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## Chapter 5. Basic concepts of the RichFaces Framework

## 5.1. Introduction

The framework is implemented as a component library which adds Ajax capability into existing pages, so you don't need to write any JavaScript code or to replace existing components with new Ajax widgets. RichFaces enables page-wide Ajax support instead of the traditional component-wide support. Hence, you can define the event on the page that invokes an Ajax request and the areas of the page that should be synchronized with the JSF Component Tree after the Ajax request changes the data on the server according to the events fired on the client.

Next Figure shows how it works:

Figure 5.1. Request Processing flow

RichFaces allows to define (by means of JSF tags) different parts of a JSF page you wish to update with an Ajax request and provide a few options to send Ajax requests to the server. Also JSF page doesn't change from a "regular" JSF page and you don't need to write any JavaScript or XMLHTTPRequest objects by hands, everything is done automatically.

## 5.2. RichFaces Architecture Overview

Next figure lists several important elements of the RichFaces framework

Figure 5.2. Core Ajax component structure

##### Ajax Filter.

To get all benefits of RichFaces , you should register a Filter in web.xml file of your application. The Filter recognizes multiple request types. Necessary information about Filter configuration can be found in the "Filter configuration" section. The sequence diagram on Figure 3 shows the difference in processing of a "regular" JSF request and an Ajax request.

In the first case the whole JSF tree will be encoded, in the second one option it depends on the "size" of the Ajax region. As you can see, in the second case the filter parses the content of an Ajax response before sending it to the client side.

Have a look at the next picture to understand these two ways:

Figure 5.3. Request Processing sequence diagram

In both cases, the information about required static or dynamic resources that your application requests is registered in the ResourseBuilder class.

When a request for a resource comes (Figure 4), the RichFaces filter checks the Resource Cache for this resource and if it is there, the resource is sent to the client. Otherwise, the filter searches for the resource among those that are registered by the ResourceBuilder. If the resource is registered, the RichFaces filter will send a request to the ResourceBuilder to create (deliver) the resource.

Next Figure shows the ways of resource request processing.

Figure 5.4. Resource request sequence diagram

##### AJAX Action Components

There are Ajax Action Components: <a4j:commandButton> , <a4j:commandLink> , <a4j:poll> and <a4j:support> and etc. You can use them to send Ajax requests from the client side.

##### AJAX Containers

AjaxContainer is an interface that describes an area on your JSF page that should be decoded during an Ajax request. `AjaxViewRoot` and `AjaxRegion` are implementations of this interface.

##### JavaScript Engine

RichFaces JavaScript Engine runs on the client-side. It knows how to update different areas on your JSF page based on the information from the Ajax response. Do not use this JavaScript code directly, as it is available automatically.

## 5.3. RichFaces Integral Parts

The RichFaces comes with a number of integral parts (framework, libraries):

- Prototype 1.6.0.3

- jQuery 1.2.6

- Script.aculo.us 1.8.1

For more information about framework and libraries loading see the following section in the FAQ.

## Note:

In order to prevent JavaScript versions conflict you should use only one version of the framework or library. You could find more information about libraries exclusion in the FAQ.

## 5.4. Limitations and Rules

In order to create RichFaces applications properly, keep the following points in mind:

- Any Ajax framework should not append or delete, but only replace elements on the page. For successful updates, an element with the same ID as in the response must exist on the page. If you'd like to append any code to a page, put in a placeholder for it (any empty element). For the same reason, it's recommended to place messages in the "AjaxOutput" component (as no messages is also a message).

- Don't use <f:verbatim> for self-rendered containers, since this component is transient and not saved in the tree.

- Ajax requests are made by XMLHTTPRequest functions in XML format, but this XML bypasses most validations and the corrections that might be made in a browser. Thus, create only a strict standards-compliant code for HTML and XHTML, without skipping any required elements or attributes. Any necessary XML corrections are automatically made by the XML filter on the server, but lot's of unexpected effects can be produced by an incorrect HTML code.

- The RichFaces ViewHandler puts itself in front of the Facelets ViewHandlers chain.

- RichFaces components uses their own renderers. On the Render Response Phase RichFaces framework makes a traversal of the component tree, calls its own renderer and put the result into the Faces Response.

## 5.5. Ajax Request Optimization

### 5.5.1. Re-Rendering

Ajax attributes are common for Ajax components such as <a4j:support> , <a4j:commandButton> , <a4j:jsFunction> , <a4j:poll> , <a4j:push> and so on. Also, most RichFaces components with built-in Ajax support have these attributes for a similar purpose. Ajax components attributes help RichFaces to expose its features. Most of the attributes have default values. Thus, you can start working with RichFaces without knowing the usage of these attribute. However, their usage allows to tune the required Ajax behavior very smoothly.

"reRender" is a key attribute. The attribute allows to point to area(s) on a page that should be updated as a response on Ajax interaction. The value of the "reRender" attribute is an id of the JSF component or an id list.

A simple example is placed below:

    ...

            <a4j:commandButton value="update" reRender="infoBlock"/>

                ...

            <h:panelGrid id="infoBlock">

                ...

            </h:panelGrid>

    ...

The value of "reRender" attribute of the <a4j:commandButton> tag defines which part(s) of your page is (are) to be updated. In this case, the only part of the page to update is the <h:panelGrid> tag because its ID value matches to the value of "reRender" attribute. As you see, it's not difficult to update multiple elements on the page, only list their IDs as the value of "reRender" .

"reRender" uses UIComponent.findComponent() algorithm (with some additional exceptions) to find the component in the component tree. As can you see, the algorithm presumes several steps. Each other step is used if the previous step is not successful. Therefore, you can define how fast the component is found mentioning it more precisely. The following example shows the difference in approaches (both buttons will work successfully):

    ...

        <h:form id="form1">

            ...

            <a4j: commandButton value="Usual Way" reRender="infoBlock, infoBlock2" />

            <a4j:commandButton value="Shortcut" reRender=":infoBlockl,:sv:infoBlock2" />

            ...

        </h:form>

        <h:panelGrid id="infoBlock">

            ...

        </h:panelGrid>

        ...

        <f:subview id="sv">

          <h:panelGrid id="infoBlock2">

            ...

          </h:panelGrid>

          ...

        </f:subview>

    ...

It's also possible to use JSF EL expression as a value of the reRender attribute. It might be a property of types Set, Collection, Array or simple String. The EL for reRender is resolved right before the Render Response phase. Hence, you can calculate what should be re-rendered on any previous phase during the Ajax request processing.

Most common problem with using reRender is pointing it to the component that has a "rendered" attribute. Note, that JSF does not mark the place in the browser DOM where the outcome of the component should be placed in case the "rendered" condition returns false. Therefore, after the component becomes rendered during the Ajax request, RichFaces delivers the rendered code to the client, but does not update a page, because the place for update is unknown. You need to point to one of the parent components that has no "rendered" attribute. As an alternative, you can wrap the component with <a4j:outputPanel> `layout="none"` .

"ajaxRendered" attribute of the <a4j:outputPanel> set to "true" allows to define the area of the page that will be re-rendered even if it is not pointed in the reRender attribute explicitly. It might be useful if you have an area on a page that should be updated as a response on any Ajax request. For example, the following code allows to output error messages regardless of what Ajax request causes the Validation phase failed.

    ...

         <a4j:outputPanel ajaxRendered="true">

            <h:messages />

        </a4j:outputPanel>

    ...

"limitToList" attribute allows to dismiss the behavior of the <a4j:outputPanel> "ajaxRendered" attribute. `limitToList = "false"` means to update only the area(s) that mentioned in the "reRender" attribute explicitly. All output panels with `ajaxRendered="true"` is ignored. An example is placed below:

    ...

        <h:form>

           <h:inputText value="#{person.name}">

                <a4j:support event="onkeyup" reRender="test" limitToList="true"/>

            </h:inputText>

            <h:outputText value="#{person.name}" id="test"/>

        </form>

    ...

### 5.5.2. Queue and Traffic Flood Protection

"eventsQueue" attribute defines the name of the queue that will be used to order upcoming Ajax requests. By default, RichFaces does not queue Ajax requests. If events are produced simultaneously, they will come to the server simultaneously. JSF implementations (especially, the very first ones) does not guaranty that the request that comes first will be served or passed into the JSF lifecycle first. The order how the server side data will be modified in case of simultaneous request might be unpredictable. Usage of eventsQueue attribute allows to avoid possible mess. Define the queue name explicitly, if you expect intensive Ajax traffic in your application.

