Setting up classloaders to override JSF version in JBoss AS.

[hirowla]

Hi, I was wondering if I can override the version of Java Service Faces for a particular application that I run inside JBoss AS. I don't want to override all versions as I have multiple applications, some of which use the old version.

I have done this successfully in WebSphere, and I did it in the following way:

Set the classloader to use the classes/libraries in the EAR file in preference to those in the application server main path.
* Set the classloader to use the classes/libraries in the WAR file in preference to the EAR and the application server main class path.
* Put my implementation of JSF into the WEB-INF/lib directory of my application.

Would this work in JBoss? How can I set up the classloaders to do this, as I believe this isn't the default behaviour?

Thanks,

Ian

[wolfgangknauf]

Hi Ian,

here is an approach which works without changing the class loader: http://www.jboss.org/community/wiki/JBoss5AndMyFaces
This also works for the sun reference implementation of JSF.
Unfortunately, you might loose injection features.

Hope this helps

Wolfgang

[hirowla]

Unfortunately, losing the injection features is not an option. I am quite happy to configure the classloader on the application, but I am not sure how to do so.

Thanks,

Ian

[jaikiran]

See if these help:

http://www.jboss.org/community/wiki/JBossClassLoadingUseCases

http://www.jboss.org/community/wiki/classloadingconfiguration

[hirowla]

Do any of these still apply for JBoss 5 and 6? Some of them are dated back to 2004 when I know the classloading was different. That's what makes it really hard to tell what to do.

[hirowla]

Are those posts relevant to JBoss 5 and 6 still, given the age of those posts?

[jaikiran]

Yes they are relevant. Although JBoss AS-5 allows to configure classloading configuration in a different set of files (for which i don't have the complete set of examples except this http://community.jboss.org/wiki/JBoss5custommetadatafiles), the earlier ones still work.

[raj09]

Ian,

I am facing the same issue with Jboss and JSF. i am getting a classcastexception and this is because Jboss comes with its own JSF implementation jars. I tried using jboss-app.xml to tell Jboss to use my jar files in web-inf/lib. But no luck. Here is my jboss-app.xml entry.

<jboss-app>
  <loader-repository>
  com.example:loader=exampleEAR.ear
     <loader-repository-config>
     java2ParentDelegation=false
     </loader-repository-config>
  </loader-repository>
</jboss-app>

I also tried using jboss-web.xml to define the classloarder policy but it did not help either. Please let me know if you are able to fix the issue.

Thanks!!!

[hirowla]

No solution as yet.

Maybe you could try putting the Faces libraries in the lib/ directory of the EAR. Tell us how that goes.