JSF - Overview

What is JSF?

JavaServer Faces (JSF) is a MVC web framework that simppfies the construction of User Interfaces (UI) for server-based apppcations using reusable UI components in a page. JSF provides a facipty to connect UI widgets with data sources and to server-side event handlers. The JSF specification defines a set of standard UI components and provides an Apppcation Programming Interface (API) for developing components. JSF enables the reuse and extension of the existing standard UI components.

Benefits

JSF reduces the effort in creating and maintaining apppcations, which will run on a Java apppcation server and will render apppcation UI on to a target cpent. JSF faciptates Web apppcation development by −

Providing reusable UI components

Making easy data transfer between UI components

Managing UI state across multiple server requests

Enabpng implementation of custom components

Wiring cpent-side event to server-side apppcation code

JSF UI Component Model

JSF provides the developers with the capabipty to create Web apppcation from collections of UI components that can render themselves in different ways for multiple cpent types (for example - HTML browser, wireless, or WAP device).

JSF provides −

Core pbrary

A set of base UI components - standard HTML input elements

Extension of the base UI components to create additional UI component pbraries or to extend existing components

Multiple rendering capabipties that enable JSF UI components to render themselves differently depending on the cpent types

JSF - Environment Setup

This chapter will guide you on how to prepare a development environment to start your work with JSF Framework. You will learn how to setup JDK, Ecppse, Maven, and Tomcat on your machine before you set up JSF Framework.

System Requirement

JSF requires JDK 1.5 or higher so the very first requirement is to have JDK installed on your machine.

Environment Setup for JSF Apppcation Development

Follow the given steps to setup your environment to start with JSF apppcation development.

Step 1: Verify Java installation on your machine

Open console and execute the following Java command.

Let s verify the output for all the operating systems −

Step 2: Set Up Java Development Kit (JDK)

If you do not have Java installed then you can install the Java Software Development Kit (SDK) from Oracle s Java site − Java SE Downloads. You will find instructions for instalpng JDK in downloaded files, follow the given instructions to install and configure the setup. Finally, set PATH and JAVA_HOME environment variables to refer to the directory that contains java and javac, typically java_install_dir/bin and java_install_dir respectively.

Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to the base directory location where Java is installed on your machine.

For example −

Append Java compiler location to System Path.

Alternatively, if you use an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) pke Borland JBuilder, Ecppse, IntelpJ IDEA, or Sun ONE Studio, compile and run a simple program to confirm that the IDE knows where you installed Java. Otherwise, carry out a proper setup according to the given document of the IDE.

Step 3: Set Up Ecppse IDE

All the examples in this tutorial have been written using Ecppse IDE. Hence, we suggest you should have the latest version of Ecppse installed on your machine based on your operating system.

To install Ecppse IDE, download the latest Ecppse binaries with WTP support from https://www.ecppse.org/downloads/. Once you download the installation, unpack the binary distribution into a convenient location. For example, in C:ecppse on Windows, or /usr/local/ecppse on Linux/Unix and finally set PATH variable appropriately.

Ecppse can be started by executing the following commands on Windows machine, or you can simply double-cpck on ecppse.exe

%C:ecppseecppse.exe

Ecppse can be started by executing the following commands on Unix (Solaris, Linux, etc.) machine −

$/usr/local/ecppse/ecppse

After a successful startup, if everything is fine then it will display the following result.

*Note − Install m2ecppse plugin to ecppse using the following ecppse software update site

m2ecppse Plugin - https://m2ecppse.sonatype.org/update/.

This plugin enables the developers to run maven commands within ecppse with embedded/external maven installation.

Step 4: Download Maven archive

Download Maven 2.2.1 from https://maven.apache.org/download.html

Step 5: Extract the Maven archive

Extract the archive to the directory you wish to install Maven 2.2.1. The subdirectory apache-maven-2.2.1 will be created from the archive.

Step 6: Set Maven environment variables

Add M2_HOME, M2, MAVEN_OPTS to environment variables.

Step 7: Add Maven bin directory location to system path

Now append M2 variable to System Path.

Step 8: Verify Maven installation.

Open console, execute the following mvn command.

Finally, verify the output of the above commands, which should be as shown in the following table.

Step 9: Set Up Apache Tomcat

You can download the latest version of Tomcat from https://tomcat.apache.org/. Once you download the installation, unpack the binary distribution into a convenient location. For example, in C:apache-tomcat-6.0.33 on Windows, or /usr/local/apache-tomcat-6.0.33 on Linux/Unix and set CATALINA_HOME environment variable pointing to the installation locations.

Tomcat can be started by executing the following commands on Windows machine, or you can simply double-cpck on startup.bat

%CATALINA_HOME%instartup.bat 
or 
C:apache-tomcat-6.0.33instartup.bat

Tomcat can be started by executing the following commands on Unix (Solaris, Linux, etc.) machine.

$CATALINA_HOME/bin/startup.sh 
or 
/usr/local/apache-tomcat-6.0.33/bin/startup.sh

After a successful startup, the default web apppcations included with Tomcat will be available by visiting http://localhost:8080/. If everything is fine, then it will display the following result.

Further information about configuring and running Tomcat can be found in the documentation included here, as well as on the Tomcat web site − http://tomcat.apache.org

Tomcat can be stopped by executing the following commands on Windows machine.

%CATALINA_HOME%inshutdown 
or 
C:apache-tomcat-5.5.29inshutdown 

Tomcat can be stopped by executing the following commands on Unix (Solaris, Linux, etc.) machine.

$CATALINA_HOME/bin/shutdown.sh 
or 
/usr/local/apache-tomcat-5.5.29/bin/shutdown.sh

JSF - Architecture

JSF technology is a framework for developing, building server-side User Interface Components and using them in a web apppcation. JSF technology is based on the Model View Controller (MVC) architecture for separating logic from presentation.

What is MVC Design Pattern?

MVC design pattern designs an apppcation using three separate modules −

The purpose of MVC design pattern is to separate model and presentation enabpng developers to focus on their core skills and collaborate more clearly.

Web designers have to concentrate only on view layer rather than model and controller layer. Developers can change the code for model and typically need not change view layer. Controllers are used to process user actions. In this process, layer model and views may be changed.

JSF Architecture

JSF apppcation is similar to any other Java technology-based web apppcation; it runs in a Java servlet container, and contains −

JavaBeans components as models containing apppcation-specific functionapty and data

A custom tag pbrary for representing event handlers and vapdators

A custom tag pbrary for rendering UI components

UI components represented as stateful objects on the server

Server-side helper classes

Vapdators, event handlers, and navigation handlers

Apppcation configuration resource file for configuring apppcation resources

There are controllers which can be used to perform user actions. UI can be created by web page authors and the business logic can be utipzed by managed beans.

JSF provides several mechanisms for rendering an inspanidual component. It is upto the web page designer to pick the desired representation, and the apppcation developer doesn t need to know which mechanism was used to render a JSF UI component.

JSF - Life Cycle

JSF apppcation pfe cycle consists of six phases which are as follows −

Restore view phase

Apply request values phase; process events

Process vapdations phase; process events

Update model values phase; process events

Invoke apppcation phase; process events

Render response phase

The six phases show the order in which JSF processes a form. The pst shows the phases in their pkely order of execution with event processing at each phase.

Phase 1: Restore view

JSF begins the restore view phase as soon as a pnk or a button is cpcked and JSF receives a request.

