RichFaces 3.3.1 GA Release

The RichFaces team is proud to announce the release of the next version of the library - 3.3.1 GA. The special demo application Photo Album, which is available for download, has also been developed. The application is built using RichFaces components.


New Components and Functionality

With the 3.3.1 release, several new components have appeared. The most long-awaited were components designed for HTML page layout. Also with this release, it became possible to use themes that will complement existing functionality to specify the appearance of components (skinnability). In addition to these components, another component has appeared -.

Components for HTML markup, themes

The component provides a convenient way to organize page layout by creating separate blocks: “header”, “footer”, “content”, and “sidebar”. In addition, using this component you can set various HTML page parameters such as DOCTYPE, meta page information, page title, etc.

and are based on Yahoo UI CSS Grid and are used to form blocks (grids) that you can use to organize the page structure. These components provide the developer with a wide range of options for page layout.

With this release, a conceptually new feature has appeared - themes. Themes - configured page layout that defines how the user interface will look. Themes are set using the “theme” attribute of the component. Themes allow you to experiment and customize the appearance of the user interface, much like skins do. You can create your own theme using the Maven archetype, which creates a template for the theme.

You can learn more about these components by reading the Layout components for RichFaces 3.3.1 article , as well as the official RichFaces documentation.

Maven Resource Dependency Plugin is created whose main goal is to reduce the number of JavaScript and CSS files loaded into the page. The plugin allows you to load into the application only those resources that are needed specifically for those components used in the application. This functionality greatly facilitates the "weight" of the application and reduces its download speed.

Fixed bugs and improvements aimed at stabilizing the operation of components

More than 1100 bugs and errors reported through Jira were fixed - details can be obtained by reading Release Notes

RichFaces developers have improved automatic tests (using Slenium), which will ensure higher quality components.

Photo Album demo application.

The developers made a lot of efforts to create a full-scale application, where most of the user controls are implemented using RichFaces.

The application is available for download and contains clear examples of how you can use RichFaces in practice. The application used such components and functionality as: drag-n-drop,, (WYSIWYG editor) and others.

Future Plans: Release 4.0

The focus of the RichFaces development team will be mainly on the 4.0 release: the main goal of this release is to integrate with JSF 2.0, as well as stability, higher performance and ease of use of RichFaces components. All discussions and plans are available on the following pages:
www.jboss.org/community/wiki/RichFacesTeamMeetingInformation
www.jboss.org/community/wiki/RichFaces40Planning

There will be a 3.3.2 release in the middle of summer that will focus only on fixing bugs and shortcomings.

Useful links:

RichFaces Developer Guide www.jboss.org/file-access/default/members/jbossrichfaces/freezone/docs/devguide/en/html_single/index.html
Page where you can download the RichFaces library www.jboss.org/jbossrichfaces/downloads
RichFaces Twitter twitter.com/richfaces
RichFaces Jira jira.jboss.org/jira/browse/RF
RichFaces user forum www.jboss.org/index.html?module= bb & op = viewforum & f = 261
Branch form where architecture and design RichFace is discussed www.jboss.org/index.html?module=bb&op=viewforum&f=262