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Asked: 2026-05-26T23:04:15+00:00

I’m a newcomer to JSF and am still trying to follow examples to learn

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I’m a newcomer to JSF and am still trying to follow examples to learn the basics of how it works, and that has now lead me to begin exploring ICEFaces.

I love the concept behind GWT that you can just write in pure Java and have it compile down to JS and HTML, but I have also heard that ICEFaces offers a lot of things that GWT doesn’t.

That led me to start thinking: is there a way to combine the two in a project, and get the best of both worlds? Is it possible to get the AJAX-centricity, rich UIs and underlying capabilities of JSF, but then use GWT to handle all the client-side code generation?

I looked at something called ICEPush which may very well do just this, but without fully understanding the roles both technologies play in MVC web apps I wanted to take a moment and see what the SO community thought of such a hybrid solution.

Having said that, I was wondering if someone could break down – in quasi laymans terms – the intentional difference between these two frameworks, and to give argumentation as to why they can be – or shouldn’t be – combined inside the same project.

Essentially I’m looking for an AJAX-friendly, rich UI Java webapp framework that is open source, has an active dev community, and comes loaded decent/good documentation.

Also, not that beggars can be choosers, but I’d appreciate it if answerers don’t solicit other solutions besides ICEFaces or GWT. I’m very well aware that these are not the only two webapp frameworks out there, and this question isn’t going to convince me to start using either of them; I’m simply interested if their strengths can be combined, or not.

Thanks in advance.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    JSF in general makes heavy usage of javascript. JSF or bette the JSF frameworks provide lots of components. The Javascript is generated on the fly.

    GWT compiles the Javascript upfront. It provides some components as well. GWT is doing AJAX calls to its interfaces.

    I’m not aware of any bridge that allows you to integrate JSF with GWT. So there is no interface and those technologies don’t work together.

    Both come with good documentation and have an active community.

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