4. Importing JSF Components

Documentation > JSF > Using Components > Importing JSF Components

As a round-trip engineering tool, JSFToolbox integrates easily with your existing Java development environment. One option is to map your Dreamweaver site root folder to the same location as your Web application root directory in your Java development environment for the performance benefits of sharing access to local files. Another option is to keep your Dreamweaver site in a separate location from your JSF application directory and to import JSF components from a Java archive (JAR) file directly into Dreamweaver.

To import JSF components into Dreamweaver from a JAR file, first create the JAR file using the "jar" command line utility included in the Java Development Kit or using your integrated development environment to package the JAR. The important thing is that your JAR file must contain a file called "faces-config.xml" and it must be located in a directory called "META-INF" in the root directory of the JAR file. By using this convention, JSFToolbox will be able to locate and read your Faces configuration file to determine which components you are importing into your Dreamweaver site.

You can import a JAR file from the Application panel. Select the Components tab and click the "+" button. To remove a JAR file (and all the JSF component information associated with that JAR file), click the "-" button. To manually refresh your site, click the circular arrow icon on any of the JSFToolbox component palettes. Alternately, you can use the CTRL-ALT-F5 keyboard shortcut.

The ability to import JSF components into Dreamweaver from a JAR file can also be useful for development teams who want to share components across remote work locations. Another use case is a design and development team where server-side components can be built by programmers and handed off to designers who assemble the views of the application.

Once you import your JAR into Dreamweaver using JSFToolbox, all the managed beans, message bundles, UI components, converters, validators, and other JSF components will be available to your site. This information is persistent and will be available to your site across Dreamweaver sessions. Additionally, if you add, modify, or remove components in your JSF application and rebuild your JAR file, JSFToolbox will detect these changes and will update itself automatically.