JSF2: How to add the magic of EL (EL2) to JSF

September 14th, 2009 by

Lincoln

Ever wonder why you can’t pass parameters to EL method-expressions? Well, now you can, and it’s easy to incorporate!

This quick guide assumes you are using Maven. And is a followup to the post: h:dataTable vs ui:repeat – how to get the selected row.

Get the EL dependencies through maven

You can get EL2 here, just include the desired repository and implementation:

		<repository>
			<id>sun</id>
			<url>http://download.java.net/maven/2/</url>
		</repository>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>javax.el</groupId>
			<artifactId>el-api</artifactId>
			<version>2.2</version>
		</dependency>
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.glassfish.web</groupId>
			<artifactId>el-impl</artifactId>
			<version>2.2</version>
		</dependency>

Configuring Faces to use the new ExpressionFactory

Then register EL in web.xml

	<context-param>
		<param-name>com.sun.faces.expressionFactory</param-name>
		<param-value>com.sun.el.ExpressionFactoryImpl</param-value>
	</context-param>

That’s it! You should now be able to pass parameters like a pro.

	<h:commandButton value="Save" action="#{taskController.saveTaskAjax(cc.attrs.story, cc.attrs.task)}">
		<f:ajax execute="taskBlock" render="taskBlock" />
	</h:commandButton>
 
	<!-- or -->
 
	<h:commandLink id="removeTask" title="remove" styleClass="m5t"
		rendered="#{cc.attrs.deletable}"
		immediate="true" onclick="return confirm('Really delete this task?');"
		action="#{taskController.removeTask(cc.attrs.story, cc.attrs.task)}">
			<f:ajax execute="@this" render="@form" />
			[remove]
	</h:commandLink>

About the author:

Lincoln Baxter, III is a Senior Software Engineer at Red Hat, Inc., working on JBoss open-source projects. This blog represents his personal thoughts and perspectives, not necessarily those of his employer.

He is a founder of OcpSoft, the author of PrettyFaces: bookmarking, SEO extensions for JSF, and an individual member of the JavaServer™ Faces Expert Group. When he is not swimming, running, or playing Ultimate Frisbee, Lincoln is focused on promoting open-source software and making web-applications more accessible for small businesses, individuals. His latest project is ScrumShark, an open-source, agile project management tool.

Posted in JSF2

7 Comments

JSF's <h:dataTable> vs <ui:repeat> - How to get the selected row (JSF2, EL2) | OcpSoft says:
September 14, 2009 at 7:56 pm
[...] instructions on how to: include EL2 in a JSF project go [...]
[reply]
Dan Allen says:
September 15, 2009 at 7:36 am
Technically JBoss EL 2.1 is not the same as EL 2 (which isn’t EL 2 at all, but rather the EL being delivered in MR2 of the JSR-245: JSP 2.1 specification). I know, it’s really confusing.
You should see if you can use the actual EL implementation from the Java EE 6 reference implementation (GlassFish V3).
[reply]
Faisal Basra says:
November 3, 2009 at 12:53 am
That sound cool, but what about JSF 1.2? can we use EL 2.0 with JSF 1.2 ???
Any idea….
[reply]
Lincoln says:
November 3, 2009 at 12:56 am
I don’t know the answer to that one. Try it out
[reply]
Using the Expression Language Maintenance Release (MR) (EL2) « Matthias Wessendorf’s Weblog says:
December 11, 2009 at 12:54 pm
[...] Check it out. Good read! [...]
[reply]
Jay says:
February 18, 2010 at 3:04 pm
You can add JSF 2.0 and Unified EL (EL 2) magic to Glassfish V2.1.1 in 2 ways.
1) If you want to completly replace JSF 1.x with 2.x in your glassfish V2.1.1 installation
a) Remove existing jsf-impl.jar in ${com.sun.aas.installRoot}/lib
b) Add following JSF2 and unified EL jars. i.e. jsf-api-2.1.jar, jsf-impl-2.1.jar,el-api-2.1.jar, el-impl-2.1.jar in in ${com.sun.aas.installRoot}/lib.
c) Add or update classpath-prefix=”${com.sun.aas.installRoot}/lib/jsf-api.jar;${com.sun.aas.installRoot}/lib/jsf-imp.jar;${com.sun.aas.installRoot}/lib/el-api.jar;${com.sun.aas.installRoot}/lib/el-impl.jar” in ${com.sun.aas.installRoot}/domains//config/domain.xml under as an attribute.
2) If you want to keep JSF 1.x as the default implementation on your glassfish instance but want to implement JSF 2.x only on one of your applications
a) Add el-api-2.1.jar, el-impl-2.1.jar in ${com.sun.aas.installRoot}/lib.
b) Include jsf-api-2.1.jar, jsf-impl-2.1.jar in lib directory of your application war.
c) Add add sun-web.xml under /WEB-INF/ directory of your application war with following properties
mojarra2
d) Add or update classpath-prefix=”${com.sun.aas.installRoot}/lib/el-api.jar;${com.sun.aas.installRoot}/lib/el-impl.jar” in ${com.sun.aas.installRoot}/domains//config/domain.xml under as an attribute.
Hope this helps. Enjoy!!!
Note: (This does not work in Glassfish V2.0 or V2.1)
[reply]
1. Jay says:
  February 18, 2010 at 3:12 pm
  classpath-prefix=”${com.sun.aas.installRoot}/lib/el-api.jar;${com.sun.aas.installRoot}/lib/el-impl.jar” in ${com.sun.aas.installRoot}/domains/your domain name/config/domain.xml under as an attribute.
  [reply]