequestHandler in the web.xml file via the com.icesoft.faces.blockingRequestHandler configuration parameter. Previously, AHS would be auto-configured for use if the icefaces-ahs.jar was detected on the classpath.

• Sample Applications
  
  
  • New "timezone-failover" tutorial
  • Demonstrates using ICEfaces Ajax-push techniques in a clustered fail-over environment.
  • Can be found in the "../icefaces/samples/tutorial/timezone-failover" directory.
  • For more information, see the new ICEfacesFailOverGuide.pdf included in the ../icefaces/docs directory.
  
  
  • Component Showcase
  • Added support for user-selectable languages (dynamic locale change) in the Component Showcase sample applications. This release includes resource files for English and Spanish. We are seeking community contributors to provide additional language language translation files. If you are interested see the How To Contribute page for more information.
  • Examples of using standard JSF validators have been added to the "Text Entry" demo under "Extended Components".

• 3rd Party Frameworks
  
  
  • JAAS Security
  • JAAS security is now supported for user-role authentication (renderedOnUserRole, enabledOnUserRole, etc.).

Documentation Changes

• ICEfaces Developer's Guide 

• com.icesoft.faces.doJSFStateManagement, default value = true.

  Specifies whether or not ICEfaces uses JSF state-saving to persist component state between renders. The default value is 'true'. When set to 'false' ICEfaces will revert to a long-lived component-tree model which does note utilize JSF state-saving mechanisms.

  Note: JSF state-saving is not supported for JSF1.1 runtime environments. Client-side state-saving is not supported.

Changes in v1.8 DR#1

ICEfaces v1.8 DR#1 is a Development Build that provides an early-access preview of new features, enhancements, and fixes that will be included in the upcoming ICEfaces v1.8 release. This build has been lightly tested and is unsuitable for production use.

Review the Known Issues prior to using this release.

You may report any issues with this build to the ICEfaces Development Build Feedback forum.

Notable Improvements & Enhancements

• Framework Optimization
  
  
  • Significant changes to ICEfaces' internal implementation were made in this release as part of a comprehensive memory and CPU optimization effort. These changes do not affect backwards-compatibility.
  • Typical Java heap consumption is reduced approx. 30-50% in this release vs. 1.7.x, varying depending on the use of the new "compressDOM" feature and the nature of the application.
  • Server-side rendering performance in this release has been improved approx. 10% - 25% for the same content vs. 1.7.2.
  • ICEfaces now supports optional compression of the server-side DOM to reduce Java heap consumption between view renders.
  • Additional configuration parameters related to new optimization features have been introduced in this release. See the "Documentation" section in Known Issues for details.

• Sample Applications
  
  • New "Location" portlet sample
  • Demonstrates using ICEfaces Ajax-push techniques for inter-portlet communication between three different ICEfaces portlets.
  • Can be found in the "../icefaces/samples/portlet/location" directory.
  • Also included in the ICEfaces 1.7.2 release.
  • Component Showcase
  • The "Source" view feature in the facelets-enh version of the ICEfaces Component Showcase application has been enhanced to support code syntax highlighting.

• 3rd Party Frameworks
  
  
  • Spring WebFlow 2.0
  • An known-issue in ICEfaces 1.7.2 that prevented forced-login-redirects from working properly has been resolved in this release.

Refer to the ICEfaces JIRA Change Log for detailed information on all the changes included in this release.

Supported Platforms

This release of ICEfaces has been verified on the following platforms:

Java

ICEfaces is supported on the following Java versions:

• JDK 1.4 and greater
• MyFaces and Sun JSF 1.1 runtimes
• Sun JSF 1.2 runtime

Browsers

Vendor	Product	Version
Apple	Safari	3.x
Google	Chrome	1.0
Microsoft	Internet Explorer	6, 7, 8 Beta
Mozilla	Firefox	2.0, 3.0
Opera	Opera	9.x
Opera	Opera Mobile	8.65

Application Servers

Vendor	Product	Version
Apache	Tomcat	5.5, 6.0
BEA Systems Inc.	Weblogic Server	8.1, 9.2, 10.3
JBoss Inc.	JBoss Application Server	4.0.5, 4.2.x
IBM	Websphere Application Server	6.0.2, 6.1
Oracle	Oracle Application Server Container for J2EE (OC4J)	10.1.3
SAP	NetWeaver	7.0
Sun Microsystems	GlassFish	v2
Sun Microsystems	Sun Java System Application Server	8.1, 9.x
Webtide	Jetty	6.1.x

