Integrating Java Server Faces into a Web Application

Beehive NetUI and JSF can be fully integrated in a web application. Below are described the most typical ways to make the two frameworks communicate.

	@Jpf.Action(forwards = { @Jpf.Forward(name = "success", path = "myJSFPage.faces") } )
	public Forward navigate() {
		return new Forward("success");
	}

For example, assume you have the following action in a NetUI controller file.

	@Jpf.Action(forwards = { @Jpf.Forward(name = "success", path = "myJSFPage.faces") } )
	public Forward navigate() {
		return new Forward("success");
	}

You can invoke this action from a JSF by referencing navigate in an action attribute:

    <h:form>
    ...
        <h:commandButton action="navigate" value="Go"/>
    </h:form>

Raising NetUI Actions from JSF Backing Beans

Suppose you have an action navigate in a Controller class. To invoke navigate from within a JSF backing bean, use a command handler decorated with the annotation set @Jpf.CommandHandler/@Jpf.RaiseAction:

    @Jpf.CommandHandler(
        raiseActions={
            @Jpf.RaiseAction(action="navigate")
        }
    )
    public String invokeNavigate()
    {
        return "navigate";
    }

You bind to the command handler from the JSF page in the usual way:

    <h:commandButton action="#{backing.invokeNavigate}" value="Go"/>

Calling Controls from JSF Backing Beans

You call a control from a backing bean just as you would call a control from any Java class.

First you declare the control on the client Java class.

    import org.apache.beehive.controls.api.bean.Control;
    
	...
    
    @Control
    private CustomerControl customerControl;

Then you invoke methods on that control.

    public Customer[] getCustomers() {
		return customerControl.someMethod();
	}

Passing Data Between JSF Pages and NetUI Actions

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html;charset=UTF-8"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="h" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"%>
<%@taglib uri="http://beehive.apache.org/netui/tags-databinding-1.0" prefix="netui-data"%>

<netui-data:declarePageInput required="true" type="java.util.ArrayList<businessObjects.Customer>" name="getCustomersResult" />

...

    <h:dataTable value="#{pageInput.getCustomersResult}" var="item0" border="1">

        ...

    </h:dataTable>

References are not limited to the pageInput implicit object; you can reference any implicit object using JSF-style expressions. For example, the following expression references the foo field on the controller class:

    <h:outputText value="#{pageInput.foo}"/>

You can also submit data (as a form bean) from a JSF page to a NetUI Controller class.

Suppose you have an action that has a form bean parameter:

	@Jpf.Action(forwards = { @Jpf.Forward(name = "success", path = "confirm.faces") } )
	public Forward getCustomers(Customer form) {
	    
		// do something with the submitted form data...
		
		return new Forward("success");
	}

A form bean a Java representation of an HTML form, where the bean properties correspond to the fields in the HTML form.

public class Customer implements Serializable
{
    private String first = "";
    private String last = "";
   
    public Customer()
    {
    }
    
    public Customer(String first, String last)
    {
        this.first = first;
        this.last = last;
    }

    public void setFirst(String value)
    {
        first = value;
    }

    public String getFirst()
    {
        return first;
    }

    public String getLast()
    {
        return last;
    }

    public void setLast(String value)
    {
        last = value;
    }
} 

To submit this form bean to the action from a JSF page, reference the bean with a JSF style expression:

    <h:form>
        <h:outputLabel value="First:" for="field1" />
        <h:inputText value="#{backing.custFormBean.first}" id="field1" />
        <h:outputLabel value="Last:" for="field2" />
        <h:inputText value="#{backing.custFormBean.last}" id="field2" />
        <h:commandButton action="getCustomers" value="Submit">
            <f:attribute name="submitFormBean" value="backing.custFormBean" />
        </h:commandButton>
    </h:form>

Note that the form bean is reference via the backing bean. See the italic expressions above: #{backing.custFormBean.first}, #{backing.custFormBean.last}, and backing.custFormBean.

For these expressions to work, the backing bean must include the form bean as a field, with appropriate setters and getters on that field:

@Jpf.FacesBacking()
public class index extends FacesBackingBean {
 
    private Customer custFormBean = new Customer();
 
    public Customer getCustFormBean() {
        return custFormBean;
    }
 
    public void setCustFormBean(Customer bean) {
        this.custFormBean = bean;
    }
}