How to define form action in JSF?

Question

In order to replace the default Spring security login form I came up with this solution:

<form name="f" action="../j_spring_security_check" method="POST" >
    <h:panelGrid columns="2">
        <h:outputText value="Username" />
        <h:inputText id="j_username" />
        <h:outputText value="Password" />
        <h:inputText id="j_password" />
    </h:panelGrid>
    <h:commandButton value="Login" />
</form>

But instead of plain <form> tag I would like to use <h:form> since Primefaces components only work within <h:form>. Using <h:form> the form action will be set automatically by JSF to the current page, not to the value set by me in the example above. Where to I have to code the action "../j_spring_security_check" now? I tried putting it into the <h:commandButton> as follows but that doesn't work:

<h:form name="f">
    <h:panelGrid columns="2">
        <h:outputText value="Username" />
        <h:inputText id="j_username" />
        <h:outputText value="Password" />
        <h:inputText id="j_password" />
    </h:panelGrid>

    <h:commandButton value="Click here" action="../j_spring_security_check" />
</form>

It leads to the error message Unable to find matching navigation case with from-view-id '/login.xhtml' for action '../j_spring_security_check' with outcome '../j_spring_security_check'.

Is it the only way to define a navigation case in faces-config.xml? I want to avoid using a bean for this simple use case.

Answer 1

The best solution for me is to use the default <button> tag instead. Since typical button styling is not being applied (in my case I am using Primefaces), I set it manually. Here's the whole result:

    <h:outputStylesheet library="primefaces" name="jquery/ui/jquery-ui.css" />
    <h:outputStylesheet library="css" name="login.css" />

    <div class="message">
        <c:if test="#{param.error == 1 and SPRING_SECURITY_LAST_EXCEPTION != null}">
            <span class="error">#{SPRING_SECURITY_LAST_EXCEPTION.