Portal Containers

Vendor	Product	Version
Apache	Pluto	1.1.4
Apache	Jetspeed 2	2.1.3
BEA	WebLogic Portal	10
Liferay	Liferay Portal	4.3.x, 5.x
RedHat	JBoss Portal	2.6.x

IDE Tools

ICEfaces IDE integration bundles are available for the following development tools:

Vendor	Product	Version
Eclipse	Eclipse/Web Tools Platform	3.4
Genuitec LLC	MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench	6.5, 7.0
Sun	NetBeans	6.5

Note: Tool integration bundles may be updated independently from ICEfaces releases. Refer to
http://downloads.icefaces.org for the most recent tool bundles and associated ICEfaces runtime libraries.

Note: ICEfaces can generally be used with any Java IDE that supports JEE 1.4 0 (+JSF) and JEE 1.5 projects. If a specific ICEfaces integration is not available for your IDE, ICEfaces can be manually included into your project classpath. See the ICEfaces Tools forum and Tutorials for more information on using ICEfaces with a variety of IDEs.

Known Issues

The following section describes the most commonly encountered known issues with this release. For a complete reference of all outstanding issues please refer to the ICEfaces.org JIRA issue tracker.

Documentation

• ICEfaces Getting Started Guide 

• Page 12 of the ICEfaces Getting Started Guide incorrectly indicates that the path to the Component Showcase applications is "/icefaces/samples/componentshowcase2/...". The correct path to the Component Showcase applications is "/icefaces/samples/componentshowcase/...".

• ICEfaces Developer's Guide 

• Page 84 of the ICEfaces Developer's Guide contains an incorrect JNDI name reference. The "Glassfish v2" section under "Configuring the Asynchronous HTTP Server" in the "Advanced Topics" chapter should be changed as follows:

• Under "Configuring JMS for GlassFish v2", step 7 incorrectly states: 
• "Enter "icefacesContentEventTopic" as the JNDI Name and Physical Destination Name, select javax.jms.Topic as the Resource Type, and click OK."
• The correct configuration instruction is:
• "Enter "icefacesContextEventTopic" as the JNDI Name and Physical Destination Name, select javax.jms.Topic as the Resource Type, and click OK." 

• Remove Step 1 (configuring the GrizzlyPushServlet) under "To configure ICEfaces to use Grizzly:". Beginning with ICEfaces 1.7.1 this configuration step is no longer required or supported. Note that Step 2 ("Add the cometSupport property to your http-listener") is still required.
• ICEfaces will now auto-detect GlassFish + Grizzly and will try to use the ARP capabilities of Grizzly if they are enabled. To disable using the ARP facilities of Glassfish Grizzly and Jetty, the com.icesoft.faces.useARP property can be set to false inside the web.xml. Note that the previous Jetty-specific com.icesoft.faces.useJettyContinuations configuration parameter can still be used but is now deprecated.
• If this auto-configuration fails, ICEfaces will revert to using the traditional Thread Blocking async IO mechanism. You can verify that ICEfaces is using the Grizzly ARP mechanism by reviewing the ICEfaces log file (at INFO level). The following log messages may be present:
• GlassFish ARP available: true
• Adapting to GlassFish ARP environment
• Failed to add Comet handler... (if ARP configuration fails only)
• Falling back to Thread Blocking environment (if ARP configuration fails only)

• com.icesoft.faces.connectionLostRedirectURI, default value = null.

  Specifies a page URI to redirect the client to when an asynchronous connection is lost. The parameter value must be surrounded by single quotes and an ice:outputConnectionStatus component must be present on the page. Note: This parameter is only applicable to asynchronous  applications as it is the async connection lost event that triggers the redirect (com.icesoft.faces.synchronousUpdate=false, which is the ICEfaces default). 

• com.icesoft.faces.compressResources, default value = true.

  The compressResources setting is used to tell the ICEfaces framework whether or not to compress (i.e. gzip) internal resources that are served directly by the framework. This includes theme CSS stylesheets, images, JavaScript,  etc. Some browsers can have difficulty with compression (notably IE 6) and compression can be redundant for resources that are already compressed. As of this release, ICEfaces, bu default, applies a list of mime-types to exclude from compression, even if the value is set to true. This list includes: 

  • application/java-archive
  • application/pdf
  • application/x-compress
  • application/x-gzip
  • application/zip
  • audio/x-mpeg
  • image/gif
  • image/jpeg
  • image/png
  • image/tiff
  • video/mp4
  • video/mpeg
  • video/x-sgi-movie

  If you wish to override or supplement this list and provide your own mime-types to be excluded from compression, use the com.icesoft.faces.compressResourcesExclusions parameter.
  

