1.1. Key Features of Visual Web Tools

Here is the table of main features of Visual Web Tools:

Feature Benefit Chapter
Visual Page Editor Powerful and customizable visual page editor. Possibility to develop an application using any web technology: jsf, seam, struts, jsp, html and others. Developing using four tabs: visual/source, visual, source and preview. Fast and easy switching between these tabs. Split screen design of visual and source views. Full and instant synchronization between source and visual views. Integration with properties and outline views. Graphical toolbar to add inline styling to any tag. visual page editor
JBoss Tools Palette Organizing various tags by groups, inserting tags into a jsp or xhtml page with one click, adding custom or 3rd party tag libraries into the palette, easy controling the number of tag groups shown on the palette. jboss tools palette
Web Projects View Visualizing and displaying projects by function. Easy selecting of different kinds of items and dropping them into jsp pages. Using context menus to develop the application. Using icon shortcuts to create and import JSF and Struts projects. Expanding and inspecting tag library files. Selecting custom and third-party tag libraries to drag and drop onto the JBoss Tools Palette. web projects view
JSF and Facelets support Step-by-step wizards for creating new JSF and Facelets projects with a number of predefined templates, importing existing ones and adding JSF capabilities to non-jsf web projects. jsf support
Flexible and customizable project template management Jump-start development with out-of-the-box templates or easily customized templates for re-use. working with projects
Support for Managed Beans Adding new managed beans, generating code for attributes, properties and getter/setter methods. managed beans
OpenOn Easy navigation between views and other parts of your projects. facelets support
Content Assist Code completion proposals while working in java, xml, jsp, xhtml, xhtml, seam project and jsf configuration files. Content assist based on project data (dynamic code assist); with graphical editor. Code completion for values from property files, beans attributes and methods, navigation rule outcomes and jsf variables. content assist
Support for Custom Converters and Validators Fast creating of custom converters and validators with tree view of faces-config.xml file. converters and validators
Verification and Validation All occuring errors will be immediately reported by verification feature, no matter in what view you are working. Constant validation and errors checking allows to catch many of the errors during development process that significantly reduces development time. verification and validation
Drag-and-Drop Possibility of inserting any tag onto the page you are editing by just drag-and-droping it from the palette to this page. Adding any properties, managed bean attributes, navigation rules, tag library file declarations, jsp files from web projects view by clicking them and draging to source code. visual page editor drag-and-drop
Struts Support Step-by-step wizards for creating a new struts project with a number of predefined templates, importing existing ones and adding struts capabilities to non-struts web projects. struts support
Support for JSF and Struts Configuration Files Working on files using three modes: diagram, tree and source. Synchronization between the modes and full control over the code. Easy moving around the diagram using the Diagram Navigator. Working with struts projects that have multiple modules. Possibility to use Struts configuration file debugger allowing to set break points on struts diagram and then launch the server in debug mode. graphical editor for jsf graphical editor for struts
Rich Faces Support Tight integration between JBDS and RichFaces frameworks. Easy managing RichFaces components in any web application. Support for RichFaces and Ajax4jsf libraries in JBoss Tools Palette. Rendering RichFaces components in Visual Page Editor. rich faces support

Table 1.1. Key Functionality for Visual Web Tools