Defining a JSF Application's Structure and Dependencies

JSF portlets are supported on Liferay Portal by using Liferay Faces Bridge. Liferay Faces Bridge makes developing JSF portlets as similar as possible to JSF web app development.

You’ll create a simple Hello User application that asks for the user’s name and then greets him or her with the name. You’ll begin by creating the WAR-style folder structure, and then you’ll configure dependencies like Liferay Faces Bridge.

1. Create a WAR-style folder structure for your module. Maven archetypes are available to help you get started quickly. They set the default configuration for you and contain boilerplate code so you can skip the file creation steps and get started right away. For your JSF application, you’ll set up the folder structure manually. Follow the folder structure outline below:

   - hello-user-jsf-portlet
       - src
           - main
               - java
               - resources
               - webapp
                   - WEB-INF
                       - resources
                       - views
   

2. Make sure your module specifies the dependencies necessary for a Liferay JSF application. For instance, you must always specify the Faces API, Faces Reference Implementation (Mojarra), and Liferay Faces Bridge as dependencies in a Liferay-compatible JSF application. Also, an important, but not required, dependency is the Log4j logging utility. This is highly recommended for development purposes because it logs DEBUG messages in the console. You’ll configure the logging utility later.

   For an example build file, the pom.xml file used for the Maven based Hello User JSF application is below. All the dependencies described above are configured in the Hello User JSF application’s pom.xml file.

   <?xml version="1.0"?>
   
   <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">
       <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
       <groupId>com.liferay</groupId>
       <artifactId>com.liferay.hello.user.jsf.portlet</artifactId>
       <packaging>war</packaging>
       <name>hello-user-jsf-portlet</name>
       <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
       <properties>
           <faces.api.version>2.2</faces.api.version>
           <liferay.faces.bridge.ext.version>5.0.3</liferay.faces.bridge.ext.version>
           <liferay.faces.bridge.version>4.1.2</liferay.faces.bridge.version>
           <mojarra.version>2.2.18</mojarra.version>
       </properties>
       <build>
           <plugins>
               <plugin>
                   <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                   <version>3.3</version>
                   <configuration>
                       <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
                       <source>1.8</source>
                       <target>1.8</target>
                   </configuration>
               </plugin>
               <plugin>
                   <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
                   <version>2.3</version>
                   <configuration>
                       <filteringDeploymentDescriptors>true</filteringDeploymentDescriptors>
                   </configuration>
               </plugin>
           </plugins>
       </build>
       <dependencies>
           <dependency>
               <groupId>javax.faces</groupId>
               <artifactId>javax.faces-api</artifactId>
               <version>${faces.api.version}</version>
               <scope>provided</scope>
           </dependency>
           <dependency>
               <groupId>org.glassfish</groupId>
               <artifactId>javax.faces</artifactId>
               <version>${mojarra.version}</version>
               <scope>runtime</scope>
           </dependency>
           <dependency>
               <groupId>com.liferay.faces</groupId>
               <artifactId>com.liferay.faces.bridge.ext</artifactId>
               <version>${liferay.faces.bridge.ext.version}</version>
           </dependency>
           <dependency>
               <groupId>com.liferay.faces</groupId>
               <artifactId>com.liferay.faces.bridge.impl</artifactId>
               <version>${liferay.faces.bridge.version}</version>
           </dependency>
           <dependency>
               <groupId>log4j</groupId>
               <artifactId>log4j</artifactId>
               <version>1.2.14</version>
           </dependency>
       </dependencies>
   </project>
   

   There are also two plugins the Hello User JSF application defined in its pom.xml: maven-compiler-plugin and maven-war-plugin. These two plugins are responsible for building and compiling the JSF application using Maven.

   There are several UI component suites that a JSF application can use, which include Liferay Faces Alloy, PrimeFaces, ICEfaces, and RichFaces. Furthermore, you can take advantage of Liferay Faces Portal in order to use Liferay-specific utilities and UI components. These components can be used by specifying them as dependencies in your build file, as well.

Now that your build file is configured, you must define the JSF-specific configurations for your application. These fall into two convenient categories: general descriptors and Liferay descriptors. You’ll start with creating the necessary general descriptors next.