Basic Seam navigation issue

[rituraj_tiwari]

I have a three step login process:

1. Pre-login: user enters an ID

2. login continuation: The server munches on ID, sends user to a login-continue page

3. login completion: user enters info on login-continue, submits to server and if all goes well, user is logged in.

This is implemented by a SFSB and three view pages (actually four since login continuation has two versions based on the outcome of pre-login).

The pre-login view has something to this effect:

<h:inputText id="userId" value="#{Login.userId}"/>
<h:commandButton id="loginButton" value=" Begin Login!" action="#{Login.preLogin}"/>

The preLogin() method on the Login Stateful bean works with userId and returns a string that tells which version of the login continuation view to present:

@Begin(join=true)
public String preLogin()
{
...
  if(version == 1)
  {
    return "v1";
  }
  else
  {
    return "v2";
  }

I have the following in my pages.xml:

<page view-id="/preLogin.xhtml">
    <navigation from-action="#{Login.preLogin}">
        <rule if-outcome="v1">
            <redirect view-id="/loginContinueV1.xhtml"/>
        </rule>
        <rule if-outcome="v2">
            <redirect view-id="/loginContinueV2.xhtml"/>
        </rule>
    </navigation>
</page>

No matter what I do, when I click the Begin Login! button on the pre login page, I end up back on that page with no redirection to login continuation page.

I am sure I am making some very obvious beginner mistake. Can any of the experts point it out to me?

[nickarls]

Could you show your complete pages.xhtml. So that you don't e.g have a login-view="/preLogin.xhtml" that throws you back since you haven't relly done the login yet?

[rituraj_tiwari]

Nicklas,
Many thanks for the prompt response. Here is the complete pages.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<pages xmlns="http://jboss.com/products/seam/pages"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://jboss.com/products/seam/pages http://jboss.com/products/seam/pages-2.0.xsd"

       no-conversation-view-id="/home.xhtml"
       login-view-id="/preLogin.xhtml">

    <page view-id="*" login-required="true">
        <navigation>
            <rule if-outcome="home">
                <redirect view-id="/home.xhtml"/>
            </rule>
        </navigation>
    </page>
    
    <page view-id="/preLogin.xhtml">
        <navigation from-action="#{Login.preLogin}">
            <rule if-outcome="v1">
                <redirect view-id="/loginContinueV1.xhtml"/>
            </rule>
            <rule if-outcome="v2">
                <redirect view-id="/loginContinueV2.xhtml"/>
            </rule>
        </navigation>
    </page>
    
<!-- TBD nagivation from loginContinue to loginComplete -->

    <exception class="org.jboss.seam.framework.EntityNotFoundException">
        <redirect view-id="/error.xhtml">
            <message>Not found</message>
        </redirect>
    </exception>
    
    <exception class="javax.persistence.EntityNotFoundException">
        <redirect view-id="/error.xhtml">
            <message>Not found</message>
        </redirect>
    </exception>
    
    <exception class="javax.persistence.OptimisticLockException">
        <end-conversation/>
        <redirect view-id="/error.xhtml">
            <message>Another user changed the same data, please try again</message>
        </redirect>
    </exception>
    
    <exception class="org.jboss.seam.security.AuthorizationException">
        <redirect view-id="/error.xhtml">
            <message>You don't have permission to do this</message>
        </redirect>
    </exception>
    
    <exception class="org.jboss.seam.security.NotLoggedInException">
        <redirect view-id="/login.xhtml">
            <message>Please log in first</message>
        </redirect>
    </exception>
    
    <exception class="javax.faces.application.ViewExpiredException">
        <redirect view-id="/error.xhtml">
            <message>Your session has timed out, please try again</message>
        </redirect>
    </exception>
     
    <exception>
        <redirect view-id="/error.xhtml">
            <message>Unexpected error, please try again</message>
        </redirect>
    </exception>
    
</pages>

[nickarls]

Try removing the login-view-id and go to the login page manually (/preLogin.seam) and see if the naviation works then. It might be as I guessed in my previous post that you get bounced back due to that.

Off to sleep, midnight soon.

[rituraj_tiwari]

Nicklas,

I'll have to do a better study of pages.xml. Seam is a beautiful framework and I have enjoyed using it so far. However, page navigation has got to be one of the murkiest features. Extremely difficult for a newcomer to grasp.

I think the biggest problem is the lack of a glossary. For example: What is the meaning of an action listener? What is an outcome? Does it have to be a string? Does navigate from action apply to the page I am navigating from or the page I am at? How do I create a default page for a directory so I don't have to give out a foo.seam URL?

Most documentation focuses on differences from JSF rather than describing the framework at hand.

Thanks for bearing with the rant.

-Raj