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Chapter 8. Creating projects in different IDEs

As you could have mentioned the process of the JSF component creation is pretty labor-intensive but repeatable. During the CDK Guide you have created a simple <rich:inputDate> component. However when creating components in the wild you need debugger, class browser, object inspector, class hierarchy diagram, etc. to simplify development process and maximize productivity. In other words you need an IDE.

The question is what IDE is more suitable for the JSF component development. There is no one answer for this question and the right of private judgment in matters of choosing IDE, is better secured to us than to any other people in the world.

Eclipse IDE seems to be more preferable for the rapid component creation process.

Tip:

RichFaces full support is implemented in JBoss Developer Studio and in JBoss Tools.

During the development process you could be confronted with some difficulties. For example, it is necessary to rebuild component every time you want to check your work on it in a developer sample. It is also hard to debug JavaScript scenario without IDE's help.

First of all you need to download and install Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers.

After that you need to build <rich:inputDate> component and it's sample project for the import as existing Eclipse projects. It is necessary to proceed to the Sandbox/inputDate and Sandbox/inputDate-sample directories and launch the following command:


mvn eclipse:eclipse -Dwtpversion=1.5

The command you've launched above creates files and folders necessary for the import. The -Dwtpversion=1.5 key indicates that you have Web application, so it should be possible to run it on a server.

Finally you need to make import. You can find a step-by-step tutorial at the Eclipse documentation page or simply in the Help > Help Contents of the Eclipse. As the result two projects should appear in the workspace:


Now it is necessary to define <rich:inputDate> component JAR you have imported on the build path of the inputDate-sample project.

You need to select Properties of the inputDate-sample project, proceed to the Java Build Path > Libraries tab and then remove "inputDate-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar" item.


After that you need to proceed to the Java Build Path > Projects tab and add already imported inputDate project.


Finally you should select Java EE Module Dependecies, uncheck var/M2_REPO/org/mycompany/inputDate/1.0-SNAPSHOT/inputDate-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jar, and check imported inputDate module.


That's all! Now it is possible to create a server (Apache Tomcat, for example) and run inputDate-sample.

Actually you can build/rebuild your projects for the import at any time you want.

In order to rebuild existing project for the import you should use the following command:


mvn eclipse:clean eclipse:eclipse -Dwtpversion=1.5

In conclusion it should be pointed out that binding <rich:inputDate> component project and developer sample give you more advantages such as editing any sources on-the-fly, debugging JavaScript, etc.

NetBeans is another free, open-source IDE that provides plenty of features and tools you need to create professional enterprise, web applications.

Once you have built your projects for Eclipse IDE you can easily migrate to NetBeans IDE. You can get all necessary information at Automatically Import Your Projects From Eclipse to NetBeans IDE page.