Posted under JSF
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Tags JSF, Primefaces
Primefaces uses the theming capability of jQuery, including the ability to create your own themes using ThemeRoller. This powerful facility separates theme specific CSS from structural CSS which defines the layout of UI components such as tables. At the time of writing, Primefaces has 32 different themes. It does also have a themeSwitcher component, but this has some issues which make it less than ideal for many environments. In addition, the structure of the themes has changed as of version 2.2 – they are now deployed in jars rather than as bare resource files. The following lists the salient issues and desirable features regarding the theme switcher:-
- When switching themes, rather than using a theme deployed with the application, the Primefaces themeSwitcher downloads the new theme from the internet and installs it directly, which is undesirable in many environments.
- Ideally, as well as using the themes deployed with the application, the themeSwitcher should be configurable dynamically to allow new themes to be easily added.
- The theme switcher should also, as far as possible, derive its theme list presented to the user dynamically from the themes that have actually been deployed. Failing this, it should be possible to configure this list as a deployment configuration option, i.e. in web.xml
- It would be desirable to isolate the theme Switcher from any further changes to the Primefaces theming structure. For example, if a plug-in architecture is used, a new theming interface can be incorporated simply by adding a new plug-in.
The Theme Manager attempts to address all of the above issues to provide a flexible and upgradeable solution to Primefaces theming. The Theme Manager including PDF documentation will be found in the repository here.
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