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I'm currently following a tutorial in a book, and it instructs to create a Java Web App with the Visual JavaServer Faces framework. The screenshot in the book shows both the JavaServer Faces framework and the extra Visual JavaServer Faces framework. I can't seem to find the plugin / download in the netbeans plugin page, or when I google it. Has this feature been removed?

Also this tutorial here:

http://netbeans.org/kb/docs/web/helloweb.html

Shows this screenshot:

http://netbeans.org/images_www/articles/65/web/helloweb/design1.png

Have both the frameworks been integrated into one? If so, how can I access this design screen?

Thanks

+3  A: 

That's the UI editor of the already since ~3 years dead and abandoned Woodstock library. That library became an epic failure due to an bug which revealed when Firefox 3 was released. It turned out that the library generates non-standards compliant Javascript which broke in the newer and more standards-compliant browsers. It was a hard smack in Woodstock's face.

Since then, users were recommended to migrate to IceFaces or RichFaces. There's an auto-migration tool for iceFaces. IceFaces in turn has a visual editor plugin for Netbeans (check Tools Support links).

Another fact is, using visual editors with code generators is strongly discouraged in the professional development world. They were often used by starters only and it produces unmaintainable and unreuseable code to a high degree. On the other hand, it makes debugging and nailing down code-level problems much harder for starters, because they don't understand any line of the generated code. It also unnecessarily gave JSF in general a negative imago.

If you're new, don't drag'n'drop code, but just write code.

If you like to develop JSF on Netbeans, I recommend walking through the latest tutorials at Netbeans.org instead. You can find them all here. With regard to JSF 2.0 in general, I can recommend the tutorials at Coreservlets.com and the book JSF 2.0: The Complete Reference as well.

BalusC
Thanks for this! Yeah I was just trying to follow the tutorials in the book from cover to cover, but obviously must be a little outdated! Shall refrain from drag'n'dropping in the future.
Craig Whitley
I updated the answer to include some links to better resources.
BalusC
Thanks for the links! I've added these to the resources links on my blog, they look very useful!
Craig Whitley
You're welcome.
BalusC
+1 for "write code".
Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen
@Thor: you misclicked the vote? :)
BalusC
Forgot actually, thanks for reminding me.
Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen