Image Credit: Wiki

In 2005, I blogged about world wide web moving to Client UI Architecture. It was those initial days when as a developer I was beginning to like JSF. Over the last 9 years, I've spent majority of my engineering days working on JSF and the various metaphors of it (you name it). Today, I'm seeing a steep decline in the JSF adoption. Why, do you ask?


For one, Web Client Architecture itself is nearing its half-life. Mobile-first strategy is ruling the next-gen and the majority of CXOs surveyed sees it as the next big wave. Within the Web Client Applications itself, HTML 5 / CSS 3 and JS based apps have long-started to dominate the proceedings. And then, there are emerging technologies like node.js which changes the whole development paradigm. Then, who do you expect to learn and use JSF?

To see the transition in action, look at the home page of Exadel for example. You won't find the reference to our once favorite Richfaces anywhere. Check out ICESoft homepage; ICEmobile is up there although they still have some decent references to ICEfaces. Or check out this comparison of the available web frameworks; JSF 2 fares lowest among the frameworks evaluated.

I would sincerely wish to be proved wrong on this one. Anyone?