Spring and IceFaces: unexpected error 404 on `http://<hostname>/<projectname>/WEB-INF/views/<filename>.xhtml`

Question

I'm developing a software based upon Spring and ICEFaces.
I have a file at <project directory>/src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/views/<filename>.xhtml, that is correctly reached using the following URL: http://<hostname>/<projectname>/<filename>.xhtml

The file contains a <h:form id="formId"> which is rendered as a <form action="/<projectname>/WEB-INF/views/<filename>.xhtml" [.. some other stuff ..]>

It means that, when I click on the input submit contained in the form, the browser tries to open the URL http://<hostname>/<projectname>/WEB-INF/views/<filename>.xhtml and, as I said in the title, it shows an error 404 page.

I'd like that the file .xhtml could be reached using the "longer" URL, too. I'm pretty sure that I'm currently unable to achieve that due to a configuration error.

This is my web.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
  version="2.5">

<web-app>
    <display-name>SIGLO</display-name>

    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>classpath:applicationContext.xml</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    </listener>
    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.request.RequestContextListener</listener-class>
    </listener>

    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
            <param-value>classpath:applicationContext.xml</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>
    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>DispatcherServlet</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
        <init-param>
            <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
            <param-value>classpath:applicationContext.xml</param-value>
        </init-param>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>*.jsf</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>DispatcherServlet</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

This is the applicationContext.xml referenced in the previous file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
    xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
    xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
    xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
                        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
                        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
                        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd
                        http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx
                        http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-3.0.xsd
                        http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop
                        http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-3.0.xsd
                        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
                        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd" >

    <context:component-scan base-package="com.infoone.siglo" />
    <!--
         map all requests to /resources/** to the container default servlet 
        (ie, don't let Spring handle them)
    -->
    <bean id="defaultServletHttpRequestHandler" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.resource.DefaultServletHttpRequestHandler" />
    <bean id="simpleUrlHandlerMapping" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping" >
        <property name="urlMap" >
            <map>
                <entry key="/resources/**" value-ref="defaultServletHttpRequestHandler" />
            </map>
        </property>
    </bean>
    <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.HttpRequestHandlerAdapter" />
    <mvc:annotation-driven />

    <!-- JSF for representation layer. All JSF files under /WEB-INF/views directory -->
    <bean id="viewResolver" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.UrlBasedViewResolver" >
        <property name="cache" value="false" />
        <property name="viewClass" value="org.springframework.faces.mvc.JsfView" />
        <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/views/" />
        <property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />
    </bean>

    <bean name="icefacesResourceHandler" class="org.springframework.faces.webflow.JsfResourceRequestHandler" />

    <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.handler.SimpleUrlHandlerMapping">
      <property name="order" value="0" />
      <property name="mappings">
        <value>
          /javax.faces.resource/**=icefacesResourceHandler
        </value>
      </property>
    </bean>
    </beans>

And, in the end, this is my faces-config.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<faces-config version="2.0" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee
                        http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-facesconfig_2_0.xsd">
    <application>
        <el-resolver>org.springframework.web.jsf.el.SpringBeanFacesELResolver</el-resolver>
        <locale-config></locale-config>
        <resource-bundle>
            <base-name>MessageResources</base-name>
            <var>msg</var>
        </resource-bundle>
    </application>
</faces-config>

Let me point out that this configuration still does not allow me to open successfully the shorter URL. Indeed, I have to create a proper controller or, better, a proper @RequestMapping inside a @Controller:

@RequestMapping(value = "<filename>", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public String creaBlocco()
{
    return "<filename>";
}

@RequestMapping(value = "<filename>", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public String creaBlocco([.. parameters ..]) {
    [.. stuff ..]
    return "<filename>";
}

Yes, the value of the @RequestMapping is "<filename>", without the .xhtml extension. I already made sure, by trial and error, that such mapping is necessary for the GET to be successful. On the other hand, I realize that such configuration is really fragile. What should I change in my config files, in order to make <filename>.xhtml reachable using also the longer URL?

Thanks in advance for your attention.

Answer 1

After some research, I came up with the conclusion that I wasn't using those technologies in the way they're meant to be used. If you're facing my same problem, within the same context, you are probably making my same error, therefore you have to slightly modify your application architecture to solve it. Indeed, it seems that using JSF/ICEFaces and Spring MVC in conjunction with Spring WebFlow is the most comfortable and straightforward approach.

I'll try to explain the rationale.
Your site/user home page is filled up with links to the use cases (or, better, flows) that can be activated with his/her privileges. Those links look like http://<page-url>?<flow-id>. A flow in Spring WebFlow is defined as a graph of states, within an xml file. The transitions between states are labeled by strings, named actions, or conditions. Some states are view-state s, meaning that there's something to show to the user when such a state is reached. Therefore, for each view-state named <state-id>, there shall be an .xhtml file named <state-id>.xhtml.

The buttons provided by JSF and ICEFaces will always be rendered as <input type="submit" [..]> and the action of the containing form will always point to the same URL as the containing page (i.e. http://<page-url>?<flow-id>). That's a fact.
The difference is that, in this case, such URL is not backed by a real file (like in my question) but, if the app is properly configured, a flow-handler will answer and manage all the states and the transitions defined in the xml file, choosing the proper view to show.

Beside that, the buttons provided by JSF and ICEFaces have an action attribute. As you can imagine, they correspond to the actions defined in the flow definition file: therefore, a click on a button with a certain value of the action attribute will trigger the transition from the current state labeled exactly with that string.
Speaking more concretely, if you click on the button, the browser sends a POST request to http://<page-url>?<flow-id> whose body contains all the necessary parameters. The flow handler receives that POST request and computes the next state, possibly choosing which view has to be shown to the user.

If you're still reading this answer, I guess you need a concrete example to refer to. I'll provide you with the one I used to learn all the things I wrote here: http://wiki.icesoft.org/display/ICE/Spring+Web+Flow+2.3.1 It's an awesome starting point, because it's easy but exhaustive.