dev@javaserverfaces.java.net

Continuous Consonance: Component Contribution Complete

From: Jason Lee <lee_at_iecokc.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 00:20:56 -0600

I had planned to send this out earlier, but vacation has a bad habit of cutting into work. :) I have completed the merging of my YUI components, as well as the components of mine that my company (specifically, my boss, Mitch) offered to contribute. Those components are:

* YUI Calendar
* YUI Menu
* YUI Menu Bar
* YUI Context Menu
* File download component
* Multi-file upload component
* A simplified NavigationHandler (return "foo" looks for foo.xhtml, for example, before falling back to the default handler)
* UISelectItem extension (which I'll admit, I don't understand at the moment :)

I have all of these in the RI sandbox, and ready for cruel, unrestrained, and public bashing. :P I readily grant that some are a bit rough (which is why they're in the sandbox), but they all seem to work for the use case which spawned them. That's a shifty way of saying, they work for what we need them to, but they likely need a lot of work to make them more generally useful.

I have a list of things to look at, including refactoring the calendar to allow for either pop-up or (for lack of a better term) always open/flat calendar, either via separate components or an attribute on the existing one; I haven't decided yet. The upload component makes use of a Java applet to work around a limitation in web browsers with regard to file selection. To make it work, the applet must be signed (we -- IEC-- are using our cert at the moment), but that's an issue that needs to be thought through and hammered down. I still need to get at least basic support for the other YUI widgets and possibly Jack Slocum's extensions started and usable. And on and on...

This is the first time these components have really seen the light of day outside of IEC or my house. :P It may be that some aren't really what's wanted in the sandbox, which is fine. We can remove them from the sandbox tree and return them to the tree from whence they came. That's not a problem, so please feel free to poke at them, edit them, fix them, extend them, and/or delete them. They're a contribution. Freely given, and just as easily freely rejected. :) If no one speaks up, though I'm going to assume that everything is copacetic and will continue to work in the tree. I had planned to document them some over the break, but as my vacation winds down, that's becoming less likely, so, if you have questions, please feel free to ask here, or on IRC (though I'm not as reachable there, as I have a day job :).

Anyway, that's the status. I hope that all makes sense. I'm now going to try to get some sleep before my newborn wakes up at what will likely be about 15 minutes after I lay down. ;)

It's been a great year working with everyone here. I hope I've helped out at least a bit. :) Looking forward to a great 2007. :)

Jason Lee, SCJP
JSF RI Dev Team
Programmer/Analyst
http://www.iec-okc.com