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Spring Web Flow Enhances Support for Java Server Faces


Upcoming Version of the Popular Web Application Framework Improves Integration, Extends Ease-of-Use for Developers

May 2, 2007; 07:09 AM
Interface21, a leading provider of trusted open source software for building and deploying mission-critical enterprise applications, today announced the roadmap to Spring Web Flow 1.1, the latest release of the popular web application framework. Major themes of the release are integration and ease-of-use, with a notable enhancement being improved support for Java Server Faces (JSF).

Spring Web Flow, initially launched in October 2006, has emerged as a key component of modern web application development solutions. The framework runs in standard Java EE™ and Portal environments, and integrates with leading Web frameworks Struts, Spring MVC, and Java Server Faces. Across each of these environments, Spring Web Flow provides developers a consistent approach to implementing navigation rules and managing application state.

“As an example, suppose you are in banking and you need to implement an interactive portion of your Web site to allow customers to apply for a loan,” proposed Keith Donald, lead of the Spring Web Flow project. “By themselves, frameworks like Struts and JSF simply don’t provide much support for these kinds of tasks. Over and over again, we saw developers resorting to their own custom solutions for dealing with the problems of enforcing the page navigation rules and managing the data from screen to screen. With Spring Web Flow plugged in, developers get one solution that solves these problems elegantly and consistently across environments.”

The key differentiators in the Spring Web Flow solution are its conversational model and modular design. The conversational model raises the abstraction level, allowing developers to design in terms of high-level business use cases like “Apply for a Loan” or “Book a Trip” instead of low-level abstractions like HTTP requests and sessions. Spring Web Flow’s modular design allows it to be embedded and used in many environments with ease.

“Spring Web Flow is uniquely positioned in today’s crowded Web framework market,” said Rod Johnson, CEO of Interface21. “Instead of being a monolithic, take-it-or-leave-it solution, it solves the hard problems facing Web application developers and integrates with leading web frameworks to form complete solutions.” Johnson added, “Simply put, Spring Web Flow provides a better model for building Web applications that demand rich user interactions, and its modular design allows developers to take advantage of that model in any environment.”

Spring Web Flow 1.1 takes support for the Java Server Faces environment to the next level. When used as a JSF extension, Spring Web Flow serves as a replacement for JSF’s basic navigation capabilities, adding power and productivity while still feeling natural to JSF developers. In addition, Spring Web Flow’s innovative conversational model facilitates the use of rich user interface components that utilize Ajax techniques.

“This integration combines Spring Web Flow’s strength in navigation and state management with JSF’s strength as a growing ecosystem of user interface component libraries,” said Keith Donald. “It really is a great fit, one that will help make many more JSF projects successful in the future.”

Availability

The first milestone in the Spring Web Flow 1.1 release roadmap will be available in May 2007. For more information and to download the software, visit http://www.springframework.org/webflow.

About Interface21

Interface21 is a leading provider of trusted open source software for mission-critical enterprise applications. Interface21 created and sustains the development of the Spring Framework, the leading Java™ and Java EE™ application framework. Through the Spring family of products, Interface21 has helped hundreds of organizations, including some of the world’s largest financial institutions and public sector clients, build and deploy mission-critical applications that boost developer productivity and increase enterprise ROI. For more information, please visit http://www.interface21.com.

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