How to pass url parameters to JSF/xHTML? - jsf

Question

I know this has been asked multiple times but mine is a slightly diff question.
I have a JSF page which queries a database and throws results, before i move to JSF, i used to do this in JSP and it was working fine.
When i was using JSP below is the link format i used to use
http://localhost:8080/blmdatabase/index.jsp?SearchString=Name&Category=Contact&Submit=Submit
My index.jsp used to capture the values using param.SearchString & param.Category, and 'Submit' used to activate the 'submit' button for the search.
How do i do the same for xHTML/JSF ?
Here is what i tried ...
http://localhost:8080/blmdatabase/index.xhtml?search=#{some search string}
In my index.xhtml
<td>
<f:metadata>
<f:viewParam name="search" value="#{databaseSearch.searchstring}" />
</f:metadata>
<p:inputText id="searchstring" size="20" maxlength="20" value="#{databaseSearch.searchstring}"/> <p:commandButton id="submit" icon="ui-icon-search" title="Search Database" update="panel" actionListener="#{databaseSearch.customerList}" />
</td>
in my databaseSearch.java
#ManagedBean(name = "databaseSearch")
#SessionScoped
public class databaseSearch implements Serializable {
public String searchstring;
//getter and setter for searchstring
}
Also, i would need it 'Submit' the form .... I am new to this, so please excuse me if this was already discussed before ...
Also if i specific index.html , my jsf components would not load, just a blank page. like if i go
http://localhost:8080/blmdatabase/
my primefaces components load fine, but if i do
http://localhost:8080/blmdatabase/index.xhtml
it does not, so now i am wondering how to pass the parameters :(
Web.xml
<servlet>
<servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/faces/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<session-config>
<session-timeout>
30
</session-timeout>
</session-config>
<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file>faces/index.xhtml</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>

Answer 1

You could 'submit' your form adding <f:event type="preRenderView"> inside the <f:metadata> tag.
<f:metadata>
<f:viewParam name="search" value="#{databaseSearch.searchstring}" />
<f:event type="preRenderView" listener="#{databaseSearch.doSearch}" />
</f:metadata>
This way, you could implement how your bean will search for this specific query string
public void doSearch(ComponentSystemEvent event) {
if(!searchString.isEmpty()) {
// Do your search here
}
}

Answer 2

Your Faces Servlet maps to anything that's hold in the faces virtual folder:
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/faces/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
So http://localhost:8080/blmdatabase/index.xhtml URL won't be parsed through Faces Servlet. You must use http://localhost:8080/blmdatabase/faces/index.xhtml, note the use of faces/ before your index.xhtml file, also note that your <welcome-file> also points to faces/index.xhtml.
The downside of this URL pattern is that Faces Servlet would also process non-facelets resources like JavaScript files (.js), Style files (.css), images (*.png, *.jpg) and others. A better Faces Servlet mapping would be:
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*.xhtml</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
In this way, Faces Servlet will process xhtml pages only and you won't need the faces virtual folder anymore. With this change, now you can access to http://localhost:8080/blmdatabase/index.xhtml with no problems.

Answer 3

you could use a method in the class dataBaseSearch:
if(searchString != null){
//execute a query in database
// return result to a variable(resultSet or list)
}
and use getter and setter to get the the resultSet or List
and render the result in a datatable.