JSF Tutorial: JSF Hello World Example on Eclipse and Tomcat

May 4, 2009 Deepak JEE, JSF, Technology 16

In this JSF tutorial and example, we will write a simple Hello World example using JSF and it’s default renderer – HTML renderer on Eclipse IDE. Next, the application will be deployed on tomcat, and run to see results. Functionality of our project is simple – enter first name and last name, on press of submit button, show the complete name. If any field is empty then show error.

Create a Dynamic Web Project

Create dynamic web project in eclipse using following steps. In eclipse, click on New > Project to arrive at following screen.

On this screen, select Dynamic Web Project and press next button.

In this screen enter the Project name, and select the directory where you want the code to be stored. It can be in your default workspace. Press next button.

Here, change the Java source directory to ‘srcmainjava’, good to have main and test java resources separated. Click on finish button and the dynamic web project will be created.
Last thing, right click on project and go to properties > Java Build Path > Source Tab. Change the default output folder to ‘JSFTutorial/WebContent/WEB-INF/classes’.

Add Required Libraries:

Add following jar files to the project. The Jsf jars can be downloaded from JSF project site. Dependencies can be downloaded from Maven central repository.

WebContent/WEB-INF/lib

commons-beanutils.jar
commons-chain.jar
commons-collections.jar
commons-digester.jar
commons-logging.jar
jsf-api.jar
jsf-impl.jar
jstl.jar

Ensure compatibility in amongst the jars.

Create JSP

Add this jsp to the document root. This is the first jsp we call to start our Hello World application.

/WebContent/HelloWorld.jsp

<%@taglib 
uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core" prefix="f"%>
<%@taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html" prefix="h"%>

<html>
<head><title>Hello World</title></head>
<body>
<f:view>
		<p>
			<h:message id="errors" for="firstName" style="color:red"/>
			<h:message id="errors1" for="lastName" style="color:red"/>
		</p>
	<h:form>
			<h:outputText value="First Name"></h:outputText>
			<h:inputText id="firstName" value="#{helloWorldBean.firstName}" 
			required="true">
			</h:inputText>
			<h:outputText value="Last Name"></h:outputText>
			<h:inputText id="lastName" value="#{helloWorldBean.lastName}" 
			required="true"></h:inputText>
			<h:commandButton action="#{helloWorldBean.sayHelloWorld}"
				value="Get Complete Name"></h:commandButton>
	</h:form>
</f:view>
</body>
</html>

Below are the highlights of this jsp.

Jsf core and html tag libraries are used.
Root component is core library view tag (f:view).
Error messages are displayed using html message (h:message) tags in red color formatting.
All components to be submitted through request are included in html form tag (h:form).
All components are linked with HelloWorldBean.
‘firstName’ and ‘lastName’ are required fields and use validation provided by jsf.
Command Button is linked with a method sayHelloWorld() in HelloWorldBean.

Next, we have the jsp which will result after submission of above jsp. This jsp shows the result of submission i.e. complete name.
/WebContent/HelloWorldResult.jsp

<%@taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core" 
prefix="f"%> <%@taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html" prefix="h"%>

<html>
<head><title>Hello World Result</title></head>
<body>
<f:view>
	<h:form>
		<h:outputText value="Complete Name is 
		#{helloWorldBean.completeName}">
		</h:outputText>
	</h:form>
</f:view>
</body>
</html>

Create Backing Bean

We use following POJO as a backing bean for the jsps. This has attributes for our functionality with getter and setter methods. In addition to this, it has a method ‘sayHelloWorld’ that handles the submit button action.
/src/main/java/com/myhomepageindia/jsftutorial/web/bean/HelloWorldBean.java

package com.myhomepageindia.jsftutorial.web.bean;

public class HelloWorldBean {
	private String firstName;
	private String lastName;
	public String getFirstName() {
		return firstName;
	}
	public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
		this.firstName = firstName;
	}
	public String getLastName() {
		return lastName;
	}
	public void setLastName(String lastName) {
		this.lastName = lastName;
	}
	public String getCompleteName() {
		return this.firstName + " " + this.lastName;
	}
	public String sayHelloWorld(){
		return "success";
	}

}

Create Configuration File

Jsf looks for faces-config.xml in classpath and loads the configuration defined from here. Here we have defined managed bean (the backing bean), and navigation rule that takes to second jsp on submission from first jsp.

/WebContent/WEB-INF/faces-config.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>  

<faces-config xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee 
    http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-facesconfig_1_2.xsd"
    version="1.2">
    <managed-bean>
        <managed-bean-name>helloWorldBean</managed-bean-name>
        <managed-bean-class>
            com.myhomepageindia.jsftutorial.web.bean.HelloWorldBean
        </managed-bean-class>
        <managed-bean-scope>session</managed-bean-scope>
    </managed-bean>
    <navigation-rule>
        <display-name>HelloWorld</display-name>
        <from-view-id>/HelloWorld.jsp</from-view-id>
        <navigation-case>
            <from-outcome>success</from-outcome>
            <to-view-id>/HelloWorldResult.jsp</to-view-id>
        </navigation-case>
    </navigation-rule>
</faces-config>

Modify Web.xml

We modify the web.xml to define the main servlet i.e. FacesServlet. Also notice the url pattern configured to include ‘jsf’ word.

