For such an indispensable technology, JavaServer Faces (JSF) has generated an undue amount of FUD. Hearsay has it that JSF development is difficult, more demanding than some mainstream approaches, and dependent on WYSIWYG tools to work at all. In this new four-part series, frequent developerWorks contributor Rick Hightower separates FUD from fact to show you that, actually, JSF can be easier to use than MVC Model 2 frameworks such as Struts. If you know what you're doing, that is. Editor's note: Since publication, Sun has open sourced JSF 1.2 under their CDDL license. See Resources for a link to the new project page. For details on getting started with JSF 1.2, now integrated in JEE 5, see Richard Hightower's tutorial series.