The next request posted in the same queue will wait until the previos one is not processed and Ajax Response is returned back if the "eventsQueue" attribute is defined. In addition, RichFaces starts to remove from the queue "similar" requests. "Similar'"requests are the requests produced by the same event. For example, according to the following code, only the newest request will be sent to the server if you type very fast and has typed the several characters already before the previous Ajax Response is back.

    ...

        <h:inputText value="#{userBean.name}">

            <a4j:support event="onkeyup" eventsQueue="foo" reRender="bar" />

        </h:inputText>

    ...

"requestDelay" attribute defines the time (in ms) that the request will be wait in the queue before it is ready to send. When the delay time is over, the request will be sent to the server or removed if the newest "similar" request is in a queue already .

"ignoreDupResponses" attribute orders to ignore the Ajax Response produced by the request if the newest "similar" request is in a queue already. `ignoreDupResponses"="true"` does not cancel the request while it is processed on the server, but just allows to avoid unnecessary updates on the client side if the response loses the actuality.

Defining the "eventsQueue" along with "requestDelay" allows to protect against unnecessary traffic flood and synchronizes Ajax requests order. If you have several sources of Ajax requests, you can define the same queue name there. This might be very helpful if you have Ajax components that invoke request asynchronously from the ones produced by events from users. For example, <a4j:poll> or <a4j:push> . In case the requests from such components modify the same data, the synchronization might be very helpful.

More information can be found on the RichFaces Users Forum .

"timeout" attribute is used for setting response waiting time on a particular request. If a response is not received during this time, the request is aborted.

### 5.5.3. Data Processing Options

RichFaces uses form based approach for Ajax request sending. This means each time, when you click an Ajax button or <a4j:poll> produces an asynchronous request, the data from the closest JSF form is submitted with the XMLHTTPRequest object. The form data contains the values from the form input element and auxiliary information such as state saving data.

When "ajaxSingle" attribute value is "true" , it orders to include only a value of the current component (along with <f:param> or <a4j:action> param values if any) to the request map. In case of <a4j:support> , it is a value of the parent component. An example is placed below:

    ...

        <h:form>

            <h:inputText value="#{person.name}">

                <a4j:support event="onkeyup" reRender="test" ajaxSingle="true"/>

            </h:inputText>

          <h:inputText value="#{person.middleName}"/>

        </form>

    ...

In this example the request contains only the input component causes the request generation, not all the components contained on a form, because of `ajaxSingle="true"` usage.

Note, that `ajaxSingle="true"` reduces the upcoming traffic, but does not prevent decoding other input components on the server side. Some JSF components, such as <h:selectOneMenu> do recognize the missing data in the request map value as a null value and try to pass the validation process with a failed result. Thus, use <a4j:region> to limit a part of the component tree that will be processed on the server side when it is required.

"immediate" attribute has the same purpose as any other non-JSF component. The default "ActionListener" should be executed immediately (i.e. during the Apply Request Values phase of a request processing lifecycle), rather than waiting until the Invoke Application phase. Using `immediate="true"` is one of the ways to have some data model values updated when other cannot be updated because of a problem with passing the Validation phase successfully. This might be important inside the <h:dataTable> like components where using <a4j:region> is impossible due to the <h:dataTable> component architecture.

"bypassUpdates" attribute allows to bypass the Update Model phase. It might be useful if you need to check your input against the available validator, but not to update the model with those data. Note, that an action will be invoked at the end of the Validation phase only if the Validation phase is passed successfully. The listeners of the Application phase will not be invoked in any case.

### 5.5.4. Action and Navigation

Ajax component is similar to any other non-Ajax JSF component like <h:commandButton> . It allows to submit the form. You can use "action" and "actionListener" attributes to invoke the action method and define the action event.

"action" method must return null if you want to have an Ajax Response with a partual page update. This is regular mode called `"Ajax request generates Non-Ajax Response"`. In case of action does not return null, but the action outcome that matches one of navigation rules, RichFaces starts to work in `"Ajax request generates Non-Ajax Response"` mode. This mode might be helpful in two major cases:

- RichFaces allows to organize a page flow inside the <a4j:include> component. This is a typical scenario for Wizard like behavior. The new content is rendered inside the <a4j:include> area. The content is taken from the navigation rule of the faces configuration file (usually, the faces-config.xml). Note, that the content of the "wizard" is not isolated from the rest of the page. The included page should not have own <f:view> (it does not matter if you use facelets). You need to have an Ajax component inside the <a4j:include> to navigate between the wizard pages. Otherwize, the whole page update will be performed.

- If you want to involve the server side validators and navigate to the next page only if the Validation phase is passed successfully, you can replace <h:commandButton> with <a4j:commandButton> and point to the action method that navigates to the next page. If Validation process fails, the partial page update will occur and you will see an error message. Otherwize, the application proceeds to the next page. Make sure, you define <redirect/> option for the navigation rule to avoid memory leaks.

### 5.5.5. JavaScript Interactions

RichFaces allows writing Ajax-enabled JSF application without writing any Javascript code. However, you can still invoke the JavaScript code if you need. There are several ajax attributes that helps to do it.

"onsubmit" attribute allows to invoke JavaScript code before an Ajax request is sent. If "onsubmit" returns "false" , the Ajax request is canceled. The code of "onsubmit" is inserted before the RichFaces Ajax call. Hence, the "onsubmit" should not has a "return" statement if you want the Ajax request to be sent. If you are going to invoke a JavaScript function that returns "true" or "false" , use the conditional statement to return something only when you need to cancel the request. For example:

    ...

        onsubmit="if (mynosendfunct()==false){return false}"

    ...

"onclick" attribute is similar to the "onsubmit" , but for clickable components such as <a4j:commandLink> and <a4j:commandButton> . If it returns "false" , the Ajax request is canceled also.

The "oncomplete" attribute is used for passing JavaScript that would be invoked right after the AJAX response returns back and DOM is updated. It is not recommended to use use keyword `this` inside the EL-expression, because it will not always point to the component where AJAX request was initiated.

"onbeforedomupdate" attribute defines JavaScript code for call after Ajax response receiving and before updating DOM on a client side.

"data" attribute allows to get the additional data from the server during an Ajax call. You can use JSF EL to point the property of the managed bean and its value will be serialized in JSON format and be available on the client side. You can refer to it using the "data" variable. For example:

    ...

        <a4j:commandButton value="Update" data="#{userBean.name}" oncomplete="showTheName(data.name)" />

    ...

RichFaces allows to serialize not only primitive types into JSON format, but also complex types including arrays and collections. The beans should be serializable to be refered with "data" .

There is a number of useful functions which can be used in JavaScript:

- `rich:clientId('id')` - returns client id by short id or null if the component with the id specified hasn't been found

- `rich:element('id')` - is a shortcut for `document.getElementById(#{rich:clientId('id')})`

- `rich:component('id')` - is a shortcut for `#{rich:clientId('id')}.component`

- `rich:findComponent('id')` - returns an instance of UIComponent taking the short ID of the component as a parameter.

      ...

      <h:inputText id="myInput">

          <a4j:support event="onkeyup" reRender="outtext"/>

      </h:inputText>

      <h:outputText id="outtext" value="#{rich:findComponent('myInput').value}" />

      ...

### 5.5.6. Iteration components Ajax attributes

"ajaxKeys" attribute defines strings that are updated after an Ajax request. It provides possibility to update several child components separately without updating the whole page.

    ...

        <a4j:poll intervall="1000" action="#{repeater.action}" reRender="text">

            <table>

                <tbody>

                    <a4j:repeat value="#{bean.props}" var="detail" ajaxKeys="#{repeater.ajaxedRowsSet}">

                        <tr>

                            <td>

                                <h:outputText value="detail.someProperty" id="text"/>

                            </td>

                        </tr>

                    </a4j:repeat>

                </tbody>

            </table>

        </a4j:poll>

    ...

### 5.5.7. Other useful attributes

"status" attribute for Ajax components (such as <a4j:commandButton> , <a4j:poll> , etc.) points to an ID of <a4j:status> component. Use this attribute if you want to share <a4j:status> component between different Ajax components from different regions. The following example shows it.

    ...

