Modern Web Apps with HTML5 Web Components and Polymer, Java EE MVC and JAX-RS

Kito Mann (@kito99), Virtua, Inc.

Kito D. Mann (@kito99)

  • Principal Consultant at Virtua (http://www.virtua.com)

  • Training, consulting, architecture, mentoring

    • PrimeFaces, JSF, Java EE, Web Components, Polymer, Liferay, etc.

  • Official US PrimeFaces partner

  • Author, JavaServer Faces in Action

  • Founder, JSF Central (http://www.jsfcentral.com)

Kito D. Mann (@kito99)

MVC

  • New JSR (371) for Java EE 8

  • Action-based server-side framework like Spring MVC

  • Based on community feedback

  • Current release: EDR2

  • MVC will sit alongside with JSF in Java EE (not a replacement)

MVC

  • In the last year, the community has added a couple of additional features (no official release)

  • Oracle has proposed dropping MVC from Java EE 8

  • If you disagree (or agree), fill out the survey: http://glassfish.org/survey

MVC and JSF?

Component Frameworks
Component-based frameworks (image from Ed Burns: Why Another MVC?)

MVC and JSF?

Action Frameworks
Action-based frameworks (image from Ed Burns: Why Another MVC?)

MVC

  • Built on top of JAX-RS

  • Controllers must use CDI

  • Controllers can be in request scope

  • Allows you to handle errors inside of Controllers instead of globally like JAX-RS

MVC

  • Bring your own template engine!

  • Built-in support for CSRF protection

  • Support for encoding to avoid XSS attacks

What about UI Components?

UI Components are Everywhere

page with components

UI Components are Everywhere

page with components annotated

UI Components are Everywhere

  • Component models have been popular since the early ninenties

    • Visual Basic

    • Delphi

    • PowerBuilder

    • WinForms

    • Windows Presentaiton Framework

    • ASP.NET

    • Swing

    • JavaFX

    • JavaServer Faces

    • Tapestry

UI Components are Everywhere

  • In the browser, component suites must invent their own models:

    • YUI

    • KendoUI

    • Bootstrap

    • jQuery UI

    • Wijmo

    • PrimeUI

    • Infragistics

Why do We Build Components?

  • Reusable UI functionality

    • Within a single application

    • Across multiple applications

  • You can focus on the core application functionality

HTML Markup Doesn’t Support Non-Native Components

page with components source

We Work with Abstractions

  • Programming model may be componentized, but native markup is not

We Work with Abstractions

PrimeFaces (JavaServer Faces) DataTable

<p:dataTable var="car" value="#{dtPaginatorView.cars}" rows="10"
                     paginator="true"
                     paginatorTemplate="{CurrentPageReport}  {FirstPageLink} {PreviousPageLink} {PageLinks} {NextPageLink} {LastPageLink} {RowsPerPageDropdown}"
                     rowsPerPageTemplate="5,10,15">
    <p:column headerText="Id">
        <h:outputText value="#{car.id}" />
    </p:column>

    <p:column headerText="Year">
        <h:outputText value="#{car.year}" />
    </p:column>

    <p:column headerText="Brand">
        <h:outputText value="#{car.brand}" />
    </p:column>

    <p:column headerText="Color">
        <h:outputText value="#{car.color}" />
    </p:column>
</p:dataTable>

We Work with Abstractions

Bootstrap Dropdowns

<div class="dropdown">
  <button class="btn btn-default dropdown-toggle" type="button" id="dropdownMenu1" data-toggle="dropdown" aria-expanded="true">
    Dropdown
    <span class="caret"></span>
  </button>
  <ul class="dropdown-menu" role="menu" aria-labelledby="dropdownMenu1">
    <li role="presentation"><a role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" href="#">Action</a></li>
    <li role="presentation"><a role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" href="#">Another action</a></li>
    <li role="presentation"><a role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" href="#">Something else here</a></li>
    <li role="presentation"><a role="menuitem" tabindex="-1" href="#">Separated link</a></li>
  </ul>
</div>

We Work with Abstractions

jQuery UI Tabs

<div id="tabs">
  <ul>
    <li><a href="#tabs-1">Nunc tincidunt</a></li>
    <li><a href="#tabs-2">Proin dolor</a></li>
    <li><a href="#tabs-3">Aenean lacinia</a></li>
  </ul>
  <div id="tabs-1">
    ...
  </div>
  <div id="tabs-2">
 	...
  </div>
  <div id="tabs-3">
	...
</div>

What is a Web Component?

