Using facelets in .xml files

[gmarcus]

Seam 1.2.1 on JBoss 4.0.5

Similar to the blog example, I would like to use a .xml file with facelet tags to dynamically generate a valid xml HTTP response. When I call the .xml file, I just get the contents of the file without it being processed by Facelets:


Here is my web.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee"
 xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
 xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd"
 version="2.4">

 <!-- Ajax4jsf (must come first!) -->

 <filter>
 <display-name>Ajax4jsf Filter</display-name>
 <filter-name>ajax4jsf</filter-name>
 <filter-class>org.ajax4jsf.Filter</filter-class>
 </filter>

 <filter-mapping>
 <filter-name>ajax4jsf</filter-name>
 <url-pattern>*.seam</url-pattern>
 </filter-mapping>

 <context-param>
 <param-name>org.ajax4jsf.VIEW_HANDLERS</param-name>
 <param-value>org.jboss.seam.ui.facelet.SeamFaceletViewHandler</param-value>
 </context-param>

 <!-- Seam -->

 <listener>
 <listener-class>org.jboss.seam.servlet.SeamListener</listener-class>
 </listener>

 <filter>
 <filter-name>Seam Filter</filter-name>
 <filter-class>org.jboss.seam.web.SeamFilter</filter-class>
 </filter>

 <filter-mapping>
 <filter-name>Seam Filter</filter-name>
 <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
 </filter-mapping>

 <servlet>
 <servlet-name>Seam Resource Servlet</servlet-name>
 <servlet-class>org.jboss.seam.servlet.ResourceServlet</servlet-class>
 </servlet>

 <servlet-mapping>
 <servlet-name>Seam Resource Servlet</servlet-name>
 <url-pattern>/seam/resource/*</url-pattern>
 </servlet-mapping>

 <!-- MyFaces -->

 <listener>
 <listener-class>org.apache.myfaces.webapp.StartupServletContextListener</listener-class>
 </listener>

 <!-- Facelets development mode (disable in production) -->

 <context-param>
 <param-name>facelets.DEVELOPMENT</param-name>
 <param-value>true</param-value>
 </context-param>

 <context-param>
 <param-name>facelets.SKIP_COMMENTS</param-name>
 <param-value>true</param-value>
 </context-param>


 <!-- JSF -->

 <context-param>
 <param-name>javax.faces.STATE_SAVING_METHOD</param-name>
 <param-value>client</param-value>
 </context-param>

 <context-param>
 <param-name>javax.faces.DEFAULT_SUFFIX</param-name>
 <param-value>.xhtml</param-value>
 </context-param>

 <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>*.seam</url-pattern>
 </servlet-mapping>

 <security-constraint>
 <display-name>Restrict raw XHTML Documents</display-name>
 <web-resource-collection>
 <web-resource-name>XHTML</web-resource-name>
 <url-pattern>*.xhtml</url-pattern>
 </web-resource-collection>
 <auth-constraint>
 <role-name>NONE</role-name>
 </auth-constraint>
 </security-constraint>

</web-app>

and here is my .xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>
<events xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
 xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
 xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
 xmlns:s="http://jboss.com/products/seam/taglib">


<ui:component>
<f:view contentType="text/xml">
<data
 wiki-url="#{basepath}"
 wiki-section="first attempt"
 >

 <ui:repeat value="#{goals}" var="g">
 <event start="#{g.formattedDate}" title="#{g.title}">
 <h:outputText value="#{g.text}"/>
 </event>
 </ui:repeat>

</data>
</f:view>
</ui:component>
</events>

[pmuir]

Just to check you are calling it as /path/to/file.seam

[gmarcus]

The file is called goals.xml

If I call it directly from the browser, I get the unprocessed xml.

If I call it with goals.seam, I get a 404 error.

If I rename goals.xml to goals.xhtml, it gets processed by facelets and returns the correct data.

Why does a .xml file work in the blogexample, and not in my project?

[pmuir]

The blog example uses prefix mapping to the Faces Servlet, you are using extension mapping.

[utiba_davidr]

The following defines what file extension to look up:

<context-param>
 <param-name>javax.faces.DEFAULT_SUFFIX</param-name>
 <param-value>.xhtml</param-value>
 </context-param>

And the following defined what extension to provide in the URL to match the .xhtml file:

<filter-mapping>
 <filter-name>ajax4jsf</filter-name>
 <url-pattern>*.seam</url-pattern>
 </filter-mapping>

Based on this, it would appear that you can have multiple definitions for the URL extension to map as it's a filter. But you can only map these to one extension to look up - unless you do some fancy stuff like overload the ViewHandler (http://www.nabble.com/mixing-clay-full-html-and-full-xml-views-t2070241.html).

So, to make it prettier; Define two entry point extension to provide in the URL to match the .xhtml file:

 <filter-mapping>
 <filter-name>ajax4jsf</filter-name>
 <url-pattern>*.seam</url-pattern>
 </filter-mapping>

 <filter-mapping>
 <filter-name>ajax4jsf</filter-name>
 <url-pattern>*.xml</url-pattern>
 </filter-mapping>

 <context-param>
 <param-name>javax.faces.DEFAULT_SUFFIX</param-name>
 <param-value>.xhtml</param-value>
 </context-param>

Then make a request to http://localhost:8080/context/goals.xml which will render a file named "goals.xhtml".


Cheers,

David