Alfresco built the web client with Spring and JSF. The good news is that if you don't like how the web client components work, JSF makes it possible to configure, customize, and extend the components to fit your needs. The bad news is that the JSF component lifecycle is complicated and there are multiple approaches to implementing JSF components. Unfortunately, Alfresco's approach isn't consistent across all components. So unless you are already a JSF expert, it can be tough to follow the source code.

Let's look at a couple of basic examples that can at least get you pointed in the right direction. Suppose that SomeCo's Operations department wants to track status reports in Alfresco. Status reports will be written as documents and uploaded to the Operations space. Two properties will help the Operations team get a feel for the project's status: statusSummary will be a text property meant to capture a couple of sentences...