The Shale Framework is a loosely coupled set of value added services focused on providing improved functionality and ease of development for applications based on the JavaServer Faces (JSF) standard API. In addition to providing API for building user interface components, JSF provides a front controller MVC architecture, similar to what you see in many other Java based web frameworks. Shale leverages the extensibility points that are also built into JSF, and avoids the redundant implementation of features that JSF already provides.