PrettyFaces Reference Guide

Consider the following URL.

http://ocpsoft.com/index.jsf?post=docs?category=prettyfaces

When presenting information to users (frequently your clients,) it is generally bad practice to show more information than necessary; by hiding parameter names, we are able to clean up the URL. The following URL-mapping accomplishes our goal:

<url-mapping>
   <pattern value="/#{post}/#{category}" />
   <view-id>/index.jsf</view-id>
</url-mapping>

Our final result looks like this:

http://ocpsoft.com/prettyfaces/docs/

This is just a simple example of the many features PrettyFaces provides to standardize your URLs

<filter>
   <filter-name>Pretty Filter</filter-name>
   <filter-class>com.ocpsoft.pretty.PrettyFilter</filter-class>
</filter>

<filter-mapping> 
   <filter-name>Pretty Filter</filter-name> 
   <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern> 
   <dispatcher>FORWARD</dispatcher> 
   <dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher> 
   <dispatcher>ERROR</dispatcher>
</filter-mapping>

<pretty-config xmlns="http://ocpsoft.com/prettyfaces/3.1.0" 
               xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
               xsi:schemaLocation="http://ocpsoft.com/prettyfaces/3.1.0
                                   		http://ocpsoft.com/xml/ns/prettyfaces/ocpsoft-pretty-faces-3.1.0.xsd">

   <!-- Begin RewriteRules -->
   
   <rewrite trailingSlash="append" toCase="lowercase" /> 
   <rewrite match="^/old-url/(\w+)/$" substitute="/new_url/$1/" redirect="301" />

   <!-- Begin UrlMappings -->
   
	<url-mapping id="home"> 
		<pattern value="/" /> 
		<view-id>/faces/index.jsf</view-id>
	</url-mapping> 

	<url-mapping id="store"> 
		<pattern value="/store/" /> 
		<view-id>/faces/shop/store.jsf</view-id>
	</url-mapping> 

	<url-mapping id="viewCategory">
		<pattern value="/store/#{ cat : bean.category }/" />
		<view-id>/faces/shop/store.jsf</view-id> 
	</url-mapping>
   
	<url-mapping id="viewItem">
		<pattern value="/store/#{ cat : bean.category }/#{ iid : bean.itemId }/" />
		<view-id>/faces/shop/item.jsf</view-id> 
		<action>#{bean.loadItem}</action>
	</url-mapping>

</pretty-config>

Here we have defined a page-action to be executed on a bean, #{bean.loadItem}, when a URL matching our pattern is requested. For example: /store/item/32.

<url-mapping id="viewItem">
  <pattern value="/store/item/#{ iid : bean.itemId }/" />
  <view-id>/faces/shop/item.jsf</view-id> 
  <action>#{bean.loadItem}</action>
</url-mapping>

And the corresponding managed-bean, here shown using CDI/Weld annotations:

@Named("bean")
@RequestScoped
public class CategoryBean {
	private String itemId;
	private String category;
	
	private Item item;
	
	@Inject StoreItems items;
	
	public String loadItem() {
		if ( itemId != null ) {
			this.item = items.findById(itemId);
			return null;
		}

		// Add a message here, "The item {..} could not be found."
		return "pretty:store";
	}
	
	/* Getters & Setters */
}

<url-mapping id="viewItem">
	<pattern value="/store/#{ cat : bean.category }/#{ iid : bean.itemId }/" />
	<query-param name="language"> #{ bean.language } </query-param>
	<view-id>/faces/shop/item.jsf</view-id> 
	<action>#{bean.loadItem}</action>
</url-mapping>

Note that if the specified URL-mapping ID requires any parameters, the current values found in the required managed bean locations will be used when navigating.

<h:commandLink action="pretty:home"> Go home. </h:commandLink> 

Navigating directly from a command component is most commonly used for refreshing a page:

<h:commandLink action="pretty:"> Refresh this page. </h:commandLink> 

public class CustomRedirector 
{
	public void redirect(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, 
							String mappingId, Map<String, String[]>... params)
	{
		PrettyContext context = PrettyContext.getCurrentInstance(request);
		PrettyURLBuilder builder = new PrettyURLBuilder();
		
		URLMapping mapping = context.getConfig().getMappingById(mappingId);
		String targetURL = builder.build(mapping, params);
		
		targetURL = response.encodeRedirectURL(targetURL);
		response.sendRedirect(targetURL);
	}		
}

<url-mapping id="viewItem">
	<pattern value="/store/#{ cat : bean.category }/#{ iid : bean.itemId }/" />
	<view-id>/faces/shop/item.jsf</view-id> 
	<action>#{bean.loadItem}</action>
</url-mapping>

<%@ taglib prefix="pretty" uri="http://ocpsoft.com/prettyfaces" %>
 
<pretty:link mappingId="viewItem">
	<f:param value="#{item.category}" />
	<f:param value="#{item.id}" />
	View Item. (This is Link Text)
</pretty:link>

Output, assuming that #{item.category} == shoes, and #{item.id} == 24

 /store/shoes/24

<url-mapping id="viewItem">
	<pattern value="/store/#{ cat : bean.category }/#{ iid : bean.itemId }/" />
	<query-param name="language"> #{ bean.language } </query-param>
	<view-id>/faces/shop/item.jsf</view-id> 
	<action>#{bean.loadItem}</action>
</url-mapping>

<%@ taglib prefix="pretty" uri="http://ocpsoft.com/prettyfaces" %>
 
<pretty:urlbuffer var="itemListURL" mappingId="viewItem">
	<f:param value="shoes" />
	<f:param value="24" />
	<f:param name="language" value="en_US" />
</pretty:urlbuffer>
<h:outputText value="Generated URL Is: #{requestScope.itemListURL}" />

Output:

 /store/shoes/24?language=en_US

<url-mapping id="viewItem">
	<pattern value="/store/#{ cat : bean.category }/#{ iid : bean.itemId }/" />
	<query-param name="language"> #{ bean.language } </query-param>
	<view-id>/faces/shop/item.jsf</view-id> 
	<action>#{bean.loadItem}</action>
</url-mapping>

<%@ taglib prefix="h" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html" %>
 
<h:outputLink value="/faces/shop/item.jsf">
	<f:param name="cat" value="shoes" />
	<f:param name="iid" value="24" />
	<f:param name="language" value="en_US" />
</h:outputLink>

Output:

 /store/shoes/24?language=en_US

<url-mapping id="viewItem">
	<pattern value="/store/#{ cat : bean.category }/#{ iid : bean.itemId }/" />
	<query-param name="language"> #{ bean.language } </query-param>
	<view-id>/faces/shop/item.jsf</view-id> 
	<action>#{bean.loadItem}</action>
</url-mapping>

Both of the following components will generate the same output:

<h:link outcome="/faces/shop/item.jsf">
	<f:param name="cat" value="shoes" />
	<f:param name="iid" value="24" />
	<f:param name="language" value="en_US" />
</h:link>

<h:link outcome="pretty:viewItem">
	<f:param name="cat" value="shoes" />
	<f:param name="iid" value="24" />
	<f:param name="language" value="en_US" />
</h:link>

Output:

 /store/shoes/24?language=en_US