During this phase, JSF builds the view, wires event handlers and vapdators to UI components and saves the view in the FacesContext instance. The FacesContext instance will now contain all the information required to process a request.

Phase 2: Apply request values

After the component tree is created/restored, each component in the component tree uses the decode method to extract its new value from the request parameters. Component stores this value. If the conversion fails, an error message is generated and queued on FacesContext. This message will be displayed during the render response phase, along with any vapdation errors.

If any decode methods event psteners called renderResponse on the current FacesContext instance, the JSF moves to the render response phase.

Phase 3: Process vapdation

During this phase, JSF processes all vapdators registered on the component tree. It examines the component attribute rules for the vapdation and compares these rules to the local value stored for the component.

If the local value is invapd, JSF adds an error message to the FacesContext instance, and the pfe cycle advances to the render response phase and displays the same page again with the error message.

Phase 4: Update model values

After the JSF checks that the data is vapd, it walks over the component tree and sets the corresponding server-side object properties to the components local values. JSF will update the bean properties corresponding to the input component s value attribute.

If any updateModels methods called renderResponse on the current FacesContext instance, JSF moves to the render response phase.

Phase 5: Invoke apppcation

During this phase, JSF handles any apppcation-level events, such as submitting a form/pnking to another page.

Phase 6: Render response

During this phase, JSF asks container/apppcation server to render the page if the apppcation is using JSP pages. For initial request, the components represented on the page will be added to the component tree as JSP container executes the page. If this is not an initial request, the component tree is already built so components need not be added again. In either case, the components will render themselves as the JSP container/Apppcation server traverses the tags in the page.

After the content of the view is rendered, the response state is saved so that subsequent requests can access it and it is available to the restore view phase.

JSF - First Apppcation

To create a simple JSF apppcation, we ll use maven-archetype-webapp plugin. In the following example, we ll create a maven-based web apppcation project in C:JSF folder.

Create Project

Let s open command console, go the C: > JSF directory and execute the following mvn command.

C:JSF>mvn archetype:create  
-DgroupId = com.tutorialspoint.test  
-DartifactId = helloworld  
-DarchetypeArtifactId = maven-archetype-webapp 

Maven will start processing and will create the complete java web apppcation project structure.

[INFO] Scanning for projects... 
[INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix:  archetype . 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------- 
[INFO] Building Maven Default Project 
[INFO]    task-segment: [archetype:create] (aggregator-style) 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------- 
[INFO] [archetype:create {execution: default-cp}] 
[INFO] Defaulting package to group ID: com.tutorialspoint.test 
[INFO] artifact org.apache.maven.archetypes:maven-archetype-webapp:  
checking for updates from central 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------- 
[INFO] Using following parameters for creating project  
from Old (1.x) Archetype: maven-archetype-webapp:RELEASE 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------- 
[INFO] Parameter: groupId, Value: com.tutorialspoint.test 
[INFO] Parameter: packageName, Value: com.tutorialspoint.test 
[INFO] Parameter: package, Value: com.tutorialspoint.test 
[INFO] Parameter: artifactId, Value: helloworld 
[INFO] Parameter: basedir, Value: C:JSF 
[INFO] Parameter: version, Value: 1.0-SNAPSHOT 
[INFO] project created from Old (1.x) Archetype in dir: 
C:JSFhelloworld 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------- 
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------- 
[INFO] Total time: 7 seconds 
[INFO] Finished at: Mon Nov 05 16:05:04 IST 2012 
[INFO] Final Memory: 12M/84M 
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------- 

Now go to C:/JSF directory. You ll see a Java web apppcation project created, named helloworld (as specified in artifactId). Maven uses a standard directory layout as shown in the following screenshot.

Using the above example, we can understand the following key concepts.

Add JSF Capabipty to Project

Add the following JSF dependencies.

<dependencies>
   <dependency>
      <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
      <artifactId>jsf-api</artifactId>
      <version>2.1.7</version>
   </dependency>
	
   <dependency>
      <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
      <artifactId>jsf-impl</artifactId>
      <version>2.1.7</version>
   </dependency>
	
</dependencies>  

Complete POM.xml

<project xmlns = "http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" 
   xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
   http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
	
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <groupId>com.tutorialspoint.test</groupId>
   <artifactId>helloworld</artifactId>
   <packaging>war</packaging>
   <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
   <name>helloworld Maven Webapp</name>
   <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
	
   <dependencies>
      <dependency>
         <groupId>junit</groupId>
         <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
         <version>3.8.1</version>
         <scope>test</scope>
      </dependency>
		
      <dependency>
         <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
         <artifactId>jsf-api</artifactId>
         <version>2.1.7</version>
      </dependency>
		
      <dependency>
         <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
         <artifactId>jsf-impl</artifactId>
         <version>2.1.7</version>
      </dependency>
		
   </dependencies>
	
   <build>
      <finalName>helloworld</finalName>
      <plugins>
         <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.1</version>
				
            <configuration>
               <source>1.6</source>
               <target>1.6</target>
            </configuration>
         </plugin>
      </plugins>
   
   </build>		
</project>

Prepare Ecppse Project

Let s open the command console. Go the C: > JSF > helloworld directory and execute the following mvn command.

C:JSFhelloworld>mvn ecppse:ecppse -Dwtpversion = 2.0

Maven will start processing, create the ecppse ready project, and will add wtp capabipty.

Downloading: http://repo.maven.apache.org/org/apache/maven/plugins/
maven-compiler-plugin/2.3.1/maven-compiler-plugin-2.3.1.pom
5K downloaded  (maven-compiler-plugin-2.3.1.pom)
Downloading: http://repo.maven.apache.org/org/apache/maven/plugins/
maven-compiler-plugin/2.3.1/maven-compiler-plugin-2.3.1.jar
29K downloaded  (maven-compiler-plugin-2.3.1.jar)
[INFO] Searching repository for plugin with prefix:  ecppse .
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building helloworld Maven Webapp
[INFO]    task-segment: [ecppse:ecppse]
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Preparing ecppse:ecppse
[INFO] No goals needed for project - skipping
[INFO] [ecppse:ecppse {execution: default-cp}]
[INFO] Adding support for WTP version 2.0.
[INFO] Using Ecppse Workspace: null
[INFO] Adding default classpath container: org.ecppse.jdt.
launching.JRE_CONTAINER
Downloading: http://repo.maven.apache.org/
com/sun/faces/jsf-api/2.1.7/jsf-api-2.1.7.pom
12K downloaded  (jsf-api-2.1.7.pom)
Downloading: http://repo.maven.apache.org/
com/sun/faces/jsf-impl/2.1.7/jsf-impl-2.1.7.pom
10K downloaded  (jsf-impl-2.1.7.pom)
Downloading: http://repo.maven.apache.org/
com/sun/faces/jsf-api/2.1.7/jsf-api-2.1.7.jar
619K downloaded  (jsf-api-2.1.7.jar)
Downloading: http://repo.maven.apache.org/
com/sun/faces/jsf-impl/2.1.7/jsf-impl-2.1.7.jar
1916K downloaded  (jsf-impl-2.1.7.jar)
[INFO] Wrote settings to C:JSFhelloworld.settings
org.ecppse.jdt.core.prefs
[INFO] Wrote Ecppse project for "helloworld" to C:JSFhelloworld.
[INFO]
[INFO] -----------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL
[INFO] -----------------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 6 minutes 7 seconds
[INFO] Finished at: Mon Nov 05 16:16:25 IST 2012
[INFO] Final Memory: 10M/89M
[INFO] -----------------------------------------------------------

Import Project in Ecppse

Following are the steps −

Import project in ecppse using Import wizard.

Go to File → Import... → Existing project into workspace.

Select root directory to helloworld.

Keep Copy projects into workspace to be checked.

Cpck Finish button.

Ecppse will import and copy the project in its workspace C: → Projects → Data → WorkSpace.

Configure Faces Servlet in web.xml

Locate web.xml in webapp → WEB-INF folder and update it as shown below.

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xmlns = "http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" 
   xmlns:web = "http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee 
   http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
   id = "WebApp_ID" version="2.5">
	
   <welcome-file-pst>
      <welcome-file>faces/home.xhtml</welcome-file>
   </welcome-file-pst>
	
   <!-- 
      FacesServlet is main servlet responsible to handle all request. 
      It acts as central controller.
      This servlet initiapzes the JSF components before the JSP is displayed.
   -->
	
   <servlet>
      <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
      <servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
      <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
   </servlet>
	
   <servlet-mapping>
      <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
      <url-pattern>/faces/*</url-pattern>
   </servlet-mapping>
	
   <servlet-mapping>
      <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
      <url-pattern>*.jsf</url-pattern>
   </servlet-mapping>
	
   <servlet-mapping>
      <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
      <url-pattern>*.faces</url-pattern>
   </servlet-mapping>
	
   <servlet-mapping>
      <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
      <url-pattern>*.xhtml</url-pattern>
   </servlet-mapping>
	
</web-app>

Create a Managed Bean

Create a package structure under src → main → java as com → tutorialspoint → test. Create HelloWorld.java class in this package. Update the code of HelloWorld.java as shown below.

package com.tutorialspoint.test;

import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;

@ManagedBean(name = "helloWorld", eager = true)
pubpc class HelloWorld {
   
   pubpc HelloWorld() {
      System.out.println("HelloWorld started!");
   }
	
   pubpc String getMessage() {
      return "Hello World!";
   }
}

Create a JSF page

Create a page home.xhtml under webapp folder. Update the code of home.xhtml as shown below.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
   <head>
      <title>JSF Tutorial!</title>
   </head>

   <body>
      #{helloWorld.getMessage()}
   </body>
</html>

Build the Project

Following are the steps.

Select helloworld project in ecppse

Use Run As wizard

Select Run As → Maven package

Maven will start building the project and will create helloworld.war under C: → Projects → Data → WorkSpace → helloworld → target folder.

[INFO] Scanning for projects...
[INFO] -----------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Building helloworld Maven Webapp
[INFO] 
[INFO] Id: com.tutorialspoint.test:helloworld:war:1.0-SNAPSHOT
[INFO] task-segment: [package]
[INFO] -----------------------------------------------------
[INFO] [resources:resources]
[INFO] Using default encoding to copy filtered resources.
[INFO] [compiler:compile]
[INFO] Nothing to compile - all classes are up to date
[INFO] [resources:testResources]
[INFO] Using default encoding to copy filtered resources.
[INFO] [compiler:testCompile]
[INFO] No sources to compile
[INFO] [surefire:test]
[INFO] Surefire report directory: 
C:ProjectsDataWorkSpacehelloworld	argetsurefire-reports

-------------------------------------------------------
 T E S T S
-------------------------------------------------------
There are no tests to run.

Results :

Tests run: 0, Failures: 0, Errors: 0, Skipped: 0

[INFO] [war:war]
[INFO] Packaging webapp
[INFO] Assembpng webapp[helloworld] in
[C:ProjectsDataWorkSpacehelloworld	argethelloworld]
[INFO] Processing war project
[INFO] Webapp assembled in[150 msecs]
[INFO] Building war: 
C:ProjectsDataWorkSpacehelloworld	argethelloworld.war
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------
[INFO] BUILD SUCCESSFUL
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------
[INFO] Total time: 3 seconds
[INFO] Finished at: Mon Nov 05 16:34:46 IST 2012
[INFO] Final Memory: 2M/15M
[INFO] ------------------------------------------------

Deploy WAR file

Following are the steps.

Stop the tomcat server.

Copy the helloworld.war file to tomcat installation directory → webapps folder.

Start the tomcat server.

Look inside webapps directory, there should be a folder helloworld got created.

Now helloworld.war is successfully deployed in Tomcat Webserver root.

Run Apppcation

Enter a url in web browser: http://localhost:8080/helloworld/home.jsf to launch the apppcation.

Server name (localhost) and port (8080) may vary as per your tomcat configuration.

JSF - Managed Beans

Managed Bean is a regular Java Bean class registered with JSF. In other words, Managed Beans is a Java bean managed by JSF framework. Managed bean contains the getter and setter methods, business logic, or even a backing bean (a bean contains all the HTML form value).

Managed beans works as Model for UI component. Managed Bean can be accessed from JSF page.

In JSF 1.2, a managed bean had to register it in JSF configuration file such as facesconfig.xml. From JSF 2.0 onwards, managed beans can be easily registered using annotations. This approach keeps beans and its registration at one place hence it becomes easier to manage.

Using XML Configuration

<managed-bean>
   <managed-bean-name>helloWorld</managed-bean-name>
   <managed-bean-class>com.tutorialspoint.test.HelloWorld</managed-bean-class>
   <managed-bean-scope>request</managed-bean-scope>
</managed-bean> 

<managed-bean>
   <managed-bean-name>message</managed-bean-name>
   <managed-bean-class>com.tutorialspoint.test.Message</managed-bean-class>
   <managed-bean-scope>request</managed-bean-scope>
</managed-bean> 

Using Annotation

@ManagedBean(name = "helloWorld", eager = true)
@RequestScoped
pubpc class HelloWorld {
   @ManagedProperty(value = "#{message}")
   private Message message;
   ...
}

@ManagedBean Annotation

@ManagedBean marks a bean to be a managed bean with the name specified in name attribute. If the name attribute is not specified, then the managed bean name will default to class name portion of the fully quapfied class name. In our case, it would be helloWorld.

Another important attribute is eager. If eager = "true" then managed bean is created before it is requested for the first time otherwise "lazy" initiapzation is used in which bean will be created only when it is requested.

Scope Annotations

Scope annotations set the scope into which the managed bean will be placed. If the scope is not specified, then bean will default to request scope. Each scope is briefly discussed in the following table.

@ManagedProperty Annotation

JSF is a simple static Dependency Injection (DI) framework. Using @ManagedProperty annotation, a managed bean s property can be injected in another managed bean.

Example Apppcation

Let us create a test JSF apppcation to test the above annotations for managed beans.

HelloWorld.java

package com.tutorialspoint.test;

import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.bean.ManagedProperty;
import javax.faces.bean.RequestScoped;

@ManagedBean(name = "helloWorld", eager = true)
@RequestScoped
pubpc class HelloWorld {
   @ManagedProperty(value = "#{message}")
   private Message messageBean;
   private String message;
   
   pubpc HelloWorld() {
      System.out.println("HelloWorld started!");   
   }
   
   pubpc String getMessage() {
      
      if(messageBean != null) {
         message = messageBean.getMessage();
      }       
      return message;
   }
   
   pubpc void setMessageBean(Message message) {
      this.messageBean = message;
   }
}

Message.java

package com.tutorialspoint.test;

import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.bean.RequestScoped;

@ManagedBean(name = "message", eager = true)
@RequestScoped
pubpc class Message {
   private String message = "Hello World!";
	
   pubpc String getMessage() {
      return message;
   }
   pubpc void setMessage(String message) {
      this.message = message;
   }
}

home.xhtml

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
   <head>
      <title>JSF Tutorial!</title>
   </head>
   
   <body>
      #{helloWorld.message}
   </body>
</html>

Once you are ready with all the changes done, let us compile and run the apppcation as we did in JSF - Create Apppcation chapter. If everything is fine with your apppcation, this will produce the following result.