        <a4j:region id="extr">

            <h:form>

                <h:outputText value="Status:" />

                <a4j:status id="commonstatus" startText="In Progress...." stopText=""/>

                <h:panelGrid columns="2">

                    <h:outputText value="Name"/>

                    <h:inputText id="name" value="#{userBean.name}">

                        <a4j:support event="onkeyup" reRender="out" />

                    </h:inputText>

                    <h:outputText value="Job"/>

                    <a4j:region  id="intr">

                        <h:inputText id="job" value="#{userBean.job}">

                            <a4j:support event="onkeyup"  reRender="out" status="commonstatus"/>

                       </h:inputText>

                    </a4j:region>

                </h:panelGrid>

                <a4j:region>

                    <h:outputText id="out" value="Name: #{userBean.name}, Job: #{userBean.job}" />

                    <br />

                    <a4j:commandButton ajaxSingle="true" value="Clean Up Form" reRender="name, job, out"  status="commonstatus">

                        <a4j:actionparam name="n" value=""  assignTo="#{userBean.name}" />

                        <a4j:actionparam name="j" value=""  assignTo="#{userBean.job}" />

                    </a4j:commandButton>

                </a4j:region>

            </h:form>

        </a4j:region>

    ...

In the example <a4j:support> and <a4j:commandButton> are defined in different regions. Values of "status" attribute for these components points to an ID of <a4j:support> .Thus, the <a4j:support> component is shared between two components from different regions.

More information could be found here .

Other useful attribute is "focus" . It points to an ID of a component where focus will be set after an Ajax request.

## 5.6. How To...

### 5.6.1. Send an Ajax request

There are different ways to send Ajax requests from your JSF page. For example you can use <a4j:commandButton> , <a4j:commandLink> , <a4j:poll> or <a4j:support> tags or any other.

All these tags hide the usual JavaScript activities that are required for an XMHTTPRequest object building and an Ajax request sending. Also, they allow you to decide which components of your JSF page are to be re-rendered as a result of the Ajax response (you can list the IDs of these components in the "reRender" attribute).

<a4j:commandButton> and <a4j:commandLink> tags are used to send an Ajax request on "onclick" JavaScript event.

<a4j:poll> tag is used to send an Ajax request periodically using a timer.

The <a4j:support> tag allows you to add Ajax functionality to standard JSF components and send Ajax request onto a chosen JavaScript event: "onkeyup" , "onmouseover" , etc.

### 5.6.2. Decide What to Send

You may describe a region on the page you wish to send to the server, in this way you can control what part of the JSF View is decoded on the server side when you send an Ajax request.

The easiest way to describe an Ajax region on your JSF page is to do nothing, because the content between the <f:view> and </f:view> tags is considered the default Ajax region.

You may define multiple Ajax regions on the JSF page (they can even be nested) by using the <a4j:region> tag.

If you wish to render the content of an Ajax response outside of the active region then the value of the "renderRegionOnly" attribute should be set to "false" ("false" is default value). Otherwise, your Ajax updates are limited to elements of the active region.

### 5.6.3. Decide What to Change

Using IDs in the "reRender" attribute to define `"AJAX zones"` for update works fine in many cases.

But you can not use this approach if your page contains, e.g. a <f:verbatim> tag and you wish to update its content on an Ajax response.

The problem with the <f:verbatim/> tag as described above is related to the value of the transientFlag of JSF components. If the value of this flag is true, the component must not participate in state saving or restoring of process.

In order to provide a solution to this kind of problems, RichFaces uses the concept of an output panel that is defined by the <a4j:outputPanel> tag. If you put a <f:verbatim> tag inside of the output panel, then the content of the <f:verbatim/> tag and content of other panel's child tags could be updated on Ajax response. There are two ways to control this:

- By setting the "ajaxRendered" attribute value to "true".

- By setting the "reRender" attribute value of an Action Component to the output panel ID.

### 5.6.4. Decide what to process

The "process" attribute allows to define the ids of components to be processed together with the component which is marked as ajaxSingle or wrapped to region.

You could make use of the "process" attribute when you need to process only two components in the different parts of view.

Imagine you need to process only two input fields but not all the view. If you wrap the first input to region or make <a4j:support> component with `ajaxSingle="true"` nested the second input will not be processed.

Here is a simple solution:

    ...

    <h:inputText value="#{bean.name}" id="name">

        <a4j:support ajaxSingle="true" process="email" event="onblur" reRender="someOut"/>

    </h:inputText>

    <h:inputTextarea value="#{bean.description}" id="desc" />

    <h:inputText value="#{bean.email}" id="email">

        <a4j:support ajaxSingle="true" process="name" event="onblur" reRender="someOut"/>

    </h:inputText>

    ...

In the example above when the input field with the `id="name"` looses focus, an AJAX request is sent. So only two input fields (with `id="name"` and additionally with `id="email"`) are processed: decoding, conversion/validation, value applying phases are executed. The input field with the `id="email"` is handled the same way on blur event.

## 5.7. Filter Configuration

RichFaces uses a filter for a correction of code received on an Ajax request. In case of a "regular" JSF request a browser makes correction independently. In case of Ajax request in order to prevent layout destruction it's needed to use a filter, because a received code could differ from a code validated by a browser and a browser doesn't make any corrections.

An example of how to set a Filter in a web.xml file of your application is placed below.

Example:

    ...

        <filter>

            <display-name>RichFaces Filter</display-name>

            <filter-name>richfaces</filter-name>

            <filter-class>org.ajax4jsf.Filter</filter-class>

        </filter>

    ...

## Note:

Fast Filter is deprecated and available only for backward compatibility with previous RichFaces versions. Fast Filter usage isn't recomended, because there is another way to use its functionality by means of Neko filter type .

In RichFaces 3.2 filter configuration becomes more flexible. It's possible to configure different filters for different sets of pages for the same application.

The possible filter types are:

- TIDY

"TIDY" filter type based on the Tidy parser. This filter is recommended for applications with complicated or non-standard markup when all necessary code corrections are made by the filter when a response comes from the server.

- NEKO

"NEKO" filter type corresponds to the former "Fast Filter" and it's based on the Neko parser. In case of using this filter code isn't strictly verified. Use this one if you are sure that your application markup is really strict for this filter. Otherwise it could cause lot's of errors and corrupt a layout as a result. This filter considerably accelerates all Ajax requests processing.

- NONE

No correction.

An example of configuration is placed below.

Example:

    ...

        <context-param>

            <param-name>org.ajax4jsf.xmlparser.ORDER</param-name>

            <param-value>NONE,NEKO,TIDY</param-value>

        </context-param>

        <context-param>

            <param-name>org.ajax4jsf.xmlparser.NONE</param-name>

            <param-value>/pages/performance\.xhtml,/pages/default.*\.xhtml</param-value>

        </context-param>

        <context-param>

            <param-name>org.ajax4jsf.xmlparser.NEKO</param-name>

            <param-value>/pages/repeat\.xhtml</param-value>

        </context-param>

        <filter>

            <display-name>RichFaces Filter</display-name>

            <filter-name>richfaces</filter-name>

            <filter-class>org.ajax4jsf.Filter</filter-class>

        </filter>

        <filter-mapping>

            <filter-name>richfaces</filter-name>

            <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>

            <dispatcher>FORWARD</dispatcher>

            <dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>

            <dispatcher>INCLUDE</dispatcher>

        </filter-mapping>

    ...

The example shows that `ORDER` parameter defines the order in which particular filter types are used for pages code correction.

First of all "NONE" type is specified for the filter. Then two different sets of pages are defined for which two filter types (NONE and NEKO) are used correspondingly. If a page relates to the first set that is defined in the following way:

    <param-value>/pages/performance\.xhtml,/pages/default.*\.xhtml</param-value>,

it's not corrected, because filter type for this page is defined as "NONE". If a page is not from the first set, then "NEKO" type is set.

If a page relates to the second set that is defined in the following way:

    <param-value>/pages/repeat\.xhtml</param-value>,

then "NEKO" filter type is used for correction. If it's not related to the second set, "TIDY" type is set for the filter ("TIDY" filter type is used for code correction).

## 5.8. Scripts and Styles Load Strategy

Before the version 3.1.3, RichFaces loaded styles and script on demand. I.e. files are loaded only if they are required on a particular page. Since RichFaces 3.1.3, it's possible to manage how the RichFaces script and style files are loaded to application.

org.richfaces.LoadScriptStrategy

The following declaration in your web.xml allows loading the integrated script files.

    ...

        <context-param>

              <param-name>org.richfaces.LoadScriptStrategy</param-name>

              <param-value>ALL</param-value>

        </context-param>

    ...

If you do not declare the `org.richfaces.LoadScriptStrategy` in the web.xml, it equals to:

    ...

