Book Review: Packt's JBoss Richfaces 3.3

Packt folks sent me a copy of "JBoss Richfaces 3.3" so that I could do a review of the book in my blog. I am almost done with the book and probably would have started on writing review over the holidays break but another review came up which pretty much is in line with what I have in mind. You can read it at http://edemmorny.wordpress.com/2009/12/22/book-review-packts-jboss-richfaces-3-3/ . Thanks Edem for saving me some typing. I would still like to summarize the book in few bullet points:

Good Points:

• A complete application from start to finish along with Seam and JPA integration.
• Good explanation of some core Richfaces concepts such as placeholder, ajaxSingle, region, process
• Skinning support and how you can create yours
• Good use case for Poll, Push, data iteration component and its partial update

Not so good points:

• First five chapters of book is equally split between Richfaces, Seam and JPA. Given that this book is for beginner, these other frameworks add to the complexity and more than likely will confuse reader.
• Seam is a great framework but it's not a must have to use Richfaces. The book gives you an impression that you can not get easily started with Richfaces without Seam and seamgen.

How would I have written this book:

Given that the book is tailored towards readers who are familiar with JSF 1.2 ,I would have started with a simple JSF project and added Richfaces feature
on top of the project. Then describe how Richfaces lifecycle fits into JSF lifecyle and so on. This way transition is smooth and helps a reader see how Richfaces fits well with JSF. Most of users who post questions in Richfaces user forum fall into the group who know JSF and want to know more about Richfaces.

I wish you happy holidays and a great new year.