JSF Fundamental

Common terms in JSF (excerpt from JavaServer Faces in Action)

UIComponent

A stateful component, which maintained on the server, that provides spcific functions for interacting with an end user. UI components are java beans with properties, methods, and events. They are organized as a view, which is a tree of components usually displayed as a page.

Renderer

Responsible for displaying the UI component and translating the user's input into component's value. Renderers can be designed to work with one or more components, and one component can be associated with many different renderers.

Validator

Responsible for ensuring that the value entered by the end user is acceptable. One or more validators can be associated with a single UI component.

Backing Bean

Specilized bean that collect values from UI components and implement action listener motheds. They can also hold references to UI component.

Convertor

Converts a component's value to and from a String for display. A UI component can be associated with a single convertor.

Events and listeners

JSF uses the JavaBeans event/listener model. UI components generate events, and listeners can be registered to handle those events.

Messages

Information that's displayed back to the users. Just about any part of the application can generate information and error message that can be displayed back to the user.

Navigation

The ability to move from one page to the next. JSF has a powful navigation system that's intergrated with specialized event listeners.