        <context-param>

            <param-name>org.richfaces.LoadScriptStrategy</param-name>

            <param-value>DEFAULT</param-value>

        </context-param>

    ...

The third possible value is "NONE". You have no a special reason to use it unless you obtain the newest (or modified) version of the script and want to include it manually in a page header.

## Note:

If you use ALL value of Scripts Load Strategy, the JavaScript files compression turns off!

org.richfaces.LoadStyleStrategy

The following declaration allows to load only one integrated style sheet file.

    ...

        <context-param>

              <param-name>org.richfaces.LoadStyleStrategy</param-name>

              <param-value>ALL</param-value>

        </context-param>

    ...

The integrated style sheet contains style for all shipped components. The skinnability feature still works.

The "DEFAULT" value is a classical on-demand variant.

The "NONE" stops loading the styles at all. The earlier introduced plain skin resets all color and font parameters to null. The "NONE" value for `org.richfaces.LoadStyleStrategy` means that predefined styles for RichFaces are not used.

For more information see RichFaces User Forum .

## 5.9. Request Errors and Session Expiration Handling

RichFaces allows to redefine standard handlers responsible for processing of different exceptional situations. It helps to define own JavaScript, which is executed when these situations occur.

Add the following code to web.xml:

    <context-param>

        <param-name>org.ajax4jsf.handleViewExpiredOnClient</param-name>

        <param-value>true</param-value>

    </context-param>

### 5.9.1. Request Errors Handling

To execute your own code on the client in case of an error during Ajax request, it's necessary to redefine the standard `"A4J.AJAX.onError"` method:

     A4J.AJAX.onError = function(req, status, message){

        window.alert("Custom onError handler "+message);

    }

The function defined this way accepts as parameters:

- `req` - a params string of a request that calls an error

- `status` - the number of an error returned by the server

- `message` - a default message for the given error

Thus, it's possible to create your own handler that is called on timeouts, internal server errors, and etc.

### 5.9.2. Session Expired Handling

It's possible to redefine also the "onExpired" framework method that is called on the "Session Expiration" event.

Example:

    A4J.AJAX.onExpired = function(loc, expiredMsg){

        if(window.confirm("Custom onExpired handler "+expiredMsg+" for a location: "+loc)){

          return loc;

        } else {

         return false;

        }

    }

Here the function receives in params:

- `loc` - URL of the current page (on demand can be updated)

- `expiredMsg` - a default message on "Session Expiration" event.

## Note:

Note that custom "onError", "onExpire" handlers do not work under MyFaces. MyFaces handles exception by its internals generating debug page. You could use the following code to prevent such behavior:

    ...

    <context-param>

        <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.ERROR_HANDLING</param-name>

        <param-value>false</param-value>

    </context-param>

    ...

## 5.10. Skinnability

### 5.10.1. Why Skinnability

If you have a look at a CSS file in an enterprise application, for example, the one you're working on now, you'll see how often the same color is noted in it. Standard CSS has no way to define a particular color abstractly for defining as a panel header color, a background color of an active pop-up menu item, a separator color, etc. To define common interface styles, you have to copy the same values over and over again and the more interface elements you have the more copy-and-paste activity that needs to be performed.

Hence, if you want to change the application palette, you have to change all interrelating values, otherwise your interface can appear a bit clumsy. The chances of such an interface coming about is very high, as CSS editing usually becomes the duty of a general developer who doesn't necessarily have much knowledge of user interface design.

Moreover, if a customer wishes to have an interface look-and-feel that can be adjusted on-the-fly by an end user, your work is multiplied, as you have to deal with several CSS files variants, each of which contains the same values repeated numerous times.

These problems can be solved with the skinnability system built into the RichFaces project and realized fully in RichFaces. Every named skin has some skin-parameters for the definition of a palette and the other parameters of the user interface. By changing just a few parameters, you can alter the appearance of dozens of components in an application in a synchronized fashion without messing up user interface consistency.

The skinnability feature can't completely replace standard CSS and certainly doesn't eliminate its usage. Skinnability is a high-level extension of standard CSS, which can be used together with regular CSS declarations. You can also refer to skin parameters in CSS via JSF Expression Language. You have the complete ability to synchronize the appearance of all the elements in your pages.

### 5.10.2. Using Skinnability

RichFaces skinnability is designed for mixed usage with:

- Skin parameters defined in the RichFaces framework

- Predefined CSS classes for components

- User style classes

The color scheme of the component can be applied to its elements using any of three style classes:

- A default style class inserted into the framework

  This contains style parameters linked to some constants from a skin. It is defined for every component and specifies a default representation level. Thus, an application interface could be modified by changing the values of skin parameters.

- A style class of skin extension

  This class name is defined for every component element and inserted into the framework to allow defining a class with the same name into its CSS files. Hence, the appearance of all components that use this class is extended.

- User style class

  It's possible to use one of the styleClass parameters for component elements and define your own class in it. As a result, the appearance of one particular component is changed according to a CSS style parameter specified in the class.

### 5.10.3. Example

Here is a simple panel component:

Example:

                    <rich:panel> ... </rich:panel>

The code generates a panel component on a page, which consists of two elements: a wrapper <div> element and a <div> element for the panel body with the particular style properties. The wrapper <div> element looks like:

Example:

                    <div class="dr-pnl rich-panel"> ... </div>

dr-pnl is a CSS class specified in the framework via skin parameters:

- background-color is defined with generalBackgroundColor

- border-color is defined with panelBorderColor

It's possible to change all colors for all panels on all pages by changing these skin parameters.

However, if a <rich:panel> class is specified somewhere on the page, its parameters are also acquired by all panels on this page.

A developer may also change the style properties for a particular panel. The following definition:

Example:

                    <rich:panel styleClass="customClass"> ...

                    </rich:panel>

Could add some style properties from customClass to one particular panel, as a result we get three styles:

Example:

                    <div class="dr_pnl rich-panel customClass"> ...

                    </div>

### 5.10.4. Skin Parameters Tables in RichFaces

RichFaces provides eight predefined skin parameters (skins) at the simplest level of common customization:

- DEFAULT

- plain

- emeraldTown

- blueSky

- wine

- japanCherry

- ruby

- classic

- deepMarine

To plug one in, it's necessary to specify a skin name in the `org.richfaces.SKIN` context-param.

Here is an example of a table with values for one of the main skins, "blueSky" .

Table 5.1. Colors

Parameter name | Default value
--- | ---
headerBackgroundColor | #BED6F8
headerGradientColor | #F2F7FF
headTextColor | #000000
headerWeightFont | bold
generalBackgroundColor | #FFFFFF
generalTextColor | #000000
generalSizeFont | 11px
generalFamilyFont | Arial, Verdana, sans-serif
controlTextColor | #000000
controlBackgroundColor | #ffffff
additionalBackgroundColor | #ECF4FE
shadowBackgroundColor | #000000
shadowOpacity | 1
panelBorderColor | #BED6F8
subBorderColor | #ffffff
tabBackgroundColor | #C6DEFF
tabDisabledTextColor | #8DB7F3
trimColor | #D6E6FB
tipBackgroundColor | #FAE6B0
tipBorderColor | #E5973E
selectControlColor | #E79A00
generalLinkColor | #0078D0
hoverLinkColor | #0090FF
visitedLinkColor | #0090FF

Table 5.2. Fonts

Parameter name | Default value
--- | ---
headerSizeFont | 11px
headerFamilyFont | Arial, Verdana, sans-serif
tabSizeFont | 11px
tabFamilyFont | Arial, Verdana, sans-serif
buttonSizeFont | 11px
buttonFamilyFont | Arial, Verdana, sans-serif
tableBackgroundColor | #FFFFFF
tableFooterBackgroundColor | #cccccc
tableSubfooterBackgroundColor | #f1f1f1
tableBorderColor | #C0C0C0

Skin "plain" was added from 3.0.2 version. It doesn't have any parameters. It's necessary for embedding RichFaces components into existing projecst which have its own styles.

To get detailed information on particular parameter possibilities, see the chapter where each component has skin parameters described corresponding to its elements.

### 5.10.5. Creating and Using Your Own Skin File

In order to create your own skin file, do the following:

- Create a file and define in it skin constants which are used by style classes (see section "Skin Parameters Tables in RichFaces" ). The name of skin file should correspond to the following format: `<name>.skin.properties` . As an example of such file you can see RichFaces predefined skin parameters (skins): blueSky, classic, deepMarine, etc. These files are located in the `richfaces-impl-xxxxx.jar` inside the /META-INF/skins folder.