  • Web components bring a native component model to HTML

What is a Web Component?

polymer paper example1

What is a Web Component?

<paper-action-dialog backdrop autoCloseDisabled layered="false">
  <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.</p>

  <paper-button affirmative autofocus>Tap me to close</paper-button>
</paper-action-dialog>

Web Components == Collection of HTML5 Standards

  • Custom Elements

  • HTML Templates

  • HTML Imports

  • Shadow DOM

    • (Custom CSS Properties)

Demo

Closing the Browser Gap

  • Chrome/Android and Opera support everything

  • IE doesn’t support anything

  • All other browsers support HTML Templates

  • Shadow DOM and Custom Elements in development for Firefox and Safari

    • "Under consideration" for Edge; likely to be added later

  • HTML Imports not supported in other browsers

    • "Under consideration" for Edge; not planned in Firefox and Safari

Closing the Browser Gap

polyfill
[pol-ee-fil]
noun
In web development, a polyfill (or polyfiller) is downloadable code which provides facilities that are not built into a web browser. It implements technology that a developer expects the browser to provide natively, providing a more uniform API landscape. For example, many features of HTML5 are not supported by versions of Internet Explorer older than version 8 or 9, but can be used by web pages if those pages install a polyfill. Web shims and HTML5 Shivs are related concepts.

 — Wikipedia

Closing the Browser Gap

  • webcomponents.js

    • Polyfill for all specs created by Polymer group at Google

    • webcomponents-lite.js excludes shadow DOM

Closing the Browser Gap

webcomponents.js browser support

polyfill browser support

~ Indicates support may be flaky.

Web Components in the Wild

Writing Web Components

What is Poylmer?

webcomponents stack

Polymer

  • Library for building web components

  • Extensive feature set

    • Simplified programming model

    • Two-way data binding

    • Declarative event handling

    • Behaviors (mixins)

    • Property observation

  • Also hosts extensive sets of web components

  • Extensive set of tools

    • Build, testing, designer, etc.

  • Used in over 4 million web pages

Polymer

  • Developed by and used internally by Google

  • Used in over 400 Google projects

    • Over 1 billion users

    • Over 4,000 custom web components

    • Examples: Chrome, Play, Fi, YouTube Gaming, and Translate

  • Heavily promoted (Polymer Summit, Polycasts, etc.)

Polymer

<dom-module id="seed-element">

  <template>
    <style>
      :host {
        display: block;
        box-sizing: border-box;
      }
    </style>
    <content></content>
    <p class="author">
      <img src="{{author.image}}">
      Cheers, {{author.name}}!
    </p>
  </template>

</dom-module>

<script>

  Polymer({

    is: 'seed-element',

    properties: {
      fancy: Boolean,

      author: {
        type: Object,
        value: function() {
          return {
            name:  'Dimitri Glazkov',
            image: 'http://addyosmani.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/unicorn.jpg',
          };
        }
      },

    },

    // Element Lifecycle

    ready: function() {
      // `ready` is called after all elements have been configured, but
      // propagates bottom-up. This element's children are ready, but parents
      // are not.
    },

    attached: function() {
      // `attached` fires once the element and its parents have been inserted
      // into a document.
    },

    detached: function() {
      // The analog to `attached`, `detached` fires when the element has been
      // removed from a document.
    },

    // Element Behavior

    sayHello: function(greeting) {
      var response = greeting || 'Hello World!';
      return 'seed-element says, ' + response;
    }

  });

</script>

Polymer Element Catalog

polymer element sets

Polymer Element Catalog

Sample Application: Polymer with Java EE MVC

Questions?