Spring Webflow: Error Rendering view java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException at javax.faces.context.ExternalContext.getClientWindow

Question

I'm using mojarra 2.2, gf4, swf 2.3.2.

The problem comes during loading of the pages in webflow. the error comes when webflow (i think) is sending the pages to faces for rendering. I have tried with swf2.0.8 upto the current swf2.3.2.

INFO:   2013-07-12 09:46:09 DEBUG RequestLoggingPhaseListener:42 - Entering JSF Phase: RENDER_RESPONSE 6
INFO:   2013-07-12 09:46:09 DEBUG RequestLoggingPhaseListener:42 - Entering JSF Phase: RENDER_RESPONSE 6
SEVERE:   Error Rendering View[/WEB-INF/pages/index/index.xhtml]
java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException
at javax.faces.context.ExternalContext.getClientWindow(ExternalContext.java:1500)
at com.sun.faces.context.ExternalContextImpl.encodeActionURL(ExternalContextImpl.java:562)
at org.springframework.faces.webflow.ExternalContextWrapper.encodeActionURL(ExternalContextWrapper.java:29)
at com.sun.faces.renderkit.html_basic.FormRenderer.getActionStr(FormRenderer.java:234)
at com.sun.faces.renderkit.html_basic.FormRenderer.encodeBegin(FormRenderer.java:134)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.encodeBegin(UIComponentBase.java:869)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponent.encodeAll(UIComponent.java:1854)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponent.encodeAll(UIComponent.java:1859)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponent.encodeAll(UIComponent.java:1859)
at com.sun.faces.application.view.FaceletViewHandlingStrategy.renderView(FaceletViewHandlingStrategy.java:443)
at com.sun.faces.application.view.MultiViewHandler.renderView(MultiViewHandler.java:131)
at org.springframework.faces.webflow.FlowViewHandler.renderView(FlowViewHandler.java:99)
at javax.faces.application.ViewHandlerWrapper.renderView(ViewHandlerWrapper.java:337)
at org.springframework.faces.webflow.FlowViewHandler.renderView(FlowViewHandler.java:99)
at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.RenderResponsePhase.execute(RenderResponsePhase.java:120)
at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.Phase.doPhase(Phase.java:101)
at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.render(LifecycleImpl.java:219)
at org.springframework.faces.webflow.FlowLifecycle.render(FlowLifecycle.java:80)
at org.springframework.faces.webflow.JsfView.render(JsfView.java:89)
at org.springframework.webflow.engine.ViewState.render(ViewState.java:296)
at org.springframework.webflow.engine.ViewState.refresh(ViewState.java:243)
at org.springframework.webflow.engine.ViewState.resume(ViewState.java:221)
at org.springframework.webflow.engine.Flow.resume(Flow.java:545)
at org.springframework.webflow.engine.impl.FlowExecutionImpl.resume(FlowExecutionImpl.java:258)
at org.springframework.webflow.executor.FlowExecutorImpl.resumeExecution(FlowExecutorImpl.java:169)
at org.springframework.webflow.mvc.servlet.FlowHandlerAdapter.handle(FlowHandlerAdapter.java:183)
at org.springframework.faces.webflow.JsfFlowHandlerAdapter.handle(JsfFlowHandlerAdapter.java:48)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:925)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:856)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:936)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:827)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:687)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.service(FrameworkServlet.java:812)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:790)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapper.service(StandardWrapper.java:1682)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:344)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:214)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:101)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:256)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:214)
at org.springframework.orm.hibernate4.support.OpenSessionInViewFilter.doFilterInternal(OpenSessionInViewFilter.java:152)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:107)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:256)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:214)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:316)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:160)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.doInvoke(StandardPipeline.java:734)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:673)
at com.sun.enterprise.web.WebPipeline.invoke(WebPipeline.java:99)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:174)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.doService(CoyoteAdapter.java:357)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:260)
at com.sun.enterprise.v3.services.impl.ContainerMapper.service(ContainerMapper.java:188)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.http.server.HttpHandler.runService(HttpHandler.java:191)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.http.server.HttpHandler.doHandle(HttpHandler.java:168)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.http.server.HttpServerFilter.handleRead(HttpServerFilter.java:189)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.filterchain.ExecutorResolver$9.execute(ExecutorResolver.java:119)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.filterchain.DefaultFilterChain.executeFilter(DefaultFilterChain.java:288)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.filterchain.DefaultFilterChain.executeChainPart(DefaultFilterChain.java:206)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.filterchain.DefaultFilterChain.execute(DefaultFilterChain.java:136)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.filterchain.DefaultFilterChain.process(DefaultFilterChain.java:114)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.ProcessorExecutor.execute(ProcessorExecutor.java:77)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.nio.transport.TCPNIOTransport.fireIOEvent(TCPNIOTransport.java:838)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.strategies.AbstractIOStrategy.fireIOEvent(AbstractIOStrategy.java:113)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.strategies.WorkerThreadIOStrategy.run0(WorkerThreadIOStrategy.java:115)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.strategies.WorkerThreadIOStrategy.access$100(WorkerThreadIOStrategy.java:55)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.strategies.WorkerThreadIOStrategy$WorkerThreadRunnable.run(WorkerThreadIOStrategy.java:135)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.threadpool.AbstractThreadPool$Worker.doWork(AbstractThreadPool.java:564)
at org.glassfish.grizzly.threadpool.AbstractThreadPool$Worker.run(AbstractThreadPool.java:544)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:724)
INFO:   2013-07-12 09:46:09 DEBUG JsfView:98 - View rendering complete