- Add a skin definition `<contex-param>` to the web.xml of your application. An example is placed below:

  Example:

      ...

          <context-param>

              <param-name>org.richfaces.SKIN</param-name>

              <param-value>name</param-value>

          </context-param>

      ...

- Put your `<name>.skin.properties` file in one of the following classpath elements: META-INF/skins/ or classpath folder (e.g. WEB-INF/classes).

### 5.10.6. Built-in skinnability in RichFaces

RichFaces gives an opportunity to incorporate skinnability into UI design. With this framework you can easily use named skin parameters in properties files to control the appearance of the skins that are applied consistently to a whole set of components. You can look at examples of predefined skins at:

http://livedemo.exadel.com/richfaces-demo/

You may simply control the look-and-feel of your application by using the skinnability service of the RichFaces framework. With the means of this service you can define the same style for rendering standard JSF components and custom JSF components built with the help of RichFaces.

To find out more on skinnability possibilities, follow these steps:

- Create a custom render kit and register it in the faces-config.xml like this:

      <render-kit>

              <render-kit-id>NEW_SKIN</render-kit-id>

              <render-kit-class>

                  org.ajax4jsf.framework.renderer.ChameleonRenderKitImpl

              </render-kit-class>

      </render-kit>

- Then you need to create and register custom renderers for the component based on the look-and-feel predefined variables:

      <renderer>

              <component-family>javax.faces.Command</component-family>

              <renderer-type>javax.faces.Link</renderer-type>

              <renderer-class>

                 newskin.HtmlCommandLinkRenderer

              </renderer-class>

      </renderer>

- Finally, you need to place a properties file with skin parameters into the class path root. There are two requirements for the properties file:

  - The file must be named `<skinName>.skin.properties` , in this case, it would be called `newskin.skin.properties` .

  - The first line in this file should be `render.kit=<render-kit-id>` in this case, it would be called `render.kit=NEW_SKIN` .

Extra information on custom renderers creation can be found at:

http://java.sun.com/javaee/javaserverfaces/reference/docs/index.html

### 5.10.7. Standard controls skinning

The feature is designed to unify the look and feel of standard HTML element and RichFaces components. Skinning can be applied to all controls on a page basing on elements' name and attribute type (where applicable). Also this feature provides a set of CSS styles so that skinning can be applied assigning rich-* classes to particular elements or to container of elements that nests controls.

Standard controls skinning feature provides 2 levels of skinning - Standard and Extended while skinning is based on detecting browser user agent. If user agent is not detected, Advanced level is used.

- Standard level provides customization for only basic style properties.

  To the following browsers Standard level of skinning is applied:

  - Internet Explorer 6

  - Internet Explorer 7 in BackCompat mode (see document.compatMode property in MSDN )

  - Opera

  - Safari

- Extended level extends basic level introducing broader number of style properties and is applied to browsers with rich visual styling capability of controls

  The following browsers support Extended level of skinning:

  - Mozilla Firefox

  - Internet Explorer 7 in Standards-compliant mode (CSS1Compat mode)

These are the elements that affected by skinning:

- input

- select

- textarea

- keygen

- isindex

- legend

- fieldset

- hr

- a (together with a:hover, a:visited "pseudo"-elements)

Skinning for standard HTML controls can be initialized in two ways:

- adding `org.richfaces.CONTROL_SKINNING` parmeter to web.xml. Values: "enable" and "disable". This way implies that skinning style properties are applied to elements by element name and attribute type (where applicable). No additional steps required. Please find below the table that contains the list of elements to which skinning a applicable.

- adding `org.richfaces.CONTROL_SKINNING_CLASSES` parameter to web.xml file. Possible values "enable" and "disable". Implementation of this method implies that the provision of several style classes for different types of elements. The style classes have predefined names. Application developer should manually assign classes to controls that needs skinning or assign class to an element that contains controls.

By setting `org.richfaces.CONTROL_SKINNING_CLASSES` to "enable" you are provided with style classes applicable to:

- Basic elements nested inside element having rich-container class, e.g.:

  Example:

      ...

      .rich-container select {

         //class content

      }

      ...

- Elements that have class name corresponding to one of the basic elements name/type mapped by the following scheme `rich-<elementName>[-<elementType>]` . See the example:

  Example:

      ...

      .rich-select {

        //class content

      }

      .rich-input-text {

        //class content

      }

      ...

  ## Note:

  a elements have classes based on "link" and pseudo class name, e.g.: rich-link, rich-link-hover, rich-link-visited

Additionally, the predefined rich CSS classes that we provide can be used not only as classes for basic HTML elements but also as classes for creation of complex elements .

There is a snippet with some of them for example:

    ...

    <u:selector name=".rich-box-bgcolor-header">

        <u:style name="background-color" skin="headerBackgroundColor" />

    </u:selector>

    <u:selector name=".rich-box-bgcolor-general">

       <u:style name="background-color" skin="generalBackgroundColor" />

    </u:selector>

    ...

    //gradient elements

    ...

    <u:selector name=".rich-gradient-menu">

        <u:style name="background-image">

            <f:resource f:key="org.richfaces.renderkit.html.gradientimages.MenuGradientImage"/>

        </u:style>

        <u:style name="background-repeat" value="repeat-x" />

    </u:selector>

    <u:selector name=".rich-gradient-tab">

        <u:style name="background-image">

            <f:resource f:key="org.richfaces.renderkit.html.gradientimages.TabGradientImage"/>

        </u:style>

        <u:style name="background-repeat" value="repeat-x" />

    </u:selector>

    ...

To get a better idea of standard component skinning we recommend to explore CSS files located in ui/core/src/main/resources/org/richfaces/ folder of RichFaces svn.

#### 5.10.7.1. Standard level

Table 5.3. Html Elements Skin Bindings for input, select, textarea, button, keygen, isindex, legend

CSS Properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
font-size | generalSizeFont
font-family | generalFamilyFont
color | controlTextColor

Table 5.4. Html Elements Skin Bindings for fieldset

CSS Properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
border-color | panelBorderColor

Table 5.5. Html Elements Skin Bindings for hr

CSS Properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
border-color | panelBorderColor

Table 5.6. Html Elements Skin Bindings for a

CSS Properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
color | generalLinkColor

Table 5.7. Html Elements Skin Bindings for a:hover

CSS Properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
color | hoverLinkColorgeneralLinkColor

Table 5.8. Html Elements Skin Bindings for a:visited

CSS Properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
color | visitedLinkColor

Table 5.9. Rich Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-input, .rich-select, .rich-textarea, .rich-keygen, .rich-isindex, .rich-link

CSS Properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
font-size | generalSizeFont
font-family | generalFamilyFont
color | controlTextColor

Table 5.10. Rich Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-fieldset

CSS Properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
border-color | panelBorderColor

Table 5.11. Rich Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-hr

CSS Properties | Skin parameters/Value
--- | ---
border-color | panelBorderColor
border-width | 1px
border-style | solid

Table 5.12. Rich Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-link

CSS Properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
color | generalLinkColor

Table 5.13. Rich Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-link:hover

CSS Properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
color | hoverLinkColor

Table 5.14. Rich Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-link:visited

CSS Properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
color | visitedLinkColor

Table 5.15. Rich Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-field

CSS Properties | Skin parameters/Value
--- | ---
border-width | 1px
border-style | inset
border-color | panelBorderColor
background-color | controlBackgroundColor
background-repeat | no-repeat
background-position | 1px 1px

Table 5.16. Rich Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-field-edit

CSS Properties | Skin parameters/Value
--- | ---
border-width | 1px
border-style | inset
border-color | panelBorderColor
background-color | editBackgroundColor

Table 5.17. Rich Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-field-error

CSS Properties | Skin parameter/Value
--- | ---
border-width | 1px
border-style | inset
border-color | panelBorderColor
background-color | warningBackgroundColor
background-repeat | no-repeat
background-position | center left
padding-left | 7px

Table 5.18. Rich Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-button, .rich-button-disabled, .rich-button-over

CSS Properties | Skin parameter/Value
--- | ---
border-width | 1px
border-style | solid
border-color | panelBorderColor
background-color | trimColor
padding | 2px 10px 2px 10px
text-align | center
cursor | pointer
background-repeat | repeat-x
background-position | top left

Table 5.19. Rich Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-button-press

CSS Properties | Skin parameter/Value
--- | ---
background-position | bottom left

Table 5.20. Rich Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-container fieldset, .rich-fieldset

