Developing Smart Web UIs with Ajax, JSF, and ADF Faces
Abstract: Thsi tutorial explains how to use Ajax with the existing components of the JSF and ADF Faces frameworks and how to create Web applications based on Ajax, JSF, and ADF Faces with the help of Oracle JDeveloper 10g
Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) is a recent term for a group of mature APIs, technologies, and standards that can be used with all major browsers. Besides HTML/XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, and DOM, the so-called Ajax applications use an API named XMLHttpRequest, which lets you request a URL without refreshing the current page of the Web browser. What makes this API particularly interesting is the ability to send the HTTP request asynchronously, meaning that the user doesn't have to wait for the response. You provide a callback function (written in JavaScript) that is invoked when the browser gets the response, which can be an XML document whose content is accessible with the help of DOM. This combination of features allows you to build highly interactive Web applications, such as Google Maps or Google Suggest.
Even if the Ajax code runs on the client side, you still need a server-side technology for your Web pages. JavaServer Faces (JSF) and ADF Faces (which Oracle has donated to the Apache Foundation as open source) are excellent candidates for building Ajax-based user interfaces because these two frameworks support JavaScript and can handle the form data on the server.
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