JSF Managed Bean XML Configuration

In this tutorial we will be creating JSF Managed Bean XML Configuration. You can configure managed beans with XML inside the WEB-INF/faces-config.xml file or if you have a large project and you want to structure your managed beans you can also put them in a separate file and then reference this file inside the /WEB-INF/web.xml file using context-parameters.

Dependencies

Here is a list of dependencies we used to successfuly start the application in tomcat 8.0.24.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<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/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.memorynotfound.jsf.managedbeans</groupId>
    <artifactId>jsf-managed-bean-xml</artifactId>
    <version>1.0.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <name>JSF - ${project.artifactId}</name>
    <url>https://memorynotfound.com</url>
    <packaging>war</packaging>

    <dependencies>
        <!-- java ee api -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax</groupId>
            <artifactId>javaee-api</artifactId>
            <version>7.0</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>

        <!-- JSF api and impl -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsf-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.2.12</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsf-impl</artifactId>
            <version>2.2.12</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- JSP Standard Tag Libraries -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
            <version>1.2</version>
        </dependency>

        <!-- servlet provided by tomcat -->
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.servlet-api</artifactId>
            <version>3.1.0</version>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
</project>

Creating the ManagedBean

There is no configuration needed in the UserBean class because we are registering the managed bean with XML.

package com.memorynotfound;

public class UserBean {

    private String firstName;
    private String lastName;

    public String getFirstName() {
        return firstName;
    }

    public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
    }

    public String getLastName() {
        return lastName;
    }

    public void setLastName(String lastName) {
        this.lastName = lastName;
    }
}

JSF Managed Bean XML Configuration

We can create a managed bean by assigning a name, class and scope.

<faces-config xmlns="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee"
              xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
              xsi:schemaLocation="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee
                                  http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee/web-facesconfig_2_2.xsd" version="2.2">

    <managed-bean>
        <managed-bean-name>userBean</managed-bean-name>
        <managed-bean-class>com.memorynotfound.UserBean</managed-bean-class>
        <managed-bean-scope>request</managed-bean-scope>
    </managed-bean>

</faces-config>

Servlet Descriptor

When you registered your beans in a separate file than faces-config.xml you need to register them in web.xml by adding a context-param named javax.faces.CONFIG_FILES.

<web-app xmlns="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee
                             http://xmlns.jcp.org/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_1.xsd" version="3.1">

    <display-name>JSF Managed Bean XML Configuration</display-name>

    <!-- Change to "Production" when you are ready to deploy -->
    <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/managed-beans.xml</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <!-- Welcome page -->
    <welcome-file-list>
        <welcome-file>index.xhtml</welcome-file>
    </welcome-file-list>

    <!-- JSF mapping -->
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

    <!-- Map these files with JSF -->
    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.xhtml</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

Calling the Managed Bean

We can call the Managed Bean by referencing the managed-bean-name name. e.g.: #{userBean.firstName}

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' ?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
      xmlns:h="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/html">
<h:body>

    <h1>JSF Managed Bean XML Configuration</h1>

    <h:form>
        <h:panelGrid columns="2">
            <h:outputLabel value="First name" for="firstName"/>
            <h:inputText id="firstName" value="#{userBean.firstName}"/>

            <h:outputLabel value="Last name" for="lastName"/>
            <h:inputText id="lastName" value="#{userBean.lastName}"/>

            <h:commandButton action="result" value="send"/>
        </h:panelGrid>
    </h:form>

</h:body>
</html>

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' ?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
      xmlns:h="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/html">
<h:body>

    <h1>JSF Managed Bean XML Configuration</h1>

    First name: #{userBean.firstName}
    Last name: #{userBean.lastName}

</h:body>
</html>

Demo

URL: localhost:8080/jsf-managed-bean-xml

References

• Managed Bean Doc

Download