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This guide covers the usage of Visual Web Tools in JBoss Developer Studio and JBoss Tools. The difference between these products is that JBoss Tools are just a set of Eclipse plugins, where JBoss Developer Studio adds the following functionality:
An installer
Eclipse and Web Tools preconfigured
JBoss EAP with JBoss AS and Seam preconfigured
Third party plugins bundled and configured
Access to Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Network
Access to the JBoss and Red Hat supported software
For additional information, please visit the JBoss Developer Studio home page.
In JBoss Tools there is an extensive collection of specialized wizards, editors and views that can be used in various scenarios while developing Web applications. The following chapters walk through these features.
Here is the table of the main features of Visual Web Tools:
Table 1.1. Key Functionality for Visual Web Tools
| Feature | Benefit | Chapter |
|---|---|---|
| Visual Page Editor | Powerful and customizable visual page editor that provides the ability to develop an application using any web technology including JSF, Seam, JSP, HTML and others. Development is done using three tabs: Visual/Source, 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. | Section 3.2, “Visual Page Editor” |
| Multiple Editors |
An extensive collection of specialized editors for different file types including properties, TLD, web.xml, tiles, and so on. These include Graphical Properties Editor, Graphical TLD Editor, Graphical Web Application File (web.xml) Editor, CSS Editor, JavaScript Editor, XSD Editor, and support for XML Schema.
| Section 3.3, “More Editors” |
| 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 controlling the number of tag groups shown on the palette.
| Chapter 5, 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 projects. Expanding and inspecting tag library files. Selecting custom and third-party tag libraries to drag and drop onto the JBoss Tools Palette.
| Chapter 8, Web Projects View |
| OpenOn | Easy navigation between views and other parts of your projects. | Section 3.1.1, “OpenOn” |
| Content Assist | Code completion proposals while working with HTML, Java, JavaScript , XML, JSP, XHTML, seam project and JSF configuration files. Content assist based on project data (dynamic code assist). Code completion for values from property files, beans attributes and methods, navigation rule outcomes and JSF variables. | Section 3.1.2, “Content Assist” |
| 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 dragging to source code.
| Section 3.2, “Visual Page Editor” Section 8.2, “Drag and Drop” |
| RichFaces Support | Tight integration between JBoss Developer Studio 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. | Chapter 7, RichFaces Support |
| Flexible Configuration | Various features of JBoss Developer Studio can be easily configured via the Preferences screen. | Chapter 9, JBoss Tools Preferences |
All JBoss Developer Studio and JBoss Tools release documentation can be found on the RedHat Documentation website in the corresponding release directory.
The latest documentation is available as nightly builds.