How do portlets relate to JSF?

Question

I haven't worked with Java Portlets or with JSF 'till now and thought I might try to learn something about them. From a high view it seems to me that both are used for building component-based user interfaces for web applications. The more I read, the more I find it confusing.

I know portlets need to run in a portlet container but both technologies seem like "widget" builders.

How do portlets relate to JSF?

Answer 1

A high-level analogy:

Portlet Container                 Desktop Windowing System
==========================================================
Portlet                           Window
JSF                               Widget Framework
JSF tag                           Widget

The portlet provides an API that allows a application to receive and respond to requests from the container. It does not specify what you use to render your portlet views or how the application organizes its data. In this, a portlet is similar to a servlet.

JSF provides a means for specifying views, navigating between them, and interacting with a model layer.

A specialized portlet acts as a JSF controller/container - typically a portlet bridge.