MVC Resource Command

When using Liferay’s MVC framework, you can create resource URLs in your JSPs to retrieve images, XML, or any other kind of resource from a Liferay instance. The resource URL then invokes the corresponding MVC resource command class (*MVCResourceCommand) that processes the resource request and response.

First, use the <portlet:resourceURL> tag to create the resource URL in a JSP. For example, the Login Portlet’s /login-web/src/main/resources/META-INF/resources/navigation/create_account.jsp file defines the following resource URL for retrieving a CAPTCHA image during account creation:

<portlet:resourceURL id="/login/captcha" var="captchaURL" />

When the resource URL is triggered, the matching *MVCResourceCommand class processes the resource request and response. You can create this class by implementing the MVCResourceCommand interface, or extending the BaseMVCResourceCommand class. The latter may save you time, since it already implements MVCResourceCommand.

Also, it’s a good idea to name your *MVCResourceCommand class after the resource it handles, and suffix it with MVCResourceCommand. For example, the resource command class matching the preceding CAPTCHA resource URL in the Login Portlet is CaptchaMVCResourceCommand. In an application with several MVC command classes, this will help differentiate them.

Your *MVCResourceCommand class must also have a @Component annotation like the following. Set the property javax.portlet.name to your portlet’s internal ID, and the property mvc.command.name to the value of the id property in your JSP’s matching resourceURL. To register the component in the OSGi container as using the MVCResourceCommand class, you must set the service property to MVCResourceCommand.class:

@Component(
    immediate = true,
    property = {
        "javax.portlet.name=your_portlet_name_YourPortlet",
        "mvc.command.name=/your/jsp/resource/url"
    },
    service = MVCResourceCommand.class
)
public class YourMVCResourceCommand implements MVCResourceCommand {
    // your resource handling code
}

As a real-world example, consider the Login Portlet’s CaptchaMVCResourceCommand class (find this class in the Liferay source code at modules/apps/foundation/login/login-web/src/main/java/com/liferay/login/web/internal/portlet/action/CaptchaMVCResourceCommand.java):

@Component(
    property = {
        "javax.portlet.name=" + LoginPortletKeys.FAST_LOGIN,
        "javax.portlet.name=" + LoginPortletKeys.LOGIN,
        "mvc.command.name=/login/captcha"
    },
    service = MVCResourceCommand.class
)
public class CaptchaMVCResourceCommand implements MVCResourceCommand {

    @Override
    public boolean serveResource(
        ResourceRequest resourceRequest, ResourceResponse resourceResponse) {
        
        try {
            CaptchaUtil.serveImage(resourceRequest, resourceResponse);

            return false;
        }
        catch (Exception e) {
            _log.error(e, e);
            
            return true;
        }
    }

    private static final Log _log = LogFactoryUtil.getLog(
        CaptchaMVCResourceCommand.class);
}

In the @Component annotation, note that javax.portlet.name has two different settings. This lets multiple portlets use the same component. In this example, the portlet IDs are defined as constants in the LoginPortletKeys class. Also note that the mvc.command.name property setting /login/captcha matches the resourceURL’s id setting shown earlier in this tutorial, and that the service property is set to MVCResourceCommand.class.

The CaptchaMVCResourceCommand class implements the MVCResourceCommand interface with only a single method: serveResource. This method processes the resource request and response via the javax.portlet.ResourceRequest and javax.portlet.ResourceResponse parameters, respectively. Note that the try block uses the helper class CaptchaUtil to serve the CAPTCHA image. Though you don’t have to create such a helper class, doing so often simplifies your code.

Great! Now you know how to use MVCResourceCommand to process resources in your Liferay MVC portlets.

Related Topics

MVC Render Command

MVC Action Command

MVC Command Overrides