Mojarra

Oracle's implementation of the JavaServer Faces specification

Minimum Requirements

• Java 1.8
• Servlet 3.0 (4.0 recommended)
• EL 3.0
• CDI 1.2 (2.0 recommended)
• JSTL 1.2
• JSONP 1.1 (optional, only when <f:websocket> is used)
• BV 1.1 (optional, only when <f:validateBean> or <f:validateWholeBean> is used; 2.0 recommended)

Servlet 4.0 will enable JSF 2.3 to serve resources via HTTP/2 push. CDI is explicitly required because since JSF 2.3 the javax.faces.bean.* annotations such as @ManagedBean are deprecated, and several implicit EL objects are produced via CDI producers, and <f:websocket> manages the WS sessions and events via CDI.

Installation

Depending on the server used, JSF may already be built-in (full fledged Java EE containers such as WildFly, JBoss EAP, TomEE, Payara, GlassFish, Liberty, etc.), or not (barebones JSP/Servlet containers such as Tomcat, Jetty, etc.). If the server doesn't ship with JSF built-in, then you need to manually install JSF 2.3 along with CDI 1.2+, JSONP 1.1+ and JSTL 1.2+ as those servlet containers usually also don't even ship with those JSF dependencies.

Non-Maven

In case you're manually carrying around JARs:

• Java EE containers (WildFly, JBoss EAP, TomEE, Payara, GlassFish, Liberty, etc)

  You don't need to add any JARs to /WEB-INF/lib!

• Servletcontainers (Tomcat, Jetty, etc)

  Add below JARs to /WEB-INF/lib:

  • javax.faces.2.3.x.jar
  • weld-servlet-shaded-3.0.0.Final.jar
  • jstl-1.2.jar
  • javax.json-api-1.1.jar (optional, only when <f:websocket> is used)
  • javax.json-1.1.jar (optional, only when <f:websocket> is used)
  • validation-api-2.0.0.Final.jar (optional, only when <f:validateBean|validateWholeBean> is used)
  • hibernate-validator-6.0.1.Final.jar (optional, only when <f:validateBean|validateWholeBean> is used)

  Substitute x with latest 2.3.x version number.

Maven

In case you're using Maven, you can find below the necessary coordinates:

• Java EE containers (WildFly, JBoss EAP, TomEE, Payara, GlassFish, Liberty, etc)

  <dependency>
      <groupId>javax</groupId>
      <artifactId>javaee-web-api</artifactId>
      <version>8.0</version>
      <scope>provided</scope>
  </dependency>

  In case you're targeting a Java EE 7.0 runtime, then you should manually upgrade any runtime-provided JSF 2.2 library to JSF 2.3 depending on the server used. In case of WildFly/JBoss EAP, you need to manually package jsf-api.jar and jsf-impl.jar based on javax.faces.jar first. In case of TomEE, just swap the myfaces*.jar files with javax.faces.jar in server's /lib folder. In case of Payara/GlassFish, just swap the javax.faces.jar file in server's /glassfish/modules folder.

• Servletcontainers (Tomcat, Jetty, etc)

  <dependency>
      <groupId>org.glassfish</groupId>
      <artifactId>javax.faces</artifactId>
      <version><!-- Use latest 2.3.x version. --></version>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
      <groupId>org.jboss.weld.servlet</groupId>
      <artifactId>weld-servlet-shaded</artifactId>
      <version>3.0.0.Final</version>
  </dependency>
  <dependency>
      <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
      <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
      <version>1.2</version>
  </dependency>
  <dependency> <!-- Optional, only when <f:websocket> is used. -->
      <groupId>org.glassfish</groupId>
      <artifactId>javax.json</artifactId>
      <version>1.1</version>
  </dependency>
  <dependency> <!-- Optional, only when <f:validateBean> or <f:validateWholeBean> is used. -->
      <groupId>org.hibernate.validator</groupId>
      <artifactId>hibernate-validator</artifactId>
      <version>6.0.1.Final</version>
  </dependency>

  You can check org.glassfish:javax.faces repository to find current latest Mojarra 2.3.x version.

Hello World Example

We assume that you already know how to create an empty Maven WAR Project or Dynamic Web Project in your favourite IDE with a CDI 1.2+ compatible /WEB-INF/beans.xml deployment descriptor file (which can be kept fully empty). Don't forget to add JARs or configure pom.xml if necessary, as instructed in previous chapter.

Controller

Optionally, register the FacesServlet in a Servlet 3.0+ compatible deployment descriptor file /WEB-INF/web.xml as below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<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"
>
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>facesServlet</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
    </servlet>
    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>facesServlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.xhtml</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

Noted should be that JSF 2.2+ is already "implicitly" registered and mapped on *.jsf, *.faces and /faces/* when running on a Servlet 3.0+ container. This will be overridden altogether when explicitly registering as above. The *.xhtml URL pattern is preferred over above for security and clarity reasons. JSF 2.3+ adds *.xhtml to set of default patterns, hence the FacesServlet registration being optional. But when you don't explicitly map it on *.xhtml, then people can still access JSF pages using *.jsf, *.faces or /faces/* URL patterns. This is not nice for SEO as JSF by design doesn't 301-redirect them to a single mapping.

