Does the Eclipse IDE support JSF 2.0?

Question

I have the WTP 3.1 plugin installed and have also installed the Glassfish v3 plugin. I am able to register my server.

When I create a dynamic web project, I can see that the maximum dynamic web module version available is 2.5. I then choose the default configuration for Glassfish v3 but, when I look at it JSF, it is not selected by default. When I select it, the maximum version available is 1.2.

I want to use JSF with facelets - does Eclipse support this? I can't seem to find anything helpful on the Eclipse WTP site.

Answer 1

Java EE 6 / JSF 2.0 is relatively new. Most tools are already ready, but Eclipse has to catch up it yet.

The status as far:

• IntelliJ Ultimate Edition was early in this. Unfortunately not freeware. Note: the free Community Edition doesn't provide tools for much of Java EE, let alone JSF.

• Netbeans 6.8 came a bit later almost full Java EE 6 support, including JSF 2.0.

• Eclipse for Java EE planned to support Facelets in Galileo, but it was cancelled and postponed to the successor Helios which is currently in one of its latest Release Candidate stages been released at 24 July 2010. Helios for Java EE will ship with full fledged Java EE 6 support, including JSF 2.0.

As of now, it just works fine in Eclipse Ganymede/Galileo when you select JSF 1.2 and uses JSF 2.0 libraries. You'll only miss some code assistance which may be useful for JSF 2.0, but you can write code as good yourself.