Accessing the Portlet API with ExternalContext for JSF Portlets

Just as JSF web app developers rely on ExternalContext to access the Servlet API, JSF portlet developers rely on it to access the Portlet API.

As you develop JSF portlets, you’ll often need to access instances of the javax.portlet.PortletRequest and javax.portlet.PortletResponse classes. You access these instances similarly to how you’d access the javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest and javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse classes in a servlet environment, except that you cast them to the portlet versions of the classes.

In the example code snippet below, the request object from externalContext.getRequest() is cast to the PortletRequest class and the response object from externalContext.getResponse() is cast to the PortletResponse class:

import javax.portlet.PortletRequest;
import javax.portlet.PortletResponse;
...

public class PortletBackingBean {

    public void submit() {
        FacesContext facesContext =
            FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();

        ExternalContext externalContext =
            facesContext.getExternalContext();

        PortletRequest portletRequest =
            (PortletRequest) externalContext.getRequest();

        PortletResponse portletResponse =
            (PortletResponse) externalContext.getResponse();
    }
}

Notice that you’re able to retrieve the ExternalContext from the current FacesContext instance.

In this tutorial, you’ve explored requesting objects from the portlet API using ExternalContext.

Related Topics

Communicating Between JSF Portlets Using IPC

Understanding Liferay Faces Bridge

Understanding Liferay Faces Portal

Understanding Liferay Faces Alloy