JBoss.comEnterprise Documentation
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
3rd party plugins bundled and configured
access to RHEL and Red Hat Network
access to the JBoss/Red Hat supported software
For additional information, please visit the JBoss Developer Studio home page at: http://www.jboss.com/products/devstudio.
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. 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 |
| OpenOn | Easy navigation between views and other parts of your projects. | openOn |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |