The Java EE 6 Tutorial, Volume I

Resources

Resources refers to any software artifacts that the application requires for proper rendering. They include images, script files and any user-created component libraries. As of JavaServer Faces 2.0, resources must be collected in a standard location, which can be one of the following:

The JavaServer Faces runtime will look for the resources in the above listed locations, in that order.

Resource identifiers are unique strings that conform to the following format:

[localePrefix/][libraryName/][libraryVersion/]resource name[/resourceVersion]

Elements of the resource identifier in brackets ([]) are optional. This indicates that only a resource name is a required element, which is usually a file name.

Resources can be considered as a library location. Any artifacts, like a composite component or template that is stored under resources directory, becomes accessible to the other components of the application which can use them to create a resource instance.