• com.icesoft.faces.compressResourcesExclusions, default value = "image/gif image/png image/jpeg image/tiff application/pdf application/zip application/x-compress application/x-gzip application/java-archive video/x-sgi-movie audio/x-mpeg video/mp4 video/mpeg".

  This parameter is used to override or supplement the default list of mime-types that are excluded from compression by ICEfaces. The compressResourcesExclusions parameter takes a space delimited list of mime types for which compression will not be applied. Please note that if you use this parameter, you are overriding the default list of mime-types that ICEfaces excludes by default and you'll need to specify all the mime-types that you want to exclude, including any of the  mime-types excluded by default.

• com.icesoft.faces.sessionExpiredRedirectURI, default value = null.

  Specifies a page URI to redirect the client to upon session expiry. Redirection will occur immediately when using asynchronous mode, or upon the first partial or full-submit after the session expires in synchronous mode.

• com.icesoft.faces.compressDOM, default value = false.

  Specifies whether or not the server-side DOM should be compressed between view renders to reduce the amount of server heap memory required. Enabling this feature can provide significant memory consumption savings at the cost of some additional CPU cycles to perform the compression. 

• com.icesoft.faces.clientIdPoolMaxSize, default value = 100000.

  Specifies the size of the String pool used for caching client ID strings. The default value of 100,000 requires approx. 1MB of Java heap. Specifying an integer value of 0 will disable the client ID String pool. 

• com.icesoft.faces.cssNamePoolMaxSize, default value = 100000.

  Specifies the size of the String pool used for caching CSS class names strings. The default value of 100,000 requires approx. 1MB of Java heap. Specifying an integer value of 0 will disable the CSS class-name String pool. 

• com.icesoft.faces.elPoolMaxSize, default value = 100000.

  Specifies the size of the String pool used for caching EL expression strings. The default value of 100,000 requires approx. 1MB of Java heap. Specifying an integer value of 0 will disable the EL expression String pool. 

• com.icesoft.faces.xhtmlPoolMaxSize, default value = 100000.

  Specifies the size of the String pool used for caching literal XHTML tags and attributes strings. The default value of 100,000 requires approx. 1MB of Java heap. Specifying an integer value of 0 will disable the XHTML tags and attributes String pool. 

• com.icesoft.faces.standardRequestScope, default value = false.

  The behaviour of the standardRequestScope parameter has been slightly modified. The default value is false but, since the Seam framework requires that this be set to true, the ICEfaces framework now checks for Seam integration at runtime and sets standardRequestScope to true if Seam is detected.

• com.icesoft.faces.doJSFStateManagement, default value = true.

  Specifies whether or not ICEfaces uses JSF state-saving to persist component state between renders. The default value is 'true'. When set to 'false' ICEfaces will revert to a long-lived component-tree model which does note utilize JSF state-saving mechanisms.

  Note: JSF state-saving is not supported for JSF1.1 runtime environments. Client-side state-saving is not supported.

General

• In this release, exception redirection is not working correctly when state-saving is enabled, which is the default configuration for JSF1.2 (doJSFStateManagement=true). A work-around is to disable JSF state-saving by specifying doJSFStateManagement=false in the web.xml file. See ICE-3921.

• If at any time the asynchronous connection between the browser and the server is lost due to a network interruption, reloading the page will generally restore normal operation from the previous application state.

• ICEfaces pages included via <jsp:include> or <tiles:insert> have distinct PersistentFacesContext objects even if they are included by the same parent page. For this reason, application-initiated renders will apply only to the inclusion associated with the particular PersistentFacesContext.

• Inclusion of ICEfaces content from JSP is not compatible with MyFaces.

• Attempting to retrieve a Request parameter in the url using the following syntax is not supported (returns null):
     FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getRequestParameterMap().get(paramName);
  A workaround for this issue is to retrieve the Request parameter using the following alternative syntax:
   ((HttpServletRequest)FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getRequest()).getParameter(paramName);

• Cookies can be set though the ((BridgeExternalContext) FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext()).addCookie(new Cookie("test","test")); method.

JSP Markup

• UIComponentBodyTag processing supports only a single call to doAfterBody(). The full JSP lifecycle for iterative body processing is not supported.

• The first-generation children of the DataTable's table-header and column-header facets must be standard JSF components. For example, plain markup cannot be contained on its own within these facets, it must be wrapped in a panelGrid and the panelGrid, in turn, can be contained within the facet.