on the flow for a page i have

<flow xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow"
  xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow/spring-webflow-2.4.xsd"
  parent="parent-views">

<view-state id="index" view="index.xhtml"/>

the webflow configuration is

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
   xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xmlns:webflow="http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow-config"
   xmlns:faces="http://www.springframework.org/schema/faces"
   xsi:schemaLocation="
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans 
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.2.xsd
    http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow-config
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow-config/spring-webflow-config-2.3.xsd
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/faces 
            http://www.springframework.org/schema/faces/spring-faces-2.2.xsd">

<bean class="org.springframework.webflow.scope.ScopeRegistrar"/>

<!-- Spring Webflow central configuration component -->
<webflow:flow-executor id="flowExecutor" flow-registry="flowRegistry">
    <webflow:flow-execution-listeners>          
        <webflow:listener ref="facesContextListener"/>          
    </webflow:flow-execution-listeners>
</webflow:flow-executor>

<!-- Installs a listener that creates and releases the FacesContext for each request. -->   
<bean id="facesContextListener" class="org.springframework.faces.webflow.FlowFacesContextLifecycleListener"/>   

<webflow:flow-registry id="flowRegistry" flow-builder-services="facesFlowBuilderServices" base-path="/WEB-INF/pages" >
    <webflow:flow-location-pattern value="/**/*-views.xml" />
</webflow:flow-registry>

<!-- Configures the Spring Web Flow JSF integration --> 
<faces:flow-builder-services id="facesFlowBuilderServices" development="true" />

<bean id="mvcViewFactoryCreator" class="org.springframework.webflow.mvc.builder.MvcViewFactoryCreator"/>

<!-- Dispatches requests mapped to flows to FlowHandler implementations --> 
<bean class="org.springframework.faces.webflow.JsfFlowHandlerAdapter">      
    <property name="flowExecutor" ref="flowExecutor" /> 
</bean>

<bean class="org.springframework.webflow.mvc.servlet.FlowHandlerMapping">
    <property name="flowRegistry" ref="flowRegistry"/>
    <property name="order" value="1"/>
</bean>

which i borrowed from somewhere

whenever i try to open the page i get this error

Answer 1

This is a bug in SWF 2.3.2: it doesn't support JSF 2.2

Here's the bug report: https://jira.spring.io/browse/SWF-1613

Starting from 2.3.3 it is fixed.

Answer 2

I have the same problem on Tomcat 6. The current stable releases of Spring WebFlow does not implement the JSF 2.2 API correctly. Thats why the invoke of javax.faces.context.ExternalContext.getClientWindow(...) fails. The source of the problem seems to be the clientWindowId feature.

The only solution for this is to update your Spring Webflow libraries to 2.4 SNAPSHOT. I grabbed the library files from http://maven.springframework.org/snapshot/org/springframework/webflow . My Spring Framework is the latest stable release.

A note for Tomcat users. Spring Webflow 2.4 requires some Java EE features now. You need to have an implementation for the CDI specification in your project. The Weld library suits very well to implement this specification on servers that aren't Java EE compatible (see http://www.seamframework.org/Weld for more information).