Sun's Portal server features a library that allows the creation of JSF-based portlets. Now, much of that code forms the basis of a new java.net project, JSFPortletBridge.

Previously a subject under the main JSF java.net project, the newly independent JSF-portlet bridge includes these features:

• Supports all three Portlet Modes(VIEW, EDIT and HELP)
• Support for the ability to deploy a JSF-based portlet as a remote portlet.
• An updated tag library that does not require any parameters.
• Support for both client side and server side state saving.

Portlets and JSF share many characteristics, as they both aim to componentize Web application development. Portlets help aggregate content in a composite page, each portlet producing a fragment of HTML output, providing well-defined semantics for the lifecycle and interaction of portlets in a page. Similarly, JSF encapsulates user interface components in an object-oriented way, with each component rendering a view that is often a fragment of HTML. And JSF similary provides for the lifecycle and interaction of user-interface components in a page.

Portlets and JSF are both component-based Web UI frameworks for Java. When would you choose one or the other? And when would you use both, as this project aims to help you do?