• JSP Page to Document conversion escapes &nbsp, but &nbsp in JSP Documents must be manually escaped by the developer as &amp;nbsp. Similarly, & characters must be escaped as &amp;.

• Non-JSF JSP tags (<jsp:xxx/>, etc.) embedded in JSP Pages and Documents are ignored by the ICEfaces parser with the exception of the inclusion mechanism (see Markup Reference in Developer's Guide for details).

• Java code (<% ...%>, etc.) embedded in JSP Pages and Documents is ignored by the ICEfaces parser with the exception of the inclusion mechanism (see Markup Reference in Developer's Guide for details).

• Input documents must be well-formed XML.

• Deprecated HTML elements, specifically the FONT element, do not respond properly to DOM manipulation functions in the ICEfaces client-side JavaScript bridge. (see HTML 4.01 Specification for details on deprecated HTML Elements).

• Pages should contain both a <head> tag and a <body> tag so that they are well-formed XHTML and ICEfaces can easily add a link to its own custom JavaScript library.

• Any ICEfaces page included from a JSP via <jsp:include/> must contain a <body> tag as the content of the <body> tag is precisely the content inserted into the including page.

• Tiles tags are not supported within ICEfaces pages, but ICEfaces pages may be included via Tiles.

• If multiple ICEfaces inclusions are performed by the same parent JSP, each ICEfaces form must have a manually applied unique ID.

• JSP Pages are dynamically converted to JSP Documents for processing by the ICEfaces parser, so it is important not to mix JSP Page and JSP Document types when performing static inclusion.

• UTF-8 encoding must be used for all source files for ICEfaces (jsp jspx, etc.)

ICEfaces Component Suite

• All ICEfaces Component Suite components must be enclosed in a JSF form component (i.e. ice:form, h:form, or ui:form).

• dataTable
  • In this release there is a known issue with the scrollable dataTable when used with IE7. Occasionally, when a scrollable dataTable is initially renderered in the browser the scrollbar will not display. In this case, resizing the browser window will cause the scrollbars to display. See ICE-3919.

• Effects (various components)
  • In Internet Explorer the Fade, Appear, and Pulsate effects will not transition when used with select elements.
  • In Safari the Highlight effect will does not work on buttons and lists.

• gMap 
  • Requires an API key which must be obtained from the Google Maps website.
  • Client browser must be able to access the Google Maps website URL (http://maps.google.com)

• menuPopup
  • menuPopup is not supported in the Opera browser due to a browser security feature that prevents the override of the browser's own context menu.

• panelPopup
  • When using a modal panelPopup it may be necessary to ensure that the body region of the page covers the entire visible region of the document or the component used to block user interaction with the document may not cover the entire page. To accomplish this a surrounding DIV sized to 100% width and height can be used to enclose all content in the document body. For example:
    

    <html><body><div style="width:100%;height:100%;"> ...page content... </div></body></html> 

• inputRichText
  • The FCKeditor JavaScript library that is the basis for the ice:inputRichText component does not currently support the Opera browser.

• outputChart
  • When using the ice:outputChart component with IE6 the following warning log messages may appear in the ICEfaces server log:  "java.net.SocketException: Connection reset by peer: socket write error". This is the result of IE6 closing connections abruptly and is a browser quirk. It has no impact on the functionality of the component.

Portlets

• The following ICEfaces components are known not to work correctly in a portlet environment:
  • ice:gMapDirection
  • ice:inputRichText - using this component in more than one portlet on a page may cause problems with the functioning of this component.
  • Drag & drop (via ice:panelGroup) - using drag-and-drop in more than one portlet on a page may cause drag-and-drop to not function in some of the portlets on the page.

• When using ICEfaces with Liferay Portal positioning problems may occur with components that rely on dynamic positioning, such as ice:panelPopup, ice:menuBar, and menuPopup. This issue is related to an aggressive styling behavior in Liferay and there is a work-around identified. See ICE-2967 for details.

• The ICEfaces Component Showcase portlet sample application may have styling and layout related issues related to the specific portal container and portal theme being used. The primary intention is to show component functionality in a portlet context. It may be necessary to customize the specific styles being used to work well within the portal theme, etc.

Sample Applications

• Of the four varieties of the Component Showcase application (jsp, portlet, portlet-enh, and portlets), only the facelet-enh version includes the Description and Source tabs for viewing documentation and resources related to the  components being demonstrated.

• The Component Showcase enhanced facelets sample application  (icefaces/samples/component-showcase/facelet-enh) requires JDK 1.5 to compile and run. All other samples in this release require JDK 1.4+.

