Using JSF 2.

x in Liferay Portal
Andy Bosch, www.jsf-academy.com
Agenda
Portals and Portlets
Motivation for JSF + Portlets
JSR-301 and others: Portlet Bridge for JSF
What is JSR-301?
What is JSR-329?
How does the Portlet Bridge work?
JSF 2.x in Liferay Portal
Who am I?
Name: Andy Bosch
Trainer, coach, developer, !
Specialized in JSF and Portlets
Expert Group member of JSR-301, JSR-329, and JSR-344
Working with JSF since 2004
Agenda
Portals and Portlets
Motivation for JSF + Portlets
JSR-301 and others: Portlet Bridge for JSF
What is JSR-301?
What is JSR-329?
How does the Portlet Bridge work?
JSF 2.x in Liferay Portal
Talking about real Portals
Talking about real Portals
Integration /
Aggregation
Personalisation
Consistent
look & feel

SSO
From Portals to Portlets
A portal is responsible for the aggregation of content, applications,
and services.
Each fragment of a portal page is called a Portlet.
That way, many portlets together form a portal page and many portal
pages form a portal.
! In contrast to Portals, Portlets are standardized.
The underlying standard is JSR-168.
! The latest Portlet standard, JSR-286, was published in 2008.
How does a Portlet work?
A Portlet is triggered by the Portal (to be exact: by the Portlet
container) to display itself (render phase).
The Portlet container aggregates all fragments of the Portlets
included in a page. The aggregated output is sent to the browser
(e.g. as html page).
If an action is triggered by the user (e.g. clicking on a button), the
action phase of this Portlet is called. After calling the action phase,
all Portlets will be rendered again.
Life cycle of a Portlet (JSR-168)
Init
Render Action
Destroy
JSR-286 (Portlet V2) extends this life cycle.
A very simple Portlet !
public class SimplePortlet extends GenericPortlet {

protected void doView( ... ) {
PrintWriter writer = response.getWriter();
writer.println( "Hello Portlet World" );
String link = ....
writer.println( "<a href='" + link + "'>
Click me</a>" );
}

public void processAction( ... ) {
// TODO do some action logic
}
}
Functionality within JSR-168
Definition of the Portlet life cycle
Interfaces and base classes
(GenericPortlet and javax.portlet.Portlet)
Window states and Portlet modes
Request and render parameter
Portlet sessions
Portlet preferences
Inclusion of JSP fragments
Portlet tag library
! Focus is on the Portlet itself
Current specification: JSR-286
Almost everything from JSR-168 is still valid
Public render parameters
Portlet events
Resource serving
Portlet filters
Basis for AJAX integration
! Focus is on the interaction of Portlets
Agenda
Portals and Portlets
Motivation for JSF + Portlets
JSR-301 and others: Portlet Bridge for JSF
What is JSR-301?
What is JSR-329?
How does the Portlet Bridge work?
JSF 2.x in Liferay Portal
Building applications with plain Portlet functions?
Programming with the Portlet spec is not very convenient.
We are missing high level concepts like page flow, bean
management, conversion, validation, and many more.
We would like to have modern UI components
We have to combine the Portlet technology
with a powerful user interface framework.
The solution: JSF?
JavaServer Faces is a framework specialized in the user interface
JavaServer Faces is used in many projects in large and small
companies.
JavaServer Faces features useful concepts like bean management,
page flow, data conversion, and data validation
JSF is also a standard.
User interface components
1
6
JSF + Portlets: Isnt it easy?
The problem is the glue code.
We have to integrate both technologies.
Each technology should keep its own functionality, but use the
benefits of the other.
We should try to minimize the integration efforts.
Is this possible?
! Yes, as we can use JSR-301 and JSR-329.
Agenda
Portals and portlets
Motivation for JSF + Portlets
JSR-301 and others: Portlet Bridge for JSF
What is JSR-301?
What is JSR-329?
How does the Portlet Bridge work?
JSF 2.x in Liferay Portal
JSR-301: Portlet Bridge Specification for JavaServer
Faces
Started in December 2006
Spec leader: Michael Freedman (Oracle)
Goal is to provide a standardised bridge for executing JSF
applications within a portlet context.
Another very important goal is to make the integration as simple as
possible for the application developer.
To be more precise, there are two specs:
JSR-301 = Portlet 1.0 (JSR-168) + JSF 1.2
JSR-329 = Portlet 2.0 (JSR-286) + JSF 1.2
XXX = Portlet 2.0 (JSR-286) + JSF 2.x ?????????????
High level overview
Main challenge / goal
Mapping of both life cycles
JSF life cycle
Portlet life cycle
Mapping of life cycles: JSF
Just to remind you: Portlet life cycle
Init
Render Action
Destroy
Mapping of life cycles: Bridge
Mapping of life cycles: Bridge
Bridge request scope
In JSF, the entire life cycle is executed within one request.
In Portlets, there are two requests, one for the render phase, one for
the action phase. The requests are independent of each other.
That way, the bridge is responsible for supplying all the necessary
information for JSF, even if the life cycle is sub-divided into two
phases.
That means in detail: attributes from the action phase must be stored
temporarily by the bridge and set before executing a JSF render
phase.
Scopes for confusion (1)
There is an JSF request scope
But there is also a Portlet request
(action request or render request)
Storing a Managed Bean in the JSF request scope:
What does in mean for the Portlet environment?
Scopes for confusion (2)
There is an JSF session scope
But there is also a Portlet session.
This session is devided into two parts:
APPLICATION_SCOPE and PORTLET_SCOPE
Storing a Managed Bean in the JSF session scope:
Assigned to the Portlet PORTLET_SCOPE
When aiming for IPC:
Downcast and do it manually
Using the Portlet Bridge
1. Develop a normal JSF application
2. Remove forbidden tags like <html>, <body>, <head> etc.
3. Include the JSR-301 / JSR-329 libs
4. Provide a portlet.xml and adjust it
5. Deploy and have fun "
Agenda
Portals and portlets
Motivation for JSF + Portlets
JSR-301 and others: Portlet Bridge for JSF
What is JSR-301?
What is JSR-329?
How does the Portlet Bridge work?
JSF 2.x in Liferay Portal
JSF 2.x and Portlet 2.0
No standard available
Implementation first approach to find the best possible solution
For Liferay Portal (and perhaps others as well):
www.portletfaces.org
Base is the solution of the JSR-301/JSR-329 + extensions

What is portletfaces.org?
Community founded by some Liferay partners
Offers a Portlet bridge for JSF 2.x
April 2012: Liferay took the leadership of this community
New brand for it: Liferay Faces (umbrella project)

Liferay Faces
Umbrella project
Goal is to support JSF in Liferay Portal
Liferay Faces Alloy
Liferay Faces Bridge
Liferay Faces Portal

Liferay Faces Bridge
Supports the JSR-329
JSF 2.0 and JSF 2.1 are supported (Mojarra and MyFaces)
Should support ICEfaces, PrimeFaces and RichFaces
Agenda for 2012: Alignment with JSR-344 (JSF 2.2)

From theory to reality
Write your JSF application
Provide a portlet.xml
Add the Liferay Faces Bridge jars
Add some magic and it should work.

Portlet definition
<portlet>
<portlet-name>MyPortlet</portlet-name>
<portlet-class>
javax.portlet.faces.GenericFacesPortlet
</portlet-class>
<init-param>
<name>
javax.portlet.faces.defaultViewId.view
</name>
<value>
/myGreatPage.xhtml
</value>
</init-param>
...
Advanced units: Portlet events and JSR-329
JSR-286 Portlets can send Events
JSR-286 Portlets can receive Events
JSF can send Events in the sense of Portlets (that is communicating
with other Portlets)
So we have to bridge again between the two worlds
Portlet Events: How to solve it?
Register an event handler in portlet.xml
The handler will be triggered upon incoming events.
The handler provides you with access to the FacesContext.
Portlet events - example
<init-param>
<name>
javax.portlet.faces.bridgeEventHandler
</name>
<value>
de.jsfportlets.handler.MyEventHandler
</value>
</init-param>
Portlet events - example
public EventNavigationResult
handleEvent( FacesContext jsfContext,
Event evt ) {

MyJSFBean myBean = Facade.getBean()
myBean.setNewValue( evt.getValue() );

return null;
}
Back again to our confusion page
Do you remember the different scopes?
JSF request scope should last for one JSF request
Within Portlets, it could live forever
Within the Liferay Bridge, they decided to let the
BridgeRequestScope end with the end of the RenderRequest.
...
More on the way
Public Render Parameters are supported as well
Portlet Preferences can be evaluated automatically
Liferay Faces already has an upload component
Extended EL possibilities (access to portlet specific objects)
...
Conclusion
General statement: A combination of JSF and Portlets is possible.
You have to use specific bridges for JSF 2.x. There is no general
standard.
The bridge, specifically for Liferay, works quite good and looks very
mature. But including JSF Component Libraries could be a pain.
Hoping for a JSR to come !
Do you have questions?
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