[jboss-user] [JBoss Seam] - Simple but complete Maven or ant example project needed

[hazlorealidad]

I want to recount my experiences with Seam, in the hope that the developers/documenters can make it less complex to write a seam application.

Im going to concentrate on the negative points as they are the ones that I think need fixing.

After reading the documentation I saw that Seam solves a lot of the problems that I have come across in web development.

I installed jboss and downloaded the seam cvs and deployed the example programs.
Great! I understood the simple examples and they worked, fantastic.
 
Then I had a look at DVD store and HotelBooking but they are kind of Phd material, I installed them and they worked but as for understanding them hmmm.

Then I tried to create my own project, the nightmare began ...  to figure out what files you need in what places is complex, (Im not a J2EE developer but have used struts, spring, hibernate (ejb3), jbpm and drools separately) 

I wanted to use tomahawk with the dataTable and inputDate component, too complicated!,
even now I couldnt tell you how I managed to get it configured.
Then I tried getting the file upload configured, more classloading issues.

I think there is a need for some intermediate examples.  

Better still a kind of template application that has all of the configuration files in place
-sticks to the best practices of classloading (hierarchical????)
-uses JAAS for the Login with tomcat security
-uses Security interceptors to make sure that the user is authorised
-uses tomahawk
-uses ADF Faces (dont know if tomahawk and adf faces can be used in the same project)
-fileupload (tomahawk)
-facelets
-tag files
-datascrollers
-jbpm
-drools
-portlets
-jasper reports
-mail

Seam integrates a lot of cool things but the configuration is a nightmare, I know everything
is complex at first but it could be a lot smoother to learn with a base application.

I think it would be good to have all the functionality in one application, but split the application
into easy to understand sections, or another idea is for all the examples stemming from a common layout and comment out the bits that arent needed for a particular example.

I would like to write a maven archetype for Seam but at the moment am still struggling
to get to grips with a fairly simple application.

I know that a lot of the problems that I have had are due to classloading that is a general jboss problem and nothing to do with the seam developers.

Another thing that would be good is a fairly high level block diagram of seam,
what it does in what order, how Injection and Outjection work, in what order the methods get called. 
(I just got hit by the seam Logger not getting injected before a PostConstruct method was
called)

 When I finally get to understand it I think Ill write a book called "Seams Easy"

I can see that its a great product, but wow what a steep learning curve.

If any seam expert is interested I can send them my maven (hacked about) project to improve on it and then when it is ready for general use put it on the web.

Thanks in advance.

Andy Bailey
www.hazlorealidad.com

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