Application Servers

• General

• Due to an apparent bug in Tomcat 5.x, users have occasionally reported seeing the following error when using ICEfaces with Tomcat 5.x or JBoss 4.0.x: "SEVERE: ICEfaces could not initialize JavaServer Faces. Please check that the JSF .jar files are installed correctly." This issue can be resolved by including the following listener in the web.xml:
  
  <listener>
    <listener-class>
       com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener
    </listener-class>
</listener>

• Apache Tomcat v5.5

• Tutorials bundled with the ICEfaces release will not build and deploy to Tomcat 5.5 with MyFaces due to a conflict related to jsp-api.jar.  To build and deploy tutorials on Tomcat 5.5 with MyFaces, it is necessary to modify the .../install_dir/ICEfaces-1.5/icefaces/samples/tutorial/build.properties and set tomcat55=true prior to building the application.

• Apache Tomcat v6.0

• To use ICEfaces with Tomcat v6.0 these jars that are included in the ICEfaces distribution must be removed from the web application (note that the sample application build script target for Tomcat 6 will include the correct .jars in the .war file):
  • el-api.jar
  • xercesImpl.jar
  • xml-apis.jar

• Tomcat v6.0 / JBoss 4.2 with NIO Connector

• When using the optional Tomcat 6 NIO connector (can also be used with JBoss 4.2) with asynchronous ICEfaces applications a NullPointerException can be thrown when using the TomcatPushServlet (located in the com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.servlet package) due to Tomcat recycling objects that are still in use by the TomcatPushServlet. The issue seems to be timing related and is more apparent with multiple users.
• Workarounds for this issue include not configuring the optional Tomcat NIO connector and configuring the ICEfaces AHS server configuration for NIO asynchronous communications instead.

• BEA Weblogic Server 9

• In order to run ICEfaces on the BEA Weblogic Server 9, the html and core tld files located in jsf-impl.jar should be extracted from the jar file and placed into the WEB-INF folder of any application you want to deploy.

• Websphere Application Server 6.0.0.1, 6.1

• Websphere requires a special class-loader configuration for use with ICEfaces. See the Application Server Deployment Guides in the ICEfaces knowledge-base for details.

• A bug in the application server prevents the Timezone Step 3+ tutorials from running correctly. A WebSphere patch is available from IBM that resolves this issue: APAR numberPQ99195, http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=180&uid=swg1PQ99195.

Support

Open source community support is available at http://www.icefaces.org.

For information on commercial support, professional services, and training, please visit http://support.icefaces.org.

About ICEfaces

ICEfaces delivers extensions to Java ServerFaces (JSF) that provide an AJAX-enabled rich presentation environment for JSF applications. ICEfaces brings value to any Java EE development project that needs to provide superior presentation capabilities to the web application user. In particular, ICEfaces provides the following features:

• Smooth, incremental page updates that do not require a full page refresh to achieve presentation changes in the application.
• Server-initiated asynchronous presentation updates for dynamic instantaneous data push (Ajax Push/Comet).
• The ICEfaces Component Suite, a complete rich JSF component suite that fully leverages ICEfaces capabilities.
• Intelligent form processing that facilitates fine-grained interactions with the user as they manipulate a form.
• API support for rapid development of group-aware and collaborative applications, such as Chat, Webcast, social apps., etc.
• JSP or Facelets based development.
• Tool integrations for leading Java IDEs.
• Support for leading Java EE frameworks, such as Spring and JBoss Seam.
• Support for portlet development.

Learn More

This ICEfaces release comes with extensive documentation that will help you understand the product thoroughly. Documentation for this release is located in your installation directory at .../install_dir/icefaces/docs/. The following documents are provided in PDF format:

1. ICEfaces Getting Started Guide: This guide takes you through product installation, environment configuration, demo app installation, and a basic 7-stage tutorial. This guide also contains information related to support for different application server environments and development tools.
2. ICEfaces Developer's Guide: This guide contains information relevant to developing applications with ICEfaces. It describes the ICEfaces architecture, and explains key concepts that the ICEfaces developer should be aware of. It also provides a complete reference guide that covers APIs, configuration, components (including the ICEfaces Component Suite) and TLDs, and covers advanced topics like server-initiated rendering.

ICEfaces documentation is also available on-line at http://documentation.icefaces.org/.

License Notice

License agreements can be found in the .../install_dir/icefaces/docs/license directory.

© Copyright 2005-2008 ICEsoft Technologies, Inc.