Integrating Struts 2 + JSF + Facelets

Integrating Struts 2 + JSF + Facelets What if you didn't have to choose between a request-based framework and a component-based framework? What if you could use them together and use request-based for some pages and component-based for others? This is the functionality that the Struts 2 JSF Plugin provides.

To be fair, the JSF-Spring project says it does the same thing for Spring MVC + JSF, but there doesn't appear to be any documentation.

I did some prototyping of Struts 2 + JSF and discovered that it does indeed work. I also discovered that there's no documentation on integrating it with Facelets. Luckily, it's pretty easy to do - hence my reason for writing this entry. You might ask why I want to use Facelets when JSF 1.2 supports JSP fairly well? My reason is because JSP 2.1 hijacks #{}, which Struts 2's OGNL uses for some expressions. Because of this, I want to be able to run on a JSP 2.0 container until a workaround comes along. Sun's JSF 1.2 RI can run on a JSP 2.0 container, while MyFaces 2.1 cannot (at least in my experience).

There's two ways to get Struts 2 + JSF + Facelets working:

• Create a WEB-INF/faces-config.xml file and override the default view-handler:

  <?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_1_2.xsd"
      version="1.2">
  
      <application>
          <view-handler>com.sun.facelets.FaceletViewHandler</view-handler>
      </application>
  </faces-config> 
  

• The 2nd way is to use Ajax4JSF and declare the view-handler in your web.xml (allowing you to get rid of faces-config.xml):

  <context-param>
      <param-name>org.ajax4jsf.VIEW_HANDLERS</param-name>
      <param-value>com.sun.facelets.FaceletViewHandler</param-value>
  </context-param>
  

NOTE: You have to use 2nd method if you want to use Ajax4JSF. It won't read the view-handler from faces-config.xml.

If you're using SiteMesh, you may have to add another <parser> element to your sitemesh.xml to get Facelets pages decorated:

<parser content-type="application/xhtml+xml"
    class="com.opensymphony.module.sitemesh.parser.HTMLPageParser"/> 

Thanks to Laurie Harper for his assistance figuring this stuff out.

Now you might ask - why would you want to do this? For one, Struts 2 has a better navigation model (IMO) than JSF. Also, if developers want to use JSF and think it's a better way for a certain module - let them go to it! Posted in Java at Jul 26 2007, 12:13:59 PM MDT 7 Comments <!---->

Comments:

I am not sure Ajax4jsf requires com.sun.facelets.FaceletViewHandler to be in the web.xml. Where you read this info from?

Posted by Sergey Smirnov on July 26, 2007 at 01:03 PM MDT #

It was required last October. I didn't read it anywhere, I learned it from experience. Maybe it's changed with newer versions of Ajax4JSF and Facelets.

Posted by Matt Raible on July 26, 2007 at 01:47 PM MDT #

I'm pretty certain Laurie Harper is male. (I'm also fairly certain that he is quite a helpful contributor to the struts mailing list, responding to messages that everyone else ignores.)

Posted by Dale Newfield on July 27, 2007 at 03:04 AM MDT #

I had the same thought while reading, "isn't Laurie a guy?" :)

Posted by musachy on July 27, 2007 at 01:14 PM MDT #

Doh! Damn ethnocentricity. Fixed now - thanks guys.

Posted by Matt Raible on July 27, 2007 at 01:16 PM MDT #

Hi guys, I am tring to get Struts 2 + JSF plugin working as what is says at Struts 2 JSF Plugin, but the plugin documentation is not that clear for me to follow, since I am new to Struts. Do you guys know what configurations I have to do, in which files to get this plugin working? Do you guys know any other Struts2 JSF plugin references elsewhere? Thank you very much!!!! Lupus

Posted by Lupus on July 30, 2007 at 01:31 PM MDT #

Lupus - it should be a matter of registering FacesServlet in your web.xml and configuring the Struts 2 JSF Plugin appropriately. Have you looked at the showcase example? That's how I figured it out.

I'll make sure and add a Struts 2 + JSF installer for AppFuse Light 1.8. I expect to release AL 1.8 and AppFuse 2.0 this month (crosses fingers).

Posted by Matt Raible on August 02, 2007 at 02:39 PM MDT #

引用：http://raibledesigns.com/rd/entry/integrating_struts_2_jsf_facelets