CSS Properties | Skin parameters/Value
--- | ---
border-color | panelBorderColor
border-width | 1px
border-style | solid
padding | 10px
padding | 10px

Table 5.21. Rich Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-legend

CSS Properties | Skin parameter/Value
--- | ---
font-size | generalSizeFont
font-family | generalFamilyFont
color | controlTextColor
font-weight | bold

Table 5.22. Rich Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-form

CSS Properties | Skin parameters/Value
--- | ---
padding | 0px
margin | 0px

#### 5.10.7.2. Extended level

Table 5.23. Html Elements Skin Bindings for input, select, textarea, button, keygen, isindex

CSS properties | Skin parameters/Value
--- | ---
border-width | 1px
border-color | panelBorderColor
color | controlTextColor

Table 5.24. Html Elements Skin Bindings for *|button

CSS properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
border-color | panelBorderColor
font-size | generalSizeFont
font-family | generalFamilyFont
color | headerTextColor
background-color | headerBackgroundColor
background-image | org.richfaces.renderkit.html.images.ButtonBackgroundImage

Table 5.25. Html Elements Skin Bindings for button[type=button], button[type=reset], button[type=submit], input[type=reset], input[type=submit], input[type=button]

CSS properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
border-color | panelBorderColor
font-size | generalSizeFont
font-family | generalFamilyFont
color | headerTextColor
background-color | headerBackgroundColor
background-image | org.richfaces.renderkit.html.images.ButtonBackgroundImage

Table 5.26. Html Elements Skin Bindings for *|button[disabled], .rich-container *|button[disabled], .rich-button-disabled

CSS properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
color | tabDisabledTextColor
border-color | tableFooterBackgroundColor
background-color | tableFooterBackgroundColor
background-image | org.richfaces.renderkit.html.images.ButtonDisabledBackgroundImage

Table 5.27. Html Elements Skin Bindings for .rich-button-disabled, .rich-container button[type="button"][disabled], .rich-button-button-disabled, .rich-container button[type="reset"][disabled], .rich-button-reset-disabled, .rich-container button[type="submit"][disabled], .rich-button-submit-disabled, .rich-container input[type="reset"][disabled], .rich-input-reset-disabled, .rich-container input[type="submit"][disabled], .rich-input-submit-disabled, .rich-container input[type="button"][disabled], .rich-input-button-disabled

CSS properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
color | tabDisabledTextColor
background-color | tableFooterBackgroundColor
border-color | tableFooterBackgroundColor
background-image | org.richfaces.renderkit.html.images.ButtonDisabledBackgroundImage

Table 5.28. Html Elements Skin Bindings for *button[type="button"][disabled], button[type="reset"][disabled], button[type="submit"][disabled], input[type="reset"][disabled], input[type="submit"][disabled], input[type="button"][disabled]

CSS properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
color | tabDisabledTextColor
border-color | tableFooterBackgroundColor
background-color | tableFooterBackgroundColor

Table 5.29. Html Elements Skin Bindings for *|textarea

CSS properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
border-color | panelBorderColor
font-size | generalSizeFont
font-family | generalFamilyFont
color | controlTextColor
background-color | controlBackgroundColor
background-image | org.richfaces.renderkit.html.images.InputBackgroundImage

Table 5.30. Html Elements Skin Bindings for textarea[type=textarea], input[type=text], input[type=password], select

CSS properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
border-color | panelBorderColor
font-size | generalSizeFont
font-family | generalFamilyFont
color | controlTextColor
background-color | controlBackgroundColor
background-image | org.richfaces.renderkit.html.images.InputBackgroundImage

Table 5.31. Html Elements Skin Bindings for *|textarea[disabled], .rich-container *|textarea[disabled]

CSS properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
color | tableBorderColor

Table 5.32. textarea[type="textarea"][disabled], input[type="text"][disabled], input[type="password"][disabled]

CSS properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
color | tableBorderColor

Table 5.33. textarea[type="textarea"][disabled], input[type="text"][disabled], input[type="password"][disabled]

CSS properties | Skin parameters
--- | ---
color | tableBorderColor

## Note:

Standard skinning level can fail if configuration of `ajaxPortlet` is as following:

    ...

    <portlet>

       <portlet-name>ajaxPortlet</portlet-name>

       <header-content>

          <script src="/faces/rfRes/org/ajax4jsf/framework.pack.js" type="text/javascript" />

          <script src="/faces/rfRes/org/richfaces/ui.pack.js" type="text/javascript" />

          <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/faces/rfRes/org/richfaces/skin.xcss" />

       </header-content>

    </portlet>

    ...

### 5.10.8. Client-side script for extended skinning support

As it was mentioned earlier in the guide, extended skinning of standard HTML controls is applied automatically: the browser type is detected and if a browser doesn't fully support extended skinning feature, only basic skinning is applied.

However, if a develop doesn't want to the rich components and standard HTML controls to be skinned automatically and perform the skinnability implementation himself, he might encounter with a problem, i.e. standard HTML controls in such browsers as Opera and Safari are affected by standard controls skinning featured. ( Here you can get more details on how to disable skinnability.)

In brief, to disable the skinnability mechanism of RichFaces you need to set the "org.richfaces.LoadStyleStrategy" parameter to "NONE" in web.xml.

    ...

    <context-param>

        <param-name>org.richfaces.LoadStyleStrategy</param-name>

        <param-value>NONE</param-value>

    </context-param>

    ...

Additionally, you should include the style sheets that perform skinning of the rich component and standard HTML controls.

In order to resolve the problem with extended skinning in Opera and Safari a client script (skinning.js) is added to the RichFaces library. The script detects the browser type and enables extended skinning only for those browsers that fully support it.

The script can be activated by inserting this JavaScript code to the page:

    <script type="text/javascript">

    window.RICH_FACES_EXTENDED_SKINNING_ON = true;

    </script>

When NO script loading strategy is used and extended skinning is turned on then corresponding warning message will appears in the console.

You also need to specify "media" attribute in the <link> tag which includes the "extended_both.xcss" style sheet with "rich-extended-skinning".

This is how you can include the style sheets to the page, in case automatic skinnability implementation is disabled.

    <link href='/YOUR_PROJECT_NAME/a4j_3_2_2-SNAPSHOTorg/richfaces/renderkit/html/css/basic_both.xcss/DATB/eAF7sqpgb-jyGdIAFrMEaw__.jsf' type='text/css' rel='stylesheet' class='component' />

    <link media='rich-extended-skinning' href='/ YOUR_PROJECT_NAME /a4j_3_2_2-SNAPSHOTorg/richfaces/renderkit/html/css/extended_both.xcss/DATB/eAF7sqpgb-jyGdIAFrMEaw__.jsf' type='text/css' rel='stylesheet' class='component' />

    <link href='/ YOUR_PROJECT_NAME /a4j_3_2_2-SNAPSHOT/org/richfaces/skin.xcss/DATB/eAF7sqpgb-jyGdIAFrMEaw__.jsf' type='text/css' rel='stylesheet' class='component' />

## Note

Now necessary to use resources prefix `a4j/versionXXX` instead of `a4j_versionXXX`. Base64 encoder changed to use '`!`' instead of '`.`'.

### 5.10.9. XCSS file format

XCSS files are the core of RichFaces components skinnability.

XCSS is an XML formatted CSS that adds extra functionality to the skinning process

XCSS extends skinning possibilities by parsing the XCSS file that contains all look-and-feel parameters of a particular component into a standard CSS file that a web browser can recognize.

XCSS file contains CSS properties and skin parameters mappings. Mapping of a CSS selector to a skin parameter is performed using < u:selector > and < u:style> XML tags that form the mapping structure. Please study the example below.

    ...

        <u:selector name=".rich-component-name">

            <u:style name="background-color" skin="additionalBackgroundColor" />

            <u:style name="border-color" skin="tableBorderColor" />

            <u:style name="border-width" skin="tableBorderWidth" />

            <u:style name="border-style" value="solid" />

        </u:selector>

    ...

During processing the code in the shown example will be parsed into a standard CSS format.

    ...

    .rich-component-name {

    background-color: additionalBackgroundColor; /*the value of the constant defined by your skin*/

    border-color: tableBorderColor; /*the value of the constant defined by your skin*/

    border-width: tableBorderWidth /*the value of the constant defined by your skin*/

    border-style: solid;

    }

    ...

