ICEfaces is an open source Ajax application framework that enables Java EE application developers to easily create and deploy server-based rich Internet applications (RIA) in pure Java.

ICEfaces leverages the entire standards-based Java EE ecosystem of tools and execution environments. Rich enterprise application features are developed in pure Java, and in a pure thin-client model. There are no Applets or proprietary browser plug-ins required. ICEfaces applications are JavaServer Faces (JSF) applications, so Java EE application development skills apply directly and Java developers are isolated from doing any JavaScript related development.

Community

The ICEfaces community now counts over 25,000 developers worldwide as of December 2007. The ICEfaces Community is anchored around ICEfaces.org. Contributed and administered by ICEsoft Technologies Inc., ICEfaces.org is a place where enterprise Ajax developers can learn, share, and contribute information and ideas to a growing community of ICEfaces enterprise developers. This site provides a wide range of development and support resources to benefit all ICEfaces developers. Source code and pre-bundled IDE tool integrations are available for download. Numerous tutorials, on-line support, user forums and sample code are all easily accessible to help get you up and developing that much quicker.

http://www.icefaces.org

Benefits

Rich User Experience: Create a superior user experience and produce more effective enterprise Java EE applications. Leverage the ICEfaces Component Suite of 50+ Ajax JSF components and create a new class of enterprise applications that will transform the user experience.

Open Source: ICEfaces is the most successful enterprise Ajax framework available under open source. The ICEfaces developer community is extremely vibrant, already exceeding 25,000 developers (12/2008) in 36 countries worldwide. ICEfaces is licensed under the Mozilla Public License (MPL).

Standards-based: ICEfaces is a pure Java enterprise solution so developers can continue to work the way they are use to. Existing Java IDEs and test tools can be leveraged during development.

Transparent Ajax: ICEfaces is much more than a component suite it is an Ajax application framework that provides ease of development for Java/JSF developers. ICEfaces applications are developed with minimal design effort in Java/JSF not JavaScript.

interoperability: ICEfaces supports the broadest array of Java application servers, IDEs, third party components, and JavaScript effect libraries of any enterprise Ajax framework on the market.

Ajax Push: ICEfaces pioneered Ajax Push enabling server/application initiated content rendering to the browser. With Ajax Push, developers can create collaborative and dynamic enterprise applications like never before. There is simply no easier way to develop Ajax Push applications.

Security: ICEfaces is the most secure Ajax solution on the market today. It is compatible with SSL, prevents cross-site scripting, malicious code injection and unauthorized data mining. ICEfaces is a server-based Ajax solution so it doesn't expose application logic or user data plus it is particularly effective at preventing fake form submits and SQL injection attacks.

Scalability and Clustering: The Asynchronous HTTP Server (AHS) provides high-scalability support for ICEfaces applications that utilize Ajax Push and must be deployed to high volumes of concurrent users. ICEfaces applications can scale to meet the demand of highly-interactive, enterprise applications that require large-scale, clustered deployments - a critical requirement often not addressed by other solutions.

Architecture

Application Development Model

The primary goal behind the ICEfaces architecture is to give the application developers with a familiar Java enterprise development model, and completely shelter them from the complexities of low-level Ajax development in JavaScript. The key to the ICEfaces architecture is a server-centric application model, where all application logic is developed in pure Java, and executes in a standard Java application server runtime environment. This means that existing Java EE infrastructure, development environments, and best practices remain relevant and useful. The way Java EE applications are developed today will not change in any significant way, and you will not need to completely rearchitect your existing applications to incorporate rich Ajax-based features.

The rich presentation features of ICEfaces are based on the JavaServer Faces standard. ICEfaces applications development is essentially JSF development, which promotes a component-based architecture using familiar tag-based declaritive UI definition and dynamic data binding into the server-resident application data model. Utilizing the ICEfaces Ajax-enabled component suite, which provides all the standard JSF components as well as a complete set of extended components, developers can build a standard JSF application that adheres to the standard server-centric JSF application lifecycle, but benefits automatically from rich Ajax-based features of ICEfaces. Because ICEfaces supports Ajax Push style applications, it extends the JSF framework to give a trigger-based, server-initiated rendering API that make it simple to enhance applications with instantaneous presentation updates based on server-resident application state changes. Using ICEfaces and pure Java/JSF programming techniques application developers will be able to develop next-generation rich web applications without ever having to write a single line of JavaScript.

Architecture

While the underlying Ajax-based rich presentation mechanism in the ICEfaces implementation is completely transparent to the application developer, it is useful to understand what is happening behind the scenes in a ICEfaces applications. There are three core elements to the ICEfaces architecture:

1-ICEfaces Framework

The ICEfaces Framework is an extension to the standard JSF framework, with the key difference in ICEfaces relating to the rendering phase. In standard JSF, the render phase produces new markup for the current application state, and delivers that to the browser, where a full page refresh occurs. With the ICEfaces framework, rendering occurs into a server-side DOM and only incremental changes to the DOM are delivered to the browser and reassembled with a lightweight Ajax Bridge. This results in seamless, smooth update of the browser page with only the necessary presentation elements being rerendered. The ICEfaces Framework also provides complete run-time management of Ajax Push using the server-initiated rendering APIs, and integrates that mechanism seamlessly with the JSF lifecycle.

2-Ajax Bridge

The Ajax Bridge has server-resident and client-resident elements that coordinate Ajax- based communication between the client browser and the server-resident application. The Bridge is accountable for delivering incremental presentation changes from the render phase to the browser client, and reassembling those changes in the browser DOM to affect presentation changes. The Bridge is also accountable for detecting user interaction with the presentation, and delivering user events back to the application for processing through the standard JSF lifecycle. A mechanism call partial submit is built into the ICEfaces components and facilitates automatic event generation across the bridge, so the application developer is not exposed to the low-level event mechanism. The Ajax Bridge is established automatically on first page load of the application and coordinates presentation updates and user event transmission for the entire lifetime of the application.

3-ICEfaces Component Suite

The ICEfaces Component Suite provides all of the building blocks for the application UI. It includes both the standard JSF components, and a wide array of advanced components that enable the developer to assemble sophisticated application interfaces efficiently. All ICEfaces component renders leverage the server-based, direct-to-DOM rendering mechanism provided in the framework, and use their partial submit attribute to facilitate automated event generation over the Ajax Bridge based on user interaction with the component's presentation. Optionally, ICEfaces components can be enabled with a variety of script.acul.us effects such as drag and drop. Again, ICEfaces components carry attributes that enable various effects, so the developer is never exposed to low-level JavaScript programming to get dynamic features from a component.

Release history

ICEfaces Technology Preview - June 2005

ICEfaces 0.1.0 Early Access Release - August 2005

ICEfaces 0.2.0 Alpha - October 2005

ICEfaces 0.3.0 Alpha - January 2006

ICEfaces 1.0 Beta - April 2006

ICEfaces 1.0 Community Edition - May 2006

ICEfaces 1.5 Open Source - November 2006

ICEfaces 1.6 July 2007

Latest Release: http://www.icefaces.org/main/downloads/