DZone
Java Zone
Thanks for visiting DZone today,
Edit Profile
  • Manage Email Subscriptions
  • How to Post to DZone
  • Article Submission Guidelines
Sign Out View Profile
  • Post an Article
  • Manage My Drafts
Over 2 million developers have joined DZone.
Log In / Join
  • Refcardz
  • Trend Reports
  • Webinars
  • Zones
  • |
    • Agile
    • AI
    • Big Data
    • Cloud
    • Database
    • DevOps
    • Integration
    • IoT
    • Java
    • Microservices
    • Open Source
    • Performance
    • Security
    • Web Dev
DZone > Java Zone > Metawidget: Display Screens, Facelets, and Improved Pluggability

Metawidget: Display Screens, Facelets, and Improved Pluggability

Geertjan Wielenga user avatar by
Geertjan Wielenga
·
Apr. 22, 08 · Java Zone · News
Like (0)
Save
Tweet
6.61K Views

Join the DZone community and get the full member experience.

Join For Free
Metawidget, the library that lets you generate a user interface from your domain objects, has come out with a new release. In an interview here on JavaLobby some months ago, Richard Kennard, Metawidget's creator, outlined the basic aims of the project and walked us through an example. In summary, Metawidget takes your existing back-end domain objects and creates, at runtime, UI components native to your existing front-end framework, as illustrated below:

Although it is a minor release, and again pre-1.0, (in fact, v0.43), a number of significant enhancements have now been made available. The release focuses specifically on the following feature enhancements:

  • Read-only mode for displaying business objects.

    Metawidgets can now toggle a setReadOnly mode, so now Metawidget can not only automatically generate the UI for data entry screens but also data display screens too. This potentially doubles the number of places in an application where a chunk of boilerplate code can be replaced with a Metawidget call.

    Reference:
    Metawidget: now twice as useful!

  • Facelets support.

    The Java Server Faces (JSF) Metawidget now supports the popular Facelets framework. Coupled with the existing JBoss RichFaces support, this makes it easy to retrofit existing JBoss Seam applications to remove boilerplate code.

    Reference:
    Using Metawidget with Seam, Facelets, JPA and Hibernate Validator

  • Mixin to ease development of custom Metawidgets.

    Whilst all Metawidgets necessarily extend the base classes of their target framework (such as JComponent for Swing and UIComponent for JSF), the new MetawidgetMixin gives a boost to those looking to develop custom Metawidgets. It provides pre-built functionality such as deciding when to use single versus compound widgets, support for overriding widgets, incorporating stubs, and changing between read-only and active modes.

    Reference:
    Implementing Your Own Metawidget and Plugging into Metawidget.

 

When learning about Metawidget, the best place to start is the Reference Documentation (PDF).

Your feedback is invaluable to the Metawidget team, use the Forums on the Metawidget site for this purpose.

Facelets

Opinions expressed by DZone contributors are their own.

Popular on DZone

  • Why I'm Choosing Pulumi Over Terraform
  • How to Set Up and Run PostgreSQL Change Data Capture
  • Don't Underestimate Documentation
  • Counting Faster With Postgres

Comments

Java Partner Resources

ABOUT US

  • About DZone
  • Send feedback
  • Careers
  • Sitemap

ADVERTISE

  • Advertise with DZone

CONTRIBUTE ON DZONE

  • Article Submission Guidelines
  • MVB Program
  • Become a Contributor
  • Visit the Writers' Zone

LEGAL

  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Policy

CONTACT US

  • 600 Park Offices Drive
  • Suite 300
  • Durham, NC 27709
  • support@dzone.com
  • +1 (919) 678-0300

Let's be friends:

DZone.com is powered by 

AnswerHub logo