The "name" attribute of <u:selector> tag defines the CSS selector, while "name" attribute of the <u:style> tag defines what skin constant is mapped to a CSS property. The "value" attribute of the <u:style> tag can also be used to assign a value to a CSS property.

CSS selectors with identical skinning properties can be set as a comma separated list.

    ...

    <u:selector name=".rich-ordering-control-disabled, .rich-ordering-control-top, .rich-ordering-control-bottom, .rich-ordering-control-up, .rich-ordering-control-down">

            <u:style name="border-color" skin="tableBorderColor" />

    </u:selector>

    ...

### 5.10.10. Plug-n-Skin

Plug-n-Skin is a feature that gives a developer an opportunity to easily create, customize and plug into a project a custom skin. The skin can be created basing on parameters of some predefined RichFaces skin.

The feature also provides an option to unify the appearance of rich controls with standard HTML elements.

In order to create your own skin using Plug-n-Skin feature, you can follow these step by step instructions.

First of all, you need to create a template for the new skin. Creation of the template can be performed using Maven build and deployment tool. More information on how to configure Maven for RichFaces here . You can copy and paste these Maven instructions to command line and execute them.

    ...

    mvn archetype:create

    -DarchetypeGroupId=org.richfaces.cdk

    -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-plug-n-skin

    -DarchetypeVersion=RF-VERSION

    -DartifactId=ARTIFACT-ID

    -DgroupId=GROUP-ID

    -Dversion=VERSION

    ...

Primary keys for the command:

- `DarchetypeVersion` indicates the RichFaces version. For example, `"3.3.0.BETA3"`

- `DartifactId` artifact id of the project

- `DgroupId` group id of the project

- `Dversion` the version of the project you create, by default it is `"1.0.-SNAPSHOT"`

After this operation, a folder with the name of your `"ARTIFACT-ID"` appears. The folder contains a template of Maven project.

Next steps will guide you though creating of the skin itself.

In the root folder of Maven project (the one that contains "pom.xml" file) you should run the following command in the command line:

    ...

    mvn cdk:add-skin -Dname=SKIN-NAME -Dpackage=SKIN-PACKAGE

    ...

Primary keys for the command:

- `Dname` defines the name of the new skin

- `Dpackage` base package of the skin. By default "groupId" of the project is used.

Additional optional keys for the command:

- `DbaseSkin` defines the name of the base skin.

- `DcreateExt` if set to "true", extended CSS classes are added. For more information, please, see "Standard controls skinning"

As a result of the performed operations the following files and folders are created:

- BaseImage.java - the base class to store images. Location: "\src\main\java\SKIN-PACKAGE\SKIN-NAME\images\"

- BaseImageTest.java - a test version of a class that stores images. Location: "\src\test\java\SKIN-PACKAGE\SKIN-NAME\images\"

- XCSS files - XCSS files define the new look of RichFaces components affected by the new skin. Location: "\src\main\resources\SKIN-PACKAGE\SKIN-NAME\css\"

- SKIN-NAME.properties - a XCSS file that contains properties of the new skin. Location: "\src\main\resources\SKIN-PACKAGE\SKIN-NAME\css\"

  The following properties are used to configure the SKIN-NAME.properties file:

  - baseSkin – the name of the base skin to be used as basis. The look of the skin you define will be affected by new style properties.

  - generalStyleSheet - a path to the style sheet (SKIN-NAME.xcss) that imports style sheets of the components to be affected by the new skin.

  - extendedStyleSheet - a path to a style sheet that is used to unify the appearance of RichFaces components and standard HTML controls. For additional information please read "Standard controls skinning" chapter.

  - gradientType is a predefined property to set the type of gradient applied to the new skin. Possible values are glass, plastic, plain. More information on gradient implementation you can find further in this chapter.

- SKIN-NAME.xcss - a XCSS file that imports XCSS files of the components to be affected by the new skin. Location: "src\main\resources\META-INF\skins "

- XCSS files If the command is executed with the "DcreateExt" key set to "true", the XCSS (extended_classes.xcss and extended.xcss) files that define style for standard controls will be created. Location: "\src\main\resources\SKIN-PACKAGE\SKIN-NAME\css\".

- SKIN-NAME-ext.xcss / If the command is executed with the "DcreateExt" key set to "true", the configuration SKIN-NAME-ext.xcss file that imports XCSS file defining styles for the standard controls will be created. Location: "src\main\resources\META-INF\skins ".

- SKIN-NAME-resources.xml - the file contains the description of all listed above files. Location: "src\main\config\resources ".

Now you can start editing the XCSS files located in "\src\main\resources\SKIN-PACKAGE\SKIN-NAME\css\". New style properties can be assigned to the selectors (the selectors listed in the XCSS files) in two ways, which are both valid, and it'up to the developer what way to choose.

- Applying a standard CSS coding approach, i.e. you can add css properties to the given selectors are you normally do while doing CSS coding. The only thing, you have to keep in mind is that the selectors must be inside `<f:verbatim> <![CDATA[ ...]]> </f:verbatim>` tags.

  For example

      ...

      .rich-calendar-cell {

      background: #537df8;

      }

      ...

- Using XCSS coding approach, the same way as XCSS files are normally formed in RichFaces. The XCSS tags have to be placed outside `<f:verbatim> <![CDATA[ ...]]> </f:verbatim>` tags.

                  ...

      <u:selector name=".rich-calendar-cell">

          <u:style name="border-bottom-color" skin="panelBorderColor"/>

          <u:style name="border-right-color" skin="panelBorderColor"/>

          <u:style name="background-color" skin="tableBackgroundColor"/>

          <u:style name="font-size" skin="generalSizeFont"/>

          <u:style name="font-family" skin="generalFamilyFont"/>

      </u:selector>

      ...

Having performed described above steps and edited the XCSS files you can proceed to building the new skin and to plugging it into the project. Building the new skin can be done by executing the given below command in the command line in the root folder of you skin project (the one that contains pom.xml file).

    ...

    mvn clean install

    ...

In addition Plug-n-Skin has a number of predefined gradients that you can also use to make your application look nicer. The given below code snippet shows how a gradient can be used

    ...

    <u:selector name=".rich-combobox-item-selected">

        <u:style name="border-width" value="1px" />

        <u:style name="border-style" value="solid" />

        <u:style name="border-color" skin="newBorder" />

        <u:style name="background-position" value="0% 50%" />

        <u:style name="background-image">

            <f:resource f:key="org.richfaces.renderkit.html.CustomizeableGradient">

                <f:attribute name="valign" value="middle" />

                <f:attribute name="gradientHeight" value="17px" />

                <f:attribute name="baseColor" skin="headerBackgroundColor" />

             </f:resource>

        </u:style>

    </u:selector>

    ...

So, as you can see, the background-image CSS property is defined with `<f:resource f:key="org.richfaces.renderkit.html.CustomizeableGradient">` that sets the gradient. While the gradient type can be specified in the SKIN-NAME.properties file with gradientType property. The gradientType property can be set to one of the possible values glass, plastic, plain. The gradient in it's turn can be can be adjusted using baseColor, gradientColor, gradientHeight, valign attributes. Their usage is shown in the snippet above.

Now, you can use your newly-created and customized skin in your project by adding your new skin parameters to web.xml file and placing the jar file with your skin ( the jar file is located in "target" folder of your skin project) to "\WebContent\WEB-INF\lib\".

    ...

    <context-param>

        <param-name>org.ajax4jsf.SKIN</param-name>

        <param-value>SKIN-NAME</param-value>

    </context-param>

    ...

#### 5.10.10.1. Details of Usage

This section will cover some practical aspects of Plug-n-Skin implementation. It's assumed that you have read the section of the guide that tells how the new skin using Plug-n-Skin prototype can be created.

Above all, we need to create a new skin, in order to do that we just have to follow the steps described in the previous section.

This command will be used to create a template of the new skin project.

    mvn archetype:create

    -DarchetypeGroupId=org.richfaces.cdk

    -DarchetypeArtifactId=maven-archetype-plug-n-skin

    -DarchetypeVersion=3.3.0.BETA3

    -DartifactId=P-n-S

    -DgroupId=GROUPID

    -Dversion=1.0.-SNAPSHOT

Now you can browse the "P-n-S" folder to view what files and folders were created there.

Next, we will use Maven to add all needed files to the skin project. This will done by the following command:

    mvn cdk:add-skin -DbaseSkin=blueSky  -DcreateExt=true -Dname=PlugnSkinDemo -Dpackage=SKINPACKAGE

As you remember from the previous section "-DbaseSkin" key defines what RichFaces built-in skin to be used as a base one, "-DcreateExt=true" determines that the new skin will come with XCSS files that unify the look of the rich components with standard HTML controls.