WebContent/WEB-INF/web.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" 
xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" 
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee 
http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">
  <display-name>JSFTutorial</display-name>
  	<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>/jsf/*</url-pattern>
	</servlet-mapping>
  <welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>index.html</welcome-file>
    <welcome-file>index.htm</welcome-file>
    <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
    <welcome-file>default.html</welcome-file>
    <welcome-file>default.htm</welcome-file>
    <welcome-file>default.jsp</welcome-file>
  </welcome-file-list>
</web-app>

Now our application is ready to run. Build the application. Deploy it on server by right clicking on project and selecting ‘Run on Server’.

Next call the HelloWorld.jsp as shown below. Using url http://localhost:8080/JSFTutorial/jsf/HelloWorld.jsp. The page will be displayed as shown below.

Enter values and press the button to get the results. That’s it, hello world of our JSF Tutorial is working.

amresh
July 30, 2010 at 8:20 am

thanks

Reply
Sathia Kumar Subaramanian
August 24, 2010 at 2:17 pm

Very Nice and Very Useful for Technologies Carrier

Reply
Arvind
August 26, 2010 at 6:05 pm

in web.xml u din’t change welcome file
how it will work?

i am trying but i am not able to run same program

Reply
Abdullah İlhanlı
August 31, 2010 at 8:42 pm

Good example starter project thanks in advance

Reply
Dennis
September 18, 2010 at 2:24 am

Thanks for sharing

Reply
octavian
November 3, 2010 at 6:21 am

This is the best example for beginners. Thank you very much .

Reply
Dheeraj
January 31, 2011 at 7:02 am

I am using eclipse 3.4.1.
tomcat 6.0

when i am running my code i am getting following error

type Exception report

message

description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.

exception

javax.servlet.ServletException: /HelloWorld.jsp(14,14) ‘#{HelloWorldBean.firstName}’ Target Unreachable, identifier ‘HelloWorldBean’ resolved to null
javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:256)

root cause

org.apache.jasper.el.JspPropertyNotFoundException: /HelloWorld.jsp(14,14) ‘#{HelloWorldBean.firstName}’ Target Unreachable, identifier ‘HelloWorldBean’ resolved to null
org.apache.jasper.el.JspValueExpression.getType(JspValueExpression.java:61)
com.sun.faces.renderkit.html_basic.HtmlBasicInputRenderer.getConvertedValue(HtmlBasicInputRenderer.java:81)
javax.faces.component.UIInput.getConvertedValue(UIInput.java:934)
javax.faces.component.UIInput.validate(UIInput.java:860)
javax.faces.component.UIInput.executeValidate(UIInput.java:1065)
javax.faces.component.UIInput.processValidators(UIInput.java:666)
javax.faces.component.UIForm.processValidators(UIForm.java:229)
javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.processValidators(UIComponentBase.java:1030)
javax.faces.component.UIViewRoot.processValidators(UIViewRoot.java:662)
com.sun.faces.lifecycle.ProcessValidationsPhase.execute(ProcessValidationsPhase.java:100)
com.sun.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.phase(LifecycleImpl.java:251)
com.sun.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.execute(LifecycleImpl.java:117)
javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:244)

note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the Apache Tomcat/6.0.30 logs.

Reply
sanjay
February 25, 2011 at 11:21 am

Its very simple and good example,
Thanks,
Sanjay

Reply
bibi
May 18, 2011 at 2:55 pm

I am getting next error:
Can not find the tag library descriptor for “http://java.sun.com/jsf/core”, even if I added the mentioned libraries.

Reply
Matt
June 17, 2011 at 7:12 am

thanks and i expect more and more examples of JSF….excellent job…Go ahead…wish u all the best…

Reply
Sergei
July 24, 2011 at 9:08 pm

Thanks a lot for your tutorial, it helped me to understand JSF technology!

Reply
Sergei
July 24, 2011 at 9:09 pm

Thanks a lot for your tutorial, it helped me to understand JSF technology!!!

Reply
santosh
November 4, 2011 at 11:15 am

thanks,its really very useful.

Reply
Mimi
June 28, 2013 at 5:37 pm

This is really to the point example that helps a lot. Good way to start with JSF 1.

Reply
deepu
June 3, 2014 at 8:33 pm

grate example

Reply
AndroidDev
July 8, 2014 at 8:38 pm

Would help if you upload the entire source plus Eclipse project and libs to save us time and avoid a lot of other issues.

Reply