Wednesday, 24 March 2010

ICEfaces 2.0 Roadmap Update


For those not familiar with what ICEfaces 2.0 is all about, it represents a "re-envisioning" of ICEfaces in terms of key features, architecture, and implementation and has the following notable characteristics:
  • Is the new feature development track for ICEfaces - ICEfaces 1.8 is now considered stable
  • Based exclusively on the JSF 2 specification and runtimes (does not support JSF 1.x runtimes)
  • Requires JDK 1.5+
  • Supports the existing ICEfaces 1.8 Component Suite, as well as an all-new ICEfaces 2.0 Component Suite which will offer an improved level of component richness, performance, accessiblity, and extensibility
  • Although ICEfaces 2.0 is not directly backwards compatible with ICEfaces 1.8 applications, they may be readily ported via the use of the ICEfaces 1.8 API and component compatibility library, which provides the most important legacy ICEfaces 1.8 APIs and components for use in ICEfaces 2.0 / JSF2 environments
There have been a lot of questions lately about the ICEfaces 2.0 development roadmap and release schedule, what will it include, when will it ship final, how many releases between now and then, etc. To try to answer some of those questions, here is an overview of the ICEfaces 2.0 development roadmap that we are currently working toward:

ICEfaces 2.0 - Alpha 1 (Released Oct. 30, 2009)

  • New packaging, org.icefaces.*
  • Simplified Configuration:
    • - 3rd party library dependencies have been minimized / eliminated for simplified configuration and deployment
    • - No need for a separate ICEfaces servlet configuration
    • - No custom ICEfaces view-handler is required thereby improving integration with "well-behaved" 3rd party JSF components
  • New ICEpush "Ajax Push" Library:
    • - New push architecture
    • - New push API, org.icefaces.application.PushRenderer
    • - Servlet 3.0 implementations are automatically detected to take advantage of asynchronous NIO features
  • Support for standard JSF2 components ("h:")

ICEfaces 2.0 - Alpha 2 (Released Jan. 22nd, 2010)

  • New "Window" Scope - scope beans for the life of the browser window
  • New client JavaScript APIs for ICEfaces bridge lifecycle notification and error reporting
  • New ICEfaces 1.8 compatibility library (eases migration of existing ICEfaces 1.8 applications to ICEfaces 2.0):
    • - Support for key legacy ICEfaces 1.8 APIs that are not directly supported in ICEfaces 2.0 (SessionRenderer, partialSubmit, etc.)
    • - Support for the ICEfaces 1.8 Component Suite on ICEfaces 2.0 / JSF2
  • New ICEfaces 2 Documentation
  • Support for Maven2
  • Preliminary NetBeans 6.8 integration support

ICEfaces 2.0 - Alpha 3 (April, 2010)

  • New automatic push initialization feature for reduced/optimized push overhead
  • New "Delta-submit" feature for greatly reduced bandwidth consumption with large forms
  • Complete support for partial-page processing and rendering via Direct-to-Dom rendering pipeline
  • Initial release of new ICEfaces 2.0 Component Suite:
    • - All-new ICEfaces component development platform that leverages JSF 2 and YUI JavaScript libraries for improved usability, accessibility, flexibility, and performance
    • - Initial set of new components (Tab, Calendar, Slider, inputFile)

ICEfaces 2.0 - Beta (May, 2010)

  • Packaging, APIs, core feature freeze
  • Additional ICEfaces 2.0 Component Suite components, component platform revisions
  • Near complete documentation

ICEfaces 2.0 - Final (June, 2010)

  • ICEfaces 2.0 Core
  • ICEfaces 2.0 Component Suite
  • ICEfaces 1.8 Compatibility Library (core APIs and complete ICEfaces 1.8 Component Suite)
  • Support for JSF2-enabled IDE tool integrations

We're all working hard to maximize the opportunity presented by ICEfaces 2.0 and JSF2 to ensure that the next-generation of ICEfaces continues to be the most productive and feature-rich JSF application development solution available.

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Posted by ken.fyten at 12:04 PM in Entries by Ken Fyten

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