Thanks J! That sounds similar to what I am thinking except that I prefer avoid custom XML and would more than likely build up the configuration (for the Facelets templates to forward to) in code. Your framework classes are what I am thinking of as my "FormBuilder". They use whatever metadata they can get their hands on but can be overridden where necessary. The "custom facelets resolver" was the missing piece for me. Thanks so much for your post. If you have time I'd love to hear more about your ideas. Still not sure about the c: logic tags in the "generic renders" - why do you need it? Why do you need to build a renderer? Have you been able to separate layout from the component tree construction? i.e. can you build a form with metadata and then lay it out in the Facelets template specifying different parts of the form in separate fieldsets for instance? This is the approach taken for the tail end of the article Improving JSF by dumping JSP. Cheers, Steve. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4109118#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...