Configure Liberty for JavaServer Faces 2.3

We can configure Liberty for the JavaServer Faces (JSF) 2.3 feature, which provides full support for the JSF 2.3 specification.

The Liberty JSF implementation is based on the MyFaces open source implementation. To configure a Liberty server to run an application that is enabled for JSF 2.3, set the <jsf-2.3> feature. Update the server.xml file to add the <jsf-2.3> feature:

Important:

Consider the following points when we use JavaServer Faces 2.3:

  • The JSF 2.3 feature requires Java 8 at minimum.

  • Use the JSF 2.3 feature only with other Java EE 8 features and EE 7 features that do not have an equivalent Java EE 8 version. For example, we can use the jsf-2.3 feature with Servlet 4.0, but we cannot use it with the Servlet 3.1 feature.

  • The JSF 2.3 feature does not implicitly load the Contexts and Dependency Injection (CDI) feature. To use the CDI functionality, enable the cdi-2.0 feature.

  • If the @FacesConfig annotation is present in any of the managed beans, CDI performs the Expression Language (EL) resolution of implicit objects.

    See Section 5.6.3, CDI for EL Resolution, of the JSF 2.3 specification.

  • The JSF 2.3 feature does not implicitly load the bean validation feature like the JSF 2.0 feature does. When you migrate the application from JSF 2.0 to JSF 2.3, and the application uses bean validation, enable the beanValidation-2.0 feature.

  • The JSF 2.3 feature does not implicitly load the WebSocket feature. To use the <f:websocket/> functionality, enable the websocket-1.1 feature.

  • The JSF 2.3 feature requires the servlet-4.0, jsp-2.3, and el-3.0 features. When we enable the JSF 2.3 feature in the server.xml file, we also enable each of these features.

  • We can choose between the JSF 2.0, JSF 2.2, and JSF 2.3 feature implementations for each server instance. However, consider any behavior changes. If the necessary behavior is contained only in the JSF 2.3 feature, use the JSF 2.3 feature. If behavior changes in the JSF 2.3 feature adversely affect an existing application, use either the JSF 2.2 or JSF 2.0 feature to preserve the existing behavior for that application.

  • We cannot use the JSF 2.0, JSF 2.2, and JSF 2.3 features in the same Liberty server. If we configure two or more features, the program produces an error:

      CWWKF0033E: The singleton features jsf-2.2 and jsf-2.3 cannot be loaded at the same time. The configured features jsf-2.2 and jsf-2.3 include one or more features that cause the conflict. Your configuration is not supported; update server.xml to remove incompatible features.

  • The JSF 2.3 feature is compatible with earlier releases, such as JSF 2.2, JSF 2.1, and JSF 2.0, but some exceptions apply.

    • The JSF 2.3 feature is not compatible with earlier releases if any of the following context parameter values are specified in the web application deployment descriptor. For more information, see Section 11.1.3, Application Configuration Parameters, in the JSF 2.3 specification. 

        javax.faces.ALWAYS_PERFORM_VALIDATION_WHEN_REQUIRED_IS_TRUE
javax.faces.DISABLE_FACESSERVLET_TO_XHTML
javax.faces.VIEWROOT_PHASE_LISTENER_QUEUES_EXCEPTIONS.

    • The JSF 2.3 feature is not compatible with earlier releases if a bean that is managed by CDI is included in the application with the annotation @javax.faces.annotation.FacesConfig.

      See the Java API information.

  • The JSF 2.3 feature does not support constructor injection in the following JSF artifacts. For more information, see the JSF 2.3 specification issue.

    • javax.el.ELResolver
    • javax.faces.application.NavigationHandler
    • javax.faces.application.StateManager
    • javax.faces.application.ResourceHandler
    • javax.faces.event.ActionListener
    • javax.faces.event.PhaseListener
    • javax.faces.event.SystemEventListener

We enabled the JSF 2.3 feature. The feature loads in the Liberty server at run time.


What to do next

To support injection when we specify objects that JSF manages, such as FacesConverter, FacesValidator, and FacesBehavior, provide a beans.xml file. To register DataModel implementations, place the @FacesDataModel annotation on a class with a scope annotation or in an application with a beans.xml file with the following specifications: 

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans 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/beans_1_1.xsd" 
	bean-discovery-mode="all">
</beans>