The JSF deployment descriptor file /WEB-INF/faces-config.xml is fully optional, but if any it must be JSF 2.3 compatible, otherwise JSF 2.3 will run in a fallback modus matching the exact version as declared in <faces-config> root element.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<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_3.xsd"
    version="2.3"
>
    <!-- Put any faces config here. -->
</faces-config>

Model

Then create a backing bean class as below:

package com.example;

import javax.enterprise.context.RequestScoped;
import javax.inject.Named;

@Named
@RequestScoped
public class Hello {

    private String name;
    private String message;

    public void createMessage() {
        message = "Hello, " + name + "!";
    }

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public String getMessage() {
        return message;
    }

}

Noted should be that in reality in the average Java EE application the above "model" is further breakdown into a JPA entity, an EJB service and a smaller backing bean. The JPA entity and EJB service then basically act as a true "model" and the backing bean becomes a "controller" for that model. This may in first place be confusing to starters, but it all depends on the point of view. See also What components are MVC in JSF MVC framework? and JSF Controller, Service and DAO.

View

Finally create a Facelets file /hello.xhtml as below:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en"
    xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
    xmlns:f="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/core"
    xmlns:h="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/html">
    <h:head>
        <title>Hello, World!</title>
    </h:head>
    <h:body>
        <h:form>
            <h:outputLabel for="name" value="Enter your name" required="true" />
            <h:inputText id="name" value="#{hello.name}" />
            <h:message for="name" />
            <br />
            <h:commandButton value="Say hello" action="#{hello.createMessage}">
                <f:ajax execute="@form" render="@form" />
            </h:commandButton>
            <br />
            #{hello.message}
        </h:form>
    </h:body>
</html>

Start the server and open it by http://localhost:8080/contextname/hello.xhtml.

Activating CDI in JSF 2.3

By default, JSF 2.3 will run in JSF 2.2 modus as to CDI support. Even when you use a JSF 2.3 compatible faces-config.xml. In other words, the new JSF 2.3 feature of injection and EL resolving of JSF artifacts (spec issue 1316) won't work until you explicitly activate this. In other words, @Inject FacesContext doesn't work by default. This is necessary in order for JSF 2.3 to be fully backwards compatible.

There is currently only one way to activate CDI in JSF 2.3 and herewith make JSF 2.3 to run in full JSF 2.3 modus. Put the @FacesConfig annotation on an arbitrary CDI managed bean. For example, a general startup/configuration bean.

@FacesConfig
@ApplicationScoped
public class YourApplicationConfig {
    // ...
}

Building

In case you want to checkout this repository and manually build from source yourself (if necessary after editing source code), here are the instructions:

JSF 2.4 (JSF.next)

1. Make sure that you have JDK 1.8, Ant and Maven installed.

2. Checkout branch master.

3. Run the following commands from the root directory of the project:

   # under the root dir of project
   mvn clean install

4. The binary is now available as impl/target/javax.faces-2.4.x-SNAPSHOT.jar.

JSF 2.3

1. Make sure that you have JDK 1.8, Ant and Maven installed.

2. Checkout branch MOJARRA_2_3X_ROLLING.

3. Run the following commands from the root directory of the project:

   # under the root dir of project
   cd jsf-tools
   mvn clean install
   cd ../impl
   mvn clean install

4. The binary is now available as impl/target/javax.faces-2.3.x-SNAPSHOT.jar.

JSF 2.2

1. Make sure that you have JDK 1.6, Ant and Maven installed.

2. Checkout branch MOJARRA_2_2X_ROLLING.

3. Edit build.properties according to your environment. If build.properties does not exist, then create a copy of build.properties.glassfish, build.properties.tomcat or build.properties.weblogic, depending on your target server. Below example assumes GlassFish or Payara:

   cp build.properties.glassfish build.properties

   Only the jsf.build.home property is mandated to be edited in your build.properties. It must represent the absolute path to the root directory of the project.

4. Run the following command from the root directory of the project:

   # under the root dir of project
   ant main clean main

5. The binary is now available as jsf-ri/build/mvn/target/javax.faces-2.2.x-SNAPSHOT.jar.

Editing source code with IDE

In case you want to checkout to edit the source code of Mojarra with full IDE support, here are the instructions. Note that this only allows you to edit the code. Actually building the Mojarra artefacts still has to be done using the instructions provided above.

Eclipse

JSF 2.4 (JSF.next)

1. Checkout branch master using File -> import -> Git
2. Right click the Mojarra project after checkout, choose Configure -> Convert to Maven Project

JSF 2.3

1. Checkout branch master using File -> import -> Git
2. Switch to 2.3 rolling branch using Team -> Switch to -> Other -> Remote Tracking -> origin/MOJARRA_2_3X_ROLLING -> New Branch
3. Go to the commandline and cd into the directory where Mojarra was checked-out.
4. Follow the instructions for build JSF 2.2 from the build instructions above from step 3 (copy/edit properties, run ant)
5. Go back to Eclipse and refresh the Eclipse project

Pull Requests

Pull requests are accepted on following branches:

• master (JSF.next)
• MOJARRA_2_3X_ROLLING (2.3.x)
• MOJARRA_2_2X_ROLLING (2.2.x)

Note that it's okay to send a PR to the master branch, but these are for JSF.next and not the current 2.3.x version!

Resources

• JSF 2.3 Specification (JSR 372)
• JSF 2.3 API documentation
• JSF 2.3 VDL documentation
• JSF 2.3 JS documentation
• Oracle Java EE 7 tutorial - JavaServer Faces Technology (currently still JSF 2.2)
• What's new in JSF 2.3?
• Java EE Kickoff Application