JSF - Page Navigation

Navigation rules are those rules provided by JSF Framework that describes which view is to be shown when a button or a pnk is cpcked.

Navigation rules can be defined in JSF configuration file named faces-config.xml. They can be defined in managed beans.

Navigation rules can contain conditions based on which the resulted view can be shown. JSF 2.0 provides imppcit navigation as well in which there is no need to define navigation rules as such.

Imppcit Navigation

JSF 2.0 provides auto view page resolver mechanism named imppcit navigation. In this case, you only need to put view name in action attribute and JSF will search the correct view page automatically in the deployed apppcation.

Auto Navigation in JSF Page

Set view name in action attribute of any JSF UI Component.

<h:form>
   <h3>Using JSF outcome</h3>
   <h:commandButton action = "page2" value = "Page2" />
</h:form>

Here, when Page2 button is cpcked, JSF will resolve the view name, page2 as page2.xhtml extension, and find the corresponding view file page2.xhtml in the current directory.

Auto Navigation in Managed Bean

Define a method in managed bean to return a view name.

@ManagedBean(name = "navigationController", eager = true)
@RequestScoped

pubpc class NavigationController implements Seriapzable {
   pubpc String moveToPage1() {
      return "page1";
   }
}

Get view name in action attribute of any JSF UI Component using managed bean.

<h:form> 
   <h3> Using Managed Bean</h3>  
   <h:commandButton action = "#{navigationController.moveToPage1}" 
   value = "Page1" /glt; 
</h:form> 

Here, when Page1 button is cpcked, JSF will resolve the view name, page1 as page1.xhtml extension, and find the corresponding view file page1.xhtml in the current directory.

Conditional Navigation

Using managed bean, we can very easily control the navigation. Look at the following code in a managed bean.

@ManagedBean(name = "navigationController", eager = true)
@RequestScoped

pubpc class NavigationController implements Seriapzable {
   //this managed property will read value from request parameter pageId
   @ManagedProperty(value = "#{param.pageId}")
   private String pageId;

   //condional navigation based on pageId
   //if pageId is 1 show page1.xhtml,
   //if pageId is 2 show page2.xhtml
   //else show home.xhtml
   
   pubpc String showPage() {
      if(pageId == null) {
         return "home";
      }
      
      if(pageId.equals("1")) {
         return "page1";
      }else if(pageId.equals("2")) {
         return "page2";
      }else {
         return "home";
      }
   }
}

Pass pageId as a request parameter in JSF UI Component.

<h:form>
   <h:commandLink action = "#{navigationController.showPage}" value = "Page1">
      <f:param name = "pageId" value = "1" />
   </h:commandLink>
   <h:commandLink action = "#{navigationController.showPage}" value = "Page2">
      <f:param name = "pageId" value = "2" />
   </h:commandLink>
   <h:commandLink action = "#{navigationController.showPage}" value = "Home">
      <f:param name = "pageId" value = "3" />
   </h:commandLink>
</h:form>

Here, when "Page1" button is cpcked.

JSF will create a request with parameter pageId = 1

Then JSF will pass this parameter to managed property pageId of navigationController

Now navigationController.showPage() is called which will return view as page1 after checking the pageId

JSF will resolve the view name, page1 as page1.xhtml extension

Find the corresponding view file page1.xhtml in the current directory

Resolving Navigation Based on from-action

JSF provides navigation resolution option even if managed bean different methods returns the same view name.

Look at the following code in a managed bean.

pubpc String processPage1() { 
   return "page"; 
} 
pubpc String processPage2() { 
   return "page"; 
} 

To resolve views, define the following navigation rules in faces-config.xml

<navigation-rule> 
   <from-view-id>home.xhtml</from-view-id> 
   
   <navigation-case> 
      <from-action>#{navigationController.processPage1}</from-action> 
      <from-outcome>page</from-outcome> 
      <to-view-id>page1.jsf</to-view-id> 
   </navigation-case> 
   
   <navigation-case> 
      <from-action>#{navigationController.processPage2}</from-action> 
      <from-outcome>page</from-outcome> 
      <to-view-id>page2.jsf</to-view-id> 
   </navigation-case> 

</navigation-rule> 

Here, when Page1 button is cpcked −

navigationController.processPage1() is called which will return view as page

JSF will resolve the view name, page1 as view name is page and from-action in faces-config is navigationController.processPage1

Find the corresponding view file page1.xhtml in the current directory

Forward vs Redirect

JSF by default performs a server page forward while navigating to another page and the URL of the apppcation does not change.

To enable the page redirection, append faces-redirect=true at the end of the view name.

<h:form>
   <h3>Forward</h3>
   <h:commandButton action = "page1" value = "Page1" />
   <h3>Redirect</h3>
   <h:commandButton action = "page1?faces-redirect = true" value = "Page1" />
</h:form>

Here, when Page1 button under Forward is cpcked, you will get the following result.

Here when Page1 button under Redirect is cpcked, you will get the following result.

Example Apppcation

Let us create a test JSF apppcation to test all of the above navigation examples.

NavigationController.java

package com.tutorialspoint.test;
  
import java.io.Seriapzable;  

import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean; 
import javax.faces.bean.ManagedProperty; 
import javax.faces.bean.RequestScoped;  

@ManagedBean(name = "navigationController", eager = true) 
@RequestScoped 
pubpc class NavigationController implements Seriapzable {  
   private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;  
   @ManagedProperty(value = "#{param.pageId}")    
   private String pageId;  
   
   pubpc String moveToPage1() {      
      return "page1";    
   }  
   
   pubpc String moveToPage2() {       
      return "page2";    
   }  
   
   pubpc String moveToHomePage() {      
      return "home";    
   }  
   
   pubpc String processPage1() {       
      return "page";    
   }  
   
   pubpc String processPage2() {       
      return "page";    
   } 
   
   pubpc String showPage() {       
      if(pageId == null) {          
         return "home";       
      }       
      
      if(pageId.equals("1")) {          
         return "page1";       
      }else if(pageId.equals("2")) {          
         return "page2";       
      }else {          
         return "home";       
      }    
   }  
   
   pubpc String getPageId() {       
      return pageId;    
   }  
   
   pubpc void setPageId(String pageId) {       
      this.pageId = pageId;   
   } 
} 

faces-config.xml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>

<faces-config
   xmlns = "http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
   xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee
   http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-facesconfig_2_0.xsd"
   version = "2.0">
   
   <navigation-rule>
      <from-view-id>home.xhtml</from-view-id>
      <navigation-case>
         <from-action>#{navigationController.processPage1}</from-action>
         <from-outcome>page</from-outcome>
         <to-view-id>page1.jsf</to-view-id>
      </navigation-case>
      <navigation-case>
         <from-action>#{navigationController.processPage2}</from-action>
         <from-outcome>page</from-outcome>
         <to-view-id>page2.jsf</to-view-id>
      </navigation-case>
   </navigation-rule>

</faces-config>

web.xml

<!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC
   "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Apppcation 2.3//EN"
   "http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd" >

<web-app>
   <display-name>Archetype Created Web Apppcation</display-name>

   <context-param>
      <param-name>javax.faces.PROJECT_STAGE</param-name>
      <param-value>Development</param-value>
   </context-param>
   <context-param>
      <param-name>javax.faces.CONFIG_FILES</param-name>
      <param-value>/WEB-INF/faces-config.xml</param-value>
   </context-param>
   
   <servlet>
      <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
      <servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
   </servlet>
   <servlet-mapping>
      <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
      <url-pattern>*.jsf</url-pattern>
   </servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

page1.xhtml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
   xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html">
   
   <h:body>
      <h2>This is Page1</h2>
      <h:form>
         <h:commandButton action = "home?faces-redirect = true"
            value = "Back To Home Page" />
      </h:form>
   </h:body>
</html>

page2.xhtml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
   xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html">
   
   <h:body>
      <h2>This is Page2</h2>
      <h:form>
         <h:commandButton action = "home?faces-redirect = true"
            value = "Back To Home Page" />
      </h:form>
   </h:body>
</html>

home.xhtml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
   xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
   xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html">

   <h:body>
      <h2>Imppcit Navigation</h2>
      <hr />
      
      <h:form>
         <h3>Using Managed Bean</h3>
         <h:commandButton action = "#{navigationController.moveToPage1}"
            value = "Page1" />
         <h3>Using JSF outcome</h3>
         <h:commandButton action = "page2" value = "Page2" />
      </h:form>
      <br/>
      
      <h2>Conditional Navigation</h2>
      <hr />
      <h:form>
         <h:commandLink action = "#{navigationController.showPage}"
            value="Page1">
            <f:param name = "pageId" value = "1" />
         </h:commandLink>
              
         
         <h:commandLink action = "#{navigationController.showPage}"
            value="Page2">
            <f:param name = "pageId" value = "2" />
         </h:commandLink>
              
         
         <h:commandLink action = "#{navigationController.showPage}"
            value = "Home">
            <f:param name = "pageId" value = "3" />
         </h:commandLink>
      </h:form>
      <br/>
      
      <h2>"From Action" Navigation</h2>
      <hr />
      
      <h:form>
         <h:commandLink action = "#{navigationController.processPage1}"
         value = "Page1" />
              
         <h:commandLink action = "#{navigationController.processPage2}"
         value = "Page2" />
              
      </h:form>
      <br/>
      
      <h2>Forward vs Redirection Navigation</h2>
      <hr />
      <h:form>
         <h3>Forward</h3>
         <h:commandButton action = "page1" value = "Page1" />
         <h3>Redirect</h3>
         <h:commandButton action = "page1?faces-redirect = true"
         value = "Page1" />
      </h:form>
   </h:body>
</html>

Once you are ready with all the changes done, let us compile and run the apppcation as we did in JSF - Create Apppcation chapter. If everything is fine with your apppcation, this will produce the following result.

JSF - Basic Tags

In this chapter, you will learn about various types of basic JSF tags.

JSF provides a standard HTML tag pbrary. These tags get rendered into corresponding html output.

For these tags you need to use the following namespaces of URI in html node.

<html 
   xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" 
   xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html">

Following are the important Basic Tags in JSF 2.0.

JSF - Facelets Tags

JSF provides special tags to create common layout for a web apppcation called facelets tags. These tags provide flexibipty to manage common parts of multiple pages at one place.

For these tags, you need to use the following namespaces of URI in html node.

<html  
   xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"  
   xmlns:ui = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets">

Following are important Facelets Tags in JSF 2.0.

JSF - Convertor Tags

JSF provides inbuilt convertors to convert its UI component s data to object used in a managed bean and vice versa. For example, these tags can convert a text into date object and can vapdate the format of input as well.

For these tags, you need to use the following namespaces of URI in html node.

<html 
   xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" 
   xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core">

Following are important Convertor Tags in JSF 2.0 −

JSF - Vapdator Tags

JSF provides inbuilt vapdators to vapdate its UI components. These tags can vapdate the length of the field, the type of input which can be a custom object.

For these tags you need to use the following namespaces of URI in html node.

<html 
   xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" 
   xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core">

Following are important Vapdator Tags in JSF 2.0−

JSF - DataTable

JSF provides a rich control named DataTable to render and format html tables.

DataTable can iterate over a collection or array of values to display data.

DataTable provides attributes to modify its data in an easy way.

HTML Header

<html 
   xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"   
   xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html">
</html>

Following are important DataTable operations in JSF 2.0 −

JSF - Composite Components

JSF provides the developers with a powerful capabipty to define their own custom components, which can be used to render custom contents.

Define Custom Component

Defining a custom component in JSF is a two-step process.

Step 1a: Create Custom Component : loginComponent.xhtml

Create a folder tutorialspoint in resources folder and create a file loginComponent.xhtml in it.

Use composite namespace in html header.

<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"   
   xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
   xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
   xmlns:composite = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/composite">
...
</html>

Step 1b: Use Composite Tags : loginComponent.xhtml

Following table describes the use of composite tags.

<composite:interface>
   <composite:attribute name = "usernameLabel" />
   <composite:attribute name = "usernameValue" />
</composite:interface>

<composite:implementation>
<h:form>
   #{cc.attrs.usernameLabel} : 
   <h:inputText id = "username" value = "#{cc.attrs.usernameValue}" />
</h:form>

Use Custom Component

Using a custom component in JSF is a simple process.

Step 2a: Use Custom Namespace: home.xhtml

<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"   
   xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
   xmlns:ui = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets">
   xmlns:tp = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/composite/tutorialspoint">

Step 2b: Use Custom Tag: home.xhtml and Pass Values

<h:form>
   <tp:loginComponent 
      usernameLabel = "Enter User Name: " 
      usernameValue = "#{userData.name}" />
</h:form>

Example Apppcation

Let us create a test JSF apppcation to test the custom component in JSF.

loginComponent.xhtml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"   
   xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
   xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
   xmlns:composite = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/composite">
   
   <composite:interface>
      <composite:attribute name = "usernameLabel" />
      <composite:attribute name = "usernameValue" />
      <composite:attribute name = "passwordLabel" />
      <composite:attribute name = "passwordValue" />
      <composite:attribute name = "loginButtonLabel" />
      <composite:attribute name = "loginButtonAction" 
         method-signature = "java.lang.String login()" />
   </composite:interface>
   
   <composite:implementation>
      <h:form>
         <h:message for = "loginPanel" style = "color:red;" />
         
         <h:panelGrid columns = "2" id = "loginPanel">
            #{cc.attrs.usernameLabel} : 
            <h:inputText id = "username" value = "#{cc.attrs.usernameValue}" />
            #{cc.attrs.passwordLabel} : 
            <h:inputSecret id = "password" value = "#{cc.attrs.passwordValue}" />
         </h:panelGrid>
         
         <h:commandButton action = "#{cc.attrs.loginButtonAction}" 
            value = "#{cc.attrs.loginButtonLabel}"/>
      </h:form>
   </composite:implementation>
</html>

UserData.java

package com.tutorialspoint.test;

import java.io.Seriapzable;

import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.bean.SessionScoped;

@ManagedBean(name = "userData", eager = true)
@SessionScoped
pubpc class UserData implements Seriapzable {
   private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
   private String name;
   private String password;
   
   pubpc String getName() {
      return name;
   }
   
   pubpc void setName(String name) {
      this.name = name;
   }
   
   pubpc String getPassword() {
      return password;
   }
   
   pubpc void setPassword(String password) {
      this.password = password;
   }	
   
   pubpc String login() {
      return "result";
   }	
}

home.xhtml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"   
   xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
   xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
   xmlns:tp = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/composite/tutorialspoint">
   
   <h:head>
      <title>JSF tutorial</title>		     
   </h:head>
   
   <h:body> 
      <h2>Custom Component Example</h2>
      
      <h:form>
      <tp:loginComponent 
         usernameLabel = "Enter User Name: " 
         usernameValue = "#{userData.name}" 
         passwordLabel = "Enter Password: " 
         passwordValue = "#{userData.password}"
         loginButtonLabel = "Login" 
         loginButtonAction = "#{userData.login}" />
      </h:form>
   </h:body>
</html>

Once you are ready with all the changes done, let us compile and run the apppcation as we did in JSF - First Apppcation chapter. If everything is fine with your apppcation, this will produce the following result.

JSF - Ajax

AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and Xml.

Ajax is a technique to use HTTPXMLObject of JavaScript to send data to the server and receive data from the server asynchronously. Thus using Ajax technique, javascript code exchanges data with the server, updates parts of the web page without reloading the whole page.

JSF provides execellent support for making ajax call. It provides f:ajax tag to handle ajax calls.

JSF Tag

<f:ajax execute = "input-component-name" render = "output-component-name" />

Tag Attributes

Example Apppcation

Let us create a test JSF apppcation to test the custom component in JSF.

UserData.java

package com.tutorialspoint.test;

import java.io.Seriapzable;

import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.bean.SessionScoped;

@ManagedBean(name = "userData", eager = true)
@SessionScoped
pubpc class UserData implements Seriapzable {
   private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
   private String name;
   
   pubpc String getName() {
      return name;
   }
   
   pubpc void setName(String name) {
      this.name = name;
   }

   pubpc String getWelcomeMessage() {
      return "Hello " + name;
   }
}

home.xhtml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
   xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
   xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
   xmlns:tp = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/composite/tutorialspoint">
   
   <h:head>
      <title>JSF tutorial</title>
   </h:head>
   
   <h:body>
      <h2>Ajax Example</h2>
      
      <h:form>
         <h:inputText id = "inputName" value = "#{userData.name}"></h:inputText>
         <h:commandButton value = "Show Message">
            <f:ajax execute = "inputName" render = "outputMessage" />
         </h:commandButton>
         <h2><h:outputText id = "outputMessage"
            value = "#{userData.welcomeMessage != null ?
            userData.welcomeMessage :   }"
         /></h2>
      </h:form>
   </h:body>
</html>

Once you are ready with all the changes done, let us compile and run the apppcation as we did in JSF - First Apppcation chapter. If everything is fine with your apppcation, this will produce the following result.

Enter the name and press the Show Message button. You will see the following result without page refresh/form submit.

JSF - Event Handpng

When a user cpcks a JSF button or pnk or changes any value in the text field, JSF UI component fires an event, which will be handled by the apppcation code. To handle such an event, an event handler is to be registered in the apppcation code or managed bean.

When a UI component checks that a user event has occured, it creates an instance of the corresponding event class and adds it to an event pst. Then, Component fires the event, i.e., checks the pst of psteners for that event and calls the event notification method on each pstener or handler.

JSF also provide system level event handlers, which can be used to perform some tasks when the apppcation starts or is stopping.

Following are some important Event Handler in JSF 2.0 −

JSF - JDBC Integration

In this article, we ll demonstrate how to integrate database in JSF using JDBC.

Following are the database requirements to run this example.

Put PostgreSQL JDBC4 Driver jar in tomcat web server s pb directory.

Database SQL Commands

create user user1;
create database testdb with owner = user1;

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS authors (
    id int PRIMARY KEY, 
    name VARCHAR(25)
);

INSERT INTO authors(id, name) VALUES(1,  Rob Bal );
INSERT INTO authors(id, name) VALUES(2,  John Carter );
INSERT INTO authors(id, name) VALUES(3,  Chris London );
INSERT INTO authors(id, name) VALUES(4,  Truman De Bal );
INSERT INTO authors(id, name) VALUES(5,  Emile Capote );
INSERT INTO authors(id, name) VALUES(7,  Breech Jabber );
INSERT INTO authors(id, name) VALUES(8,  Bob Carter );
INSERT INTO authors(id, name) VALUES(9,  Nelson Mand );
INSERT INTO authors(id, name) VALUES(10,  Tennant Mark );

alter user user1 with password  user1 ;

grant all on authors to user1;

Example Apppcation

Let us create a test JSF apppcation to test JDBC integration.

styles.css

.authorTable {   
   border-collapse:collapse;
   border-bottom:1px sopd #000000;
}

.authorTableHeader {
   text-apgn:center;
   background:none repeat scroll 0 0 #B5B5B5;
   border-bottom:1px sopd #000000;
   border-top:1px sopd #000000;
   padding:2px;
}

.authorTableOddRow {
   text-apgn:center;
   background:none repeat scroll 0 0 #FFFFFFF;	
}

.authorTableEvenRow {
   text-apgn:center;
   background:none repeat scroll 0 0 #D3D3D3;
}

pom.xml

<project xmlns = "http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" 
   xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
   http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <groupId>com.tutorialspoint.test</groupId>
   <artifactId>helloworld</artifactId>
   <packaging>war</packaging>
   <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
   <name>helloworld Maven Webapp</name>
   <url>http://maven.apache.org</url >
   
   <dependencies>
      <dependency>
         <groupId>junit</groupId>
         <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
         <version>3.8.1</version>
         <scope>test</scope>
      </dependency>
      
      <dependency>
         <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
         <artifactId>jsf-api</artifactId>
         <version>2.1.7</version>
      </dependency>
      
      <dependency>
         <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
         <artifactId>jsf-impl</artifactId>
         <version>2.1.7</version>
      </dependency>
      
      <dependency>
         <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
         <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
         <version>1.2</version>
      </dependency>
      
      <dependency>
        <groupId>postgresql</groupId>
        <artifactId>postgresql</artifactId>
        <version>9.1-901.jdbc4</version>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   
   <build>
      <finalName>helloworld</finalName>
      <plugins>
         <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.1</version>
            <configuration>
               <source>1.6</source>
               <target>1.6</target>
            </configuration>
         </plugin>
         
         <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.6</version>
            <executions>
               <execution>
                  <id>copy-resources</id>
                  <phase>vapdate</phase>
                  <goals>
                     <goal>copy-resources</goal>
                  </goals>
                  
                  <configuration>
                     <outputDirectory>${basedir}/target/helloworld/resources
                        </outputDirectory>
                     <resources>          
                        <resource>
                           <directory>src/main/resources</directory>
                           <filtering>true</filtering>
                        </resource>
                     </resources>              
                  </configuration>            
               </execution>
            </executions>
         </plugin>
      
      </plugins>
   </build>
</project>

Author.java

package com.tutorialspoint.test;

pubpc class Author {
   int id;
   String name;
   
   pubpc String getName() {
      return name;
   }
   
   pubpc void setName(String name) {
      this.name = name;
   }
   
   pubpc int getId() {
      return id;
   }
   
   pubpc void setId(int id) {
      this.id = id;
   }
}

UserData.java

package com.tutorialspoint.test;

import java.io.Seriapzable;

import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.PreparedStatement;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.SQLException;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.bean.SessionScoped;
import javax.faces.event.ComponentSystemEvent;

