1	The J2EE SIG Co-Sponsored by:
2	About the J2EE SIG Mission: To identify and promote best practices in J2EE systems design, development and deployment. Look for J2EE SIG presentations and events at national and regional conferences Website: www.odtug.com/2005_J2EE.htm Join by signing up for the ODTUG-Java-L mailing list: http://www.odtug.com/subscrib.htm
3	About this presentation J2EE SIG Steering Committee will be preparing a series of “best practices” papers and presentations. Question to be answered in this presentation: “What is the right user interface product direction?” No clear consensus Two perspectives presented here: Dr. Paul Dorsey – Dulcian, Inc. Shay Shmeltzer – Oracle Corp.
4	A Comparison of User Interface Alternatives Dr. Paul Dorsey - Dulcian, Inc. Duncan Mills – Oracle Corporation
5	The Challenge of Web Development Many competing Standards Oracle Forms Portal HTML DB PL/SQL Server Pages J2EE with ADF Plain J2EE Non-Oracle .net PSP
6	Oracle Forms Developer Part of the Oracle Developer Suite 10g. PL/SQL-based, development environment for building enterprise-class, database centric Internet applications. Pros Very functional Mature Lots of experienced developers Cons Little new development or attention from Oracle Only good for internally used applications
7	Oracle Portal Proprietary environment mainly for "Portals." Pros: Mature Fairly capable Cons: Not much new attention from Oracle Now positioned as a "portal" rather than as an application development platform Proprietary
8	HTML DB 4GL Application development Limited functionality stored in the database Pros Lots of happy users Cool new toy Easy to use Cons Proprietary Not very deep functionally Is this just another product that will be abandoned in a year or two?
9	PL/SQL Toolkit PL/SQL packages Generates HTML Pros Easy to use Mature Quite functional Cons Proprietary No more development Old news
10	.net Not a robust architecture Pros Microsoft product The main alternative to J2EE Easier to use than J2EE Cheaper talent Cons Not as deep as J2EE
11	Why J2EE? Oracle commitment More resources on the JDeveloper team than all other products combined (for 3+ years) Industry standard J2EE is the choice of all serious developers (except Microsoft diehards). Robust, mature, scalable Deep, high-quality architecture Evolving
12	Challenge of J2EE Web Development Dizzying array of user interface (UI) choices Several competing alternatives have been used to successfully and unsuccessfully build applications
13	Big Decisions UI Pages JSP, HTML, UIX,... Manage page logic Struts, UIX Controller, Spring How to connect to the DB ADF BC, TopLink, EJBs....
14	User Interface (View) Layer Use JavaServer Pages (JSPs) Not the easiest structures to work with Currently the industry standard Work well Can embed JavaScript for logic executed in client interface Can achieve near client/server UI quality
15	Controller Layer Use Struts Clear industry standard for Controller layer Controller manages logic of how JSP pages link to one another Determines what pages are called under what circumstances Can put this logic into the JSP pages Better if logic is encapsulated in dedicated controller JDeveloper 10g has a nice graphical interface to create Struts code. Without JDeveloper or similar tool, using Struts is difficult.
16	Connecting to the Database Use Oracle’s Application Development Framework – Business Components (ADF BC) First rate, sophisticated, relatively easy to implement solution. Supports management of middle tier business rules as well as data caching Many people currently use Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) to connect classes to database tables. Inefficient Unnecessarily complex Can cause project failure
17	Where should the business logic go? Industry standard to place logic in middle tier Little beneficial system performance impact With few exceptions, business logic belongs in the database Functions Procedures Complex views (INSTEAD OF triggers) Allows for making changes to the UI architecture
18	Other Alternatives Disputes will continue about the latest technologies Other alternatives include: Spring framework Oracle’s UIX/JHeadstart Not embraced by the mainstream development community However – use ADF BC Efficiency and power should override skepticism.
19	Java Server Faces (JSFs) New Emerging Standard Will likely dominate in the next 1-2 years Bleeding edge technology No proven track record to rely on Best strategy is to wait for now
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22	Web Development Choices Java .Net Oracle Forms PL/SQL based – HTMLDB/Portal/WSG PHP Others…
23	Why Choose Java Powerful and Robust Standard Cross Platform Gives you the choice Hardware Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac and more Application Server Oracle, BEA, IBM, Sun, Open Source Tools JDeveloper, JBuilder, IBM, Sun and many more
24	The J2EE Web Interface Dilemma Most J2EE applications have Web interfaces Various J2EE UI solutions out there Servlets, JSP, UIX, JSF There is also the controller choice Custom, Struts, JSF Which solution should you use?
25	The Oracle Perspective
26	The Current Status JSP Model 2 is the prevailing solution MVC based layer separation JSP to handle View Servlet backend to handle Controller Struts – the de-facto standard
27	So What’s Wrong? Developers need to know HTML HTTP Request/Response Javascript No J2EE standard for Controller No good component model JSTL has the basics
28	UIX – an Oracle Solution UIX Introduced a Declarative UI Definition (2002) Developers define their page structure – don’t implement the HTML/Javascript Benefits: Provides Rich Components Can Switch Renderer Can Modify Results Programmatically Switchable Look and Feel Problem: Oracle Proprietary
29	Introducing JSF JSF = JavaServer Faces a.k.a Faces JSF’s Goal: Simplify the creation of java server UI Developed through Java Community Process JSR-127 History Started May 2001 First Version March 2004 Oracle has been involved from the start UIX architect on JSF EG
30	Faces Characteristics A View and a Controller Layer MVC Based Designed to be leveraged by tools Focus on components Automatic event and state handling
31	JSF Benefits Abstracts away from HTTP Developers don’t need to understand request-response cycle Abstracts away from HTML Developers work with components, not markup Developers don’t need to decode requests Component Based Use existing components Render to new devices Listener based events approach Similar to 4GL
32	JSF Documentation
33	Oracle and JSF
34	JDeveloper 10.1.3 – Visual JSF
35	Oracle ADF Faces A large component set >100 different components Evolution of ADF UIX built on top of JSF APIs Far more advanced and interesting components Partial-page rendering, etc. ADF model support out-of-the-box ADF Faces skins (Look and Feel)
36	ADF Faces Components Examples
37	ADF Faces – Web Rich Client
38	Render Kits Render ADF Faces based application on browser/wireless/telnet
39	Making the Decision
40	Know Your Situation Project Timeline When do you need to go production? When do you need to build the UI? Team Knowledge Do you have a team? What do they know now? Do you have training time/budget? Company Knowledge Company type (A,B,C)
41	Sample 1 We need a project to be production in 5 months We have a little JSP knowledge We are going to hire some Java developers Solution Use JSP/Struts
42	Sample 2 We are planning a project that will go production in a year We don’t have J2EE knowledge Solution: Go for JSF Start with back-end now Do the UI later when tools are more mature (You can use UIX for UI prototyping)
43	Sample 3 We have an on-going project using JSP (or UIX) currently under development Solution Continue with your current plan JSP – optional - After project is completed have a look at JSF for future projects UIX – After project is complete start learning JSF and ADF Faces Components
44	Conclusion JSP/Struts is a good solution JSF brings simplicity and more power to Web UI development JSF has momentum in the J2EE world In the near future JSP and JSF will be the leading options for J2EE Web development
45	Contact Information Dr. Paul Dorsey Dulcian, Inc. paul_dorsey@dulcian.com Shay Shmeltzer Oracle Corporation shay.shmeltzer@oracle.com