So, now the files and folder with all needed resources are created and redefining/editing the new skin can be started.

Now we can start editing XCSS files of the rich components. In order to see how the Plug-n-Skin feature works we will change some style attributes of <rich:calendar> and some basic HTML controls to see how they are affected by standard controls skinning.

Thus, it will be demonstrated how to:

- Recolor the current day's cell background of the <rich:calendar> to see how the new skin created with the help of Plug-n-Skin feature affects the style of the component;

- Recolor a standard HTML submit button;

In oder to edit the style properties of <rich:calendar> you need to open the "calendar.xcss" file located in "P-n-S\src\main\resources\skinpackage\plugnskindemo\css\". Once, you have opened the file, please find ".rich-calendar-today" selector and amend it as follows: `background-color: #075ad1;`. The current day's background color can be considered recolored.

Now we will see how font style of a standard HTML submit button can be changed. Please, open "extended.xcss" file located in "P-n-S\src\main\resources\skinpackage\plugnskindemo\css\" and put in `font-weight: bold;` inside the curly braces of these coma separated selectors `button[type="button"], button[type="reset"], button[type="submit"], input[type="reset"], input[type="submit"], input[type="button"]`. So, the CSS code should look like this.

    button[type=&quot;button&quot;], button[type=&quot;reset&quot;], button[type=&quot;submit&quot;], input[type=&quot;reset&quot;], input[type=&quot;submit&quot;], input[type=&quot;button&quot;] {

    font-weight: bold;

    }

All the changes that were planned to be preformed are done and now you can proceed to building the new PlugnSkinDemo skin and import it into the project. As you read in the previous section, the skin should be built in the "P-n-S" folder of the skin project be executing `mvn clean install` command. This procedure results in creating a "target" folder that contains a .jar file with a compiled new skin, it our case the file is named "P-n-S-1.0.-SNAPSHOT.jar". The next step is to import the new PlugnSkinDemo skin into the project.

What you need to do, in order to have the new skin imported to the project is to

- Copy the "P-n-S-1.0.-SNAPSHOT.jar" file to the "\WebContent\WEB-INF\lib\" folder.

- Add the new skin's name to the "web.xml" file. It is done like this

       <context-param>

        <param-name>org.ajax4jsf.SKIN</param-name>

        <param-value>PlugnSkinDemo</param-value>

       </context-param>

Please, do not forget that standard controls skinning has to be enabled in the "web.xml" file, which can be done by adding the following code to the "web.xml" file:

     <context-param>

      <param-name>org.richfaces.CONTROL_SKINNING</param-name>

      <param-value>enable</param-value>

     </context-param>

The result of both action is displayed on the figure below.

Figure 5.5. Plug-n-Skin feature in action.

## 5.11. State Manager API

JSF has an advanced navigation mechanism that allows you to define navigation from view to view. Navigation happens in a Web Application when a user tries to switch from one page to another page either by clicking a button, a hyperlink, or another command component. But there is no switch mechanism between some logical states of the same view. For example in Login/Register dialog an existing user signs in with his user name and password, but if a new user registers an additional field "Confirm" is displayed, buttons labels and methods are changed when the user clicks "To register" link:

Figure 5.6. Login Dialog

Figure 5.7. Register Dialog

RichFaces State API allows easily to define some set of states for the pages and any properties for this states.

Actually States is a map where the entry key is a name of the State and the value is a State map. Particular State map has entries with some names as keys and any objects as values that are used after the state activation. Thus, in the State map you could define any values, method bindings, or just some simple state variables (constants) which have different values for every State.

Figure 5.8. RichFaces State API

One of the most convenience features of the RichFaces State API is a navigation between states. The RichFaces State API implements states change as the standard JSF navigation. Action component just returns outcome and the RichFaces State API extension for the JSF navigation handler checks whether this outcome is registered as a state change outcome or not. If the state change outcome is found the corresponding state is activated. Otherwise the standard navigation handling is called.

In order to use RichFaces State API you should follow the next steps:

- Register State Manager EL resolver and navigation handler in the faces-config.xml:

      ...

      <application>

          <navigation-handler>org.richfaces.ui.application.StateNavigationHandler</navigation-handler>

          <el-resolver>org.richfaces.el.StateELResolver</el-resolver>

      </application>

      ...

- Register an additional application factory in the faces-config.xml:

      ...

      <factory>

          <application-factory>org.richfaces.ui.application.StateApplicationFactory</application-factory>

      </factory>

      ...

- Register two managed beans in the faces-config.xml:

      ...

      <managed-bean>

          <managed-bean-name>state</managed-bean-name>

          <managed-bean-class>org.richfaces.ui.model.States</managed-bean-class>

          <managed-bean-scope>request</managed-bean-scope>

          <managed-property>

              <property-name>states</property-name>

              <property-class>org.richfaces.ui.model.States</property-class>

              <value>#{config.states}</value>

          </managed-property>

      </managed-bean>

      <managed-bean>

          <managed-bean-name>config</managed-bean-name>

          <managed-bean-class>org.richfaces.demo.stateApi.Config</managed-bean-class>

          <managed-bean-scope>none</managed-bean-scope>

      </managed-bean>

      ...

  One bean ("config") defines and stores states as it is shown in the following example:

      ...

      public class Config {

          /**

           * @return States

           */

          public States getStates() {

              FacesContext facesContext = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();

              States states = new States();

              // Registering new User State definition

              states.setCurrentState("register"); // Name of the new state

              // Text labels, properties and Labels for controls in "register" state

              states.put("showConfirm", Boolean.TRUE); // confirm field rendering

              states.put("link", "(To login)"); // Switch State link label

              states.put("okBtn", "Register"); // Login/Register button label

              states.put("stateTitle", "Register New User"); // Panel title

              ExpressionFactory expressionFactory = facesContext.getApplication()

                      .getExpressionFactory();

              // Define "registerbean" available under "bean" EL binding on the page

              ValueExpression beanExpression = expressionFactory

                      .createValueExpression(facesContext.getELContext(),

                              "#{registerbean}", Bean.class);

              states.put("bean", beanExpression);

              // Define "registeraction" available under "action" EL binding on the

              // page

              beanExpression = expressionFactory.createValueExpression(facesContext

                      .getELContext(), "#{registeraction}", RegisterAction.class);

              states.put("action", beanExpression);

              // Define method expression inside registeraction binding for this state

              MethodExpression methodExpression = expressionFactory.createMethodExpression(

                      facesContext.getELContext(), "#{registeraction.ok}",

                      String.class, new Class[] {});

              states.put("ok", methodExpression);

              // Outcome for switching to login state definition

              states.setNavigation("switch", "login");

              // Login Existent User State analogous definition

              states.setCurrentState("login");

              states.put("showConfirm", Boolean.FALSE);

              states.put("link", "(To register)");

              states.put("okBtn", "Login");

              states.put("stateTitle", "Login Existing User");

              beanExpression = expressionFactory.createValueExpression(facesContext

                      .getELContext(), "#{loginbean}", Bean.class);

              states.put("bean", beanExpression);

              beanExpression = expressionFactory.createValueExpression(facesContext

                      .getELContext(), "#{loginaction}", LoginAction.class);

              states.put("action", beanExpression);

              methodExpression = expressionFactory.createMethodExpression(

                      facesContext.getELContext(), "#{loginaction.ok}",

                      String.class, new Class[] {});

              states.put("ok", methodExpression);

              states.setNavigation("switch", "register");

              return states;

          }

      }

      ...

  The other bean ("state") with the type `org.richfaces.ui.model.States` has the "states" managed property that is bound to the "config" bean which defines states.

- Use state bindings on the page. See the following example:

      ...

      <h:panelGrid columns="3">

          <h:outputText value="username" />

          <h:inputText value="#{state.bean.name}" id="name" required="true" />

          <h:outputText value="password" />

          <h:inputSecret value="#{state.bean.password}" id="password" required="true" />

          <h:outputText value="confirm" rendered="#{state.showConfirm}" />

          <h:inputSecret value="#{state.bean.confirmPassword}" rendered="#{state.showConfirm}" id="confirm" required="true" />

      </h:panelGrid>

      <a4j:commandButton actionListener="#{state.action.listener}" action="#{state.ok}" value="#{state.okBtn}" id="action"/>

      ...

To get full Login/Register dialog example, please, click here.

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