1) void methods cannot return a value.
2) have you tried it without the navigation XML snippet in pages.xml?
Try something like this:
<navigation-rule> <from-view-id>/foo.xhtml</from-view-id> <navigation-case> <from-action>#{searchAction.doSearch}</from-action> <from-outcome>external</from-outcome> <to-view-id>/welcome.xhtml</to-view-id> <redirect/> </navigation-case> </navigation-rule>
to determine if it's the URL you're redirecting to that's the root cause...