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Answer 1

+1 A:

JSF 2.0 itself. CRUD is very easy to do with JSF alone - no need for any other framework. You need

1 managed bean (annotated with @ManagedBean)
2 xhtml pages (facelets) - one for list and one for edit/create
A <h:dataTable> with anedit link/button, by which you set the current row object in the managed bean (using action="#{bean.edit(currentRowObject)}"). (In JSF 1.2 this was achieved by <f:setPropertyActionListener>)
Action methods (void, with no arguments) to handle the operations
@PostConstruct to load the data initially.

Bozho 2010-07-05 15:43:30

Hi Bozho,Thank you for the reply.I've added an additional 'requirement' to the original question: Limited need for manual coding. I understand your answer, but on a large domain model, the manual approach remains cumbersome.I'm wondering if somthing Grails-like exists, but in pure JSF.Thank you , J.

Jan 2010-07-05 16:18:30

Isn't setPropertyActionListener unneeded in JSF 2.0, as we can pass objects as arguments?

Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen 2010-07-06 06:40:30

@Thorbjørn Ravn Andersen indeed. thanks for reminding me. added to the answer.

Bozho 2010-07-06 07:02:09

Answer 2

+4 A:

CRUD is indeed a piece of cake using JSF 2.0 provided standard facility: a @ViewScoped bean in combination with a h:dataTable backed by a DataModel<E> basically already suffices. Here's a code example which is shamelessly copied from this article.

Bean:

package mypackage;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.bean.ViewScoped;
import javax.faces.model.DataModel;
import javax.faces.model.ListDataModel;

@ManagedBean
@ViewScoped
public class Bean {

    private List<Item> list;
    private DataModel<Item> model;
    private Item item = new Item();
    private boolean edit;

    public Bean() {
        // list = dao.list();
        // Actually, you should retrieve the list from DAO. This is just for demo.
        list = new ArrayList<Item>();
        list.add(new Item(1L, "item1"));
        list.add(new Item(2L, "item2"));
        list.add(new Item(3L, "item3"));
        model = new ListDataModel<Item>(list);
        System.out.println("bean constructed and model loaded"); // Cough, logger, cough.
    }

    public void add() {
        // dao.create(item);
        // Actually, the DAO should already have set the ID from DB. This is just for demo.
        item.setId(list.isEmpty() ? 1 : list.get(list.size() - 1).getId() + 1);
        list.add(item);
        item = new Item(); // Reset placeholder.
    }

    public void edit() {
        item = model.getRowData();
        edit = true;
    }

    public void save() {
        // dao.update(item);
        item = new Item(); // Reset placeholder.
        edit = false;
    }

    public void delete() {
        // dao.delete(item);
        list.remove(model.getRowData());
    }

    public List<Item> getList() {
        return list;
    }

    public DataModel<Item> getModel() {
        return model;
    }

    public Item getItem() {
        return item;
    }

    public boolean isEdit() {
        return edit;
    }

    // Other getters/setters are actually unnecessary. Feel free to add them though.

}

Page:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
      xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
      xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"&gt;
    <h:head>
        <title>Really simple CRUD</title>
    </h:head>
    <h:body>
        <h3>List items</h3>
        <h:form rendered="#{not empty bean.list}">
            <h:dataTable value="#{bean.model}" var="item">
                <h:column><f:facet name="header">ID</f:facet>#{item.id}</h:column>
                <h:column><f:facet name="header">Value</f:facet>#{item.value}</h:column>
                <h:column><h:commandButton value="edit" action="#{bean.edit}" /></h:column>
                <h:column><h:commandButton value="delete" action="#{bean.delete}" /></h:column>
            </h:dataTable>
        </h:form>
        <h:panelGroup rendered="#{empty bean.list}">
            <p>Table is empty! Please add new items.</p>
        </h:panelGroup>
        <h:panelGroup rendered="#{!bean.edit}">
            <h3>Add item</h3>
            <h:form>
                <p>Value: <h:inputText value="#{bean.item.value}" /></p>
                <p><h:commandButton value="add" action="#{bean.add}" /></p>
            </h:form>
        </h:panelGroup>
        <h:panelGroup rendered="#{bean.edit}">
            <h3>Edit item #{bean.item.id}</h3>
            <h:form>
                <p>Value: <h:inputText value="#{bean.item.value}" /></p>
                <p><h:commandButton value="save" action="#{bean.save}" /></p>
            </h:form>
        </h:panelGroup>
    </h:body>
</html>

Further, Netbeans has some useful wizards to genreate a CRUD application based on a datamodel.

BalusC 2010-07-05 16:13:04

ah, I looked for that article but couldn't find it. And was lazy to give a complete example myself :) (+1)

Bozho 2010-07-05 16:20:09

Yeah, the example code is appreciated. Still I'm wondering if there isn't a way to generate all this code, driven by a set of annotated Entity objects.

Jan 2010-07-05 16:31:54

The answer doesn't fully fit all requirements I had in mind. Though, it looks like the best answer available, so I'll mark it as accepted. (I'm new to StackOverflow... Is this the right thing to do?)

Jan 2010-07-07 10:43:44

You can also consider using Netbeans' builtin wizards. I edited the answer to include a link.

BalusC 2010-07-07 15:59:46

Answer 3

+1 A:

I found this article useful as well:

Conversational CRUD in Java EE 6

http://www.andygibson.net/blog/tutorial/pattern-for-conversational-crud-in-java-ee-6/

By Andy Gibson

Jan 2010-08-31 08:45:05

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