Should I use Facelets “jsfc” attribute?

Question

Facelets uses the jsfc attribute to convert HTML elements to their associated JSF components. This is rather helpful for fast prototyping as it

Answer 1

As you said, the jsfc attribute is essentially usefull when you have to "convert" an HTML prototype to a JSF page. For example, when you have an HTML input text:

<input type="text" .../>

you can add the jsfc attribute in order to convert this HTML component into a JSF component:

<input type="text" jsfc="h:inputText" .../>

This is equivalent to writing the following JSF code:

<h:inputText .../>

As stated in the Facelets documentation here or here, the attribute jsfc can also be used to "map" Facelets components. For example, you can remove a part of the HTML code:

<span jsfc="ui:remove">
This won't be compiled either <h:outputText value="#{foo.bar}"/>
</span>

You can also create a table using this attribute:

<table>
    <tr jsfc="ui:repeat" value="#{dept.employees}" var="emp" class="#{emp.manager ? 'mngr' : 'peon'}">
       <td>#{emp.lastName}</td>
       <td>#{emp.firstName}</td>
    </tr>
</table>

In this example, we do not link this table to a h:datatable component, but we create a table with HTML code, using the JSF component ui:repeat to iterate on rows.

As you can see, the jsfc attribute can be used to convert one HTML component into one JSF component in a JSF page. So for complex components, such as the datatable, you will have to use some workarounds (using ui:repeat instead of the h:datatable component).

Another point is that you will not be able to use third-libraries components such as the ones proposed by RichFaces, IceFaces, Tomahawk, and so on. And these libraries are really one of the interests of JSF.

So to summarize: jsfc can be usefull to transform a HTML prototype into a JSF applications, essentially for creating Proof of Concepts or designing the general UI. However, I think it is better to avoid this component once the "real" development starts...