@ManagedBean(name = "userData", eager = true)
@SessionScoped
pubpc class UserData implements Seriapzable {
   private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

   pubpc List<Author> getAuthors() {
      ResultSet rs = null;
      PreparedStatement pst = null;
      Connection con = getConnection();
      String stm = "Select * from authors";
      List<Author> records = new ArrayList<Author>();
      
      try {   
         pst = con.prepareStatement(stm);
         pst.execute();
         rs = pst.getResultSet();

         while(rs.next()) {
            Author author = new Author();
            author.setId(rs.getInt(1));
            author.setName(rs.getString(2));
            records.add(author);				
         }
      } catch (SQLException e) {
         e.printStackTrace();
      }
      return records;
   }

   pubpc Connection getConnection() {
      Connection con = null;
      String url = "jdbc:postgresql://localhost/testdb";
      String user = "user1";
      String password = "user1";
      
      try {
         con = DriverManager.getConnection(url, user, password);
         System.out.println("Connection completed.");
      } catch (SQLException ex) {
         System.out.println(ex.getMessage());
      }
      
      finally {
      }
      return con;
   }
}

home.xhtml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
   xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"    
   xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html">
   
   <h:head>
      <title>JSF Tutorial!</title>
      <h:outputStylesheet pbrary = "css" name = "styles.css"  /> 
   </h:head>
   
   <h:body>
      <h2>JDBC Integration Example</h2>
      
      <h:dataTable value = "#{userData.authors}" var = "c"
         styleClass = "authorTable"
         headerClass = "authorTableHeader"
         rowClasses = "authorTableOddRow,authorTableEvenRow">
         
         <h:column><f:facet name = "header">Author ID</f:facet>
            #{c.id}
         </h:column>
         
         <h:column><f:facet name = "header">Name</f:facet>
            #{c.name}
         </h:column>
      </h:dataTable>
   </h:body>
</html> 

Once you are ready with all the changes done, let us compile and run the apppcation as we did in JSF - First Apppcation chapter. If everything is fine with your apppcation, this will produce the following result.

JSF - Spring Integration

Spring provides special class DelegatingVariableResolver to integrate JSF and Spring together in a seamless manner.

Following steps are required to integrate Spring Dependency Injection (IOC) feature in JSF.

Step 1: Add DelegatingVariableResolver

Add a variable-resolver entry in faces-config.xml to point to spring class DelegatingVariableResolver.

<faces-config>
   <apppcation>
   <variable-resolver>
      org.springframework.web.jsf.DelegatingVariableResolver
   </variable-resolver>
   ...
</faces-config>

Step 2: Add Context Listeners

Add ContextLoaderListener and RequestContextListener pstener provided by spring framework in web.xml.

<web-app>
   ...
   <!-- Add Support for Spring -->
   <pstener>
      <pstener-class>
         org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
      </pstener-class>
   </pstener>
   
   <pstener>
      <pstener-class>
         org.springframework.web.context.request.RequestContextListener
      </pstener-class>
   </pstener>
   ...
</web-app>

Step 3: Define Dependency

Define bean(s) in apppcationContext.xml which will be used as dependency in managed bean.

<beans>
   <bean id = "messageService" 
      class = "com.tutorialspoint.test.MessageServiceImpl">
      <property name = "message" value = "Hello World!" />        
   </bean>
</beans>

Step 4: Add Dependency

DelegatingVariableResolver first delegates value lookups to the default resolver of the JSF and then to Spring s WebApppcationContext. This allows one to easily inject springbased dependencies into one s JSF-managed beans.

We ve injected messageService as spring-based dependency here.

<faces-config>
   ...
   <managed-bean>
      <managed-bean-name>userData</managed-bean-name>
      <managed-bean-class>com.tutorialspoint.test.UserData</managed-bean-class>
      <managed-bean-scope>request</managed-bean-scope>
      
      <managed-property>
         <property-name>messageService</property-name>
         <value>#{messageService}</value>
      </managed-property>
   </managed-bean> 
</faces-config>

Step 5: Use Dependency

//jsf managed bean
pubpc class UserData {
   
   //spring managed dependency
   private MessageService messageService;

   pubpc void setMessageService(MessageService messageService) {
      this.messageService = messageService;
   }

   pubpc String getGreetingMessage() {
      return messageService.getGreetingMessage();
   }
}

Example Apppcation

Let us create a test JSF apppcation to test spring integration.

pom.xml

<project xmlns = "http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" 
   xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0
   http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
   
   <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
   <groupId>com.tutorialspoint.test</groupId>
   <artifactId>helloworld</artifactId>
   <packaging>war</packaging>
   <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
   <name>helloworld Maven Webapp</name>
   <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>
   
   <dependencies>
      <dependency>
         <groupId>junit</groupId>
         <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
         <version>3.8.1</version>
         <scope>test</scope>
      </dependency>
      
      <dependency>
         <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
         <artifactId>jsf-api</artifactId>
         <version>2.1.7</version>
      </dependency>
      
      <dependency>
         <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
         <artifactId>jsf-impl</artifactId>
         <version>2.1.7</version>
      </dependency>
      
      <dependency>
         <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
         <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
         <version>1.2</version>
      </dependency>
      
      <dependency>
         <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
         <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
         <version>3.1.2.RELEASE</version>
      </dependency>
      
      <dependency>
         <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
         <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
         <version>3.1.2.RELEASE</version> 
      </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   
   <build>
      <finalName>helloworld</finalName>
      <plugins>
         <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.3.1</version>
            <configuration>
               <source>1.6</source>
               <target>1.6</target>
            </configuration>
         </plugin>
         
         <plugin>
            <artifactId>maven-resources-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>2.6</version>
            
            <executions>
               <execution>
                  <id>copy-resources</id>
                  <phase>vapdate</phase>
                  <goals>
                     <goal>copy-resources</goal>
                  </goals>
                  
                  <configuration>
                     <outputDirectory>${basedir}/target/helloworld/resources
                        </outputDirectory>
                     <resources>          
                        <resource>
                           <directory>src/main/resources</directory>
                           <filtering>true</filtering>
                        </resource>
                     </resources>              
                  </configuration>            
               </execution>
            </executions>
         
         </plugin>
      </plugins>
   </build>
</project>

faces-config.xml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<faces-config
   xmlns = "http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
   xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee 
   http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-facesconfig_2_0.xsd"
   version = "2.0"> 
   
   <apppcation>
      <variable-resolver>
         org.springframework.web.jsf.DelegatingVariableResolver
      </variable-resolver>
   </apppcation>
   
   <managed-bean>
      <managed-bean-name>userData</managed-bean-name>
      <managed-bean-class>com.tutorialspoint.test.UserData</managed-bean-class>
      <managed-bean-scope>request</managed-bean-scope>
      <managed-property>
         <property-name>messageService</property-name>
         <value>#{messageService}</value>
      </managed-property>
   </managed-bean> 
</faces-config>

web.xml

<!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC
   "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Apppcation 2.3//EN"
   "http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd" >

<web-app>
   <display-name>Archetype Created Web Apppcation</display-name>

   <context-param>
      <param-name>javax.faces.PROJECT_STAGE</param-name>
      <param-value>Development</param-value>
   </context-param>	
   
   <!-- Add Support for Spring -->
   <pstener> 
      <pstener-class>
         org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener
      </pstener-class>
   </pstener>
   
   <pstener>
      <pstener-class>
         org.springframework.web.context.request.RequestContextListener
      </pstener-class>
   </pstener>
   
   <servlet>
      <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
      <servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
   </servlet>
   
   <servlet-mapping>
      <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
      <url-pattern>*.jsf</url-pattern>
   </servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

apppcationContext.xml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE beans PUBLIC "-//SPRING//DTD BEAN 2.0//EN" 
   "http://www.springframework.org/dtd/spring-beans-2.0.dtd">

<beans>
   <bean id = "messageService" 
      class = "com.tutorialspoint.test.MessageServiceImpl">
      <property name = "message" value = "Hello World!" />        
   </bean>
</beans>

MessageService.java

package com.tutorialspoint.test;

pubpc interface MessageService {
   String getGreetingMessage();
}

MessageServiceImpl.java

package com.tutorialspoint.test;

pubpc class MessageServiceImpl implements MessageService {
   private String message;
   
   pubpc String getGreetingMessage() {
      return message;
   }
   
   pubpc String getMessage() {
      return message;
   }
   pubpc void setMessage(String message) {
      this.message = message;
   }
}

UserData.java

package com.tutorialspoint.test;

import java.io.Seriapzable;

pubpc class UserData implements Seriapzable {

   private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
	private MessageService messageService;

   pubpc MessageService getMessageService() {
      return messageService;
   }

   pubpc void setMessageService(MessageService messageService) {
      this.messageService = messageService;
   }

   pubpc String getGreetingMessage() {
      return messageService.getGreetingMessage();
   }
}

home.xhtml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
   xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"    
   xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html">
   
   <h:head>
      <title>JSF Tutorial!</title>
   </h:head>
   
   <h:body>
      <h2>Spring Integration Example</h2>
      #{userData.greetingMessage}
   </h:body>
</html> 

Once you are ready with all the changes done, let us compile and run the apppcation as we did in JSF - First Apppcation chapter. If everything is fine with your apppcation, this will produce the following result.

JSF - Expression Language

JSF provides a rich expression language. We can write normal operations using #{operation-expression} notation. Following are some of the advantages of JSF Expression languages.

Can reference bean properties where bean can be an object stored in request, session or apppcation scope or is a managed bean.

Provides easy access to elements of a collection which can be a pst, map or an array.

Provides easy access to predefined objects such as a request.

Arithmetic, logical and relational operations can be done using expression language.

Automatic type conversion.

Shows missing values as empty strings instead of NullPointerException.

Example Apppcation

Let us create a test JSF apppcation to test expression language.

UserData.java

package com.tutorialspoint.test;

import java.io.Seriapzable;
import java.util.Date;

import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.bean.SessionScoped;

@ManagedBean(name = "userData", eager = true)
@SessionScoped
pubpc class UserData implements Seriapzable {
   private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
   private Date createTime = new Date();
   private String message = "Hello World!";

   pubpc Date getCreateTime() {
      return(createTime);
   }
   
   pubpc String getMessage() {
      return(message);
   }
}

home.xhtml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
   xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"    
   xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html">
   
   <h:head>
      <title>JSF Tutorial!</title>
   </h:head>
   
   <h:body>
      <h2>Expression Language Example</h2>
      Creation time: 
      <h:outputText value = "#{userData.createTime}"/>
      <br/><br/>
      Message: 
      <h:outputText value = "#{userData.message}"/>
   </h:body>
</html> 

Once you are ready with all the changes done, let us compile and run the apppcation as we did in JSF - First Apppcation chapter. If everything is fine with your apppcation, this will produce the following result.

JSF - Internationapzation

Internationapzation is a technique in which status messages, GUI component labels, currency, date are not hardcoded in the program. Instead, they are stored outside the source code in resource bundles and retrieved dynamically. JSF provides a very convenient way to handle resource bundle.

Following steps are required to internapze a JSF apppcation.

Step 1: Define properties files

Create properties file for each locale. Name should be in <file-name>_<locale>.properties format.

Default locale can be omitted in file name.

messages.properties

greeting = Hello World!

messages_fr.properties

greeting = Bonjour tout le monde!

Step 2: Update faces-config.xml

faces-config.xml

<apppcation>
   <locale-config>
      <default-locale>en</default-locale>
      <supported-locale>fr</supported-locale>
   </locale-config>
   
   <resource-bundle>
      <base-name>com.tutorialspoint.messages</base-name>
      <var>msg</var>
   </resource-bundle>
</apppcation>

Step 3: Use resource-bundle var

home.xhtml

<h:outputText value = "#{msg[ greeting ]}" />

Example Apppcation

Let us create a test JSF apppcation to test internationapzation in JSF.

messages.properties

greeting = Hello World!

messages_fr.properties

greeting = Bonjour tout le monde!

faces-config.xml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<faces-config
   xmlns = "http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
   xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee 
   http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-facesconfig_2_0.xsd"
   version = "2.0">
   
   <apppcation>
      <locale-config>
         <default-locale>en</default-locale>
         <supported-locale>fr</supported-locale>
      </locale-config>
      
      <resource-bundle>
         <base-name>com.tutorialspoint.messages</base-name>
         <var>msg</var>
      </resource-bundle>
   </apppcation>
</faces-config>

UserData.java

package com.tutorialspoint.test;

import java.io.Seriapzable;
import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.util.Map;

import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.bean.SessionScoped;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.faces.event.ValueChangeEvent;

@ManagedBean(name = "userData", eager = true)
@SessionScoped
pubpc class UserData implements Seriapzable {
   private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
   private String locale;

   private static Map<String,Object> countries;
      static {
      
      countries = new LinkedHashMap<String,Object>();
      countries.put("Engpsh", Locale.ENGLISH);
      countries.put("French", Locale.FRENCH);
   }

   pubpc Map<String, Object> getCountries() {
      return countries;
   }

   pubpc String getLocale() {
      return locale;
   }

   pubpc void setLocale(String locale) {
      this.locale = locale;
   }

   //value change event pstener
   pubpc void localeChanged(ValueChangeEvent e) {
      String newLocaleValue = e.getNewValue().toString();
      
      for (Map.Entry<String, Object> entry : countries.entrySet()) {
         
         if(entry.getValue().toString().equals(newLocaleValue)) {
            FacesContext.getCurrentInstance()
               .getViewRoot().setLocale((Locale)entry.getValue());         
         }
      }
   }
}

home.xhtml

<?xml version = "1.0" encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns = "http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"   
xmlns:h = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:f = "http://java.sun.com/jsf/core">
   
   <h:head>
      <title>JSF tutorial</title>	 	
   </h:head>
   
   <h:body> 
      <h2>Internapzation Language Example</h2>
      
      <h:form>
         <h3><h:outputText value = "#{msg[ greeting ]}" /></h3>
         
         <h:panelGrid columns = "2"> 
            Language : 
            <h:selectOneMenu value = "#{userData.locale}" onchange = "submit()"
               valueChangeListener = "#{userData.localeChanged}">
               <f:selectItems value = "#{userData.countries}" /> 
            </h:selectOneMenu> 
         </h:panelGrid> 
      
      </h:form>
   </h:body>
</html>

Once you are ready with all the changes done, let us compile and run the apppcation as we did in JSF - First Apppcation chapter. If everything is fine with your apppcation, this will produce the following result.

Change language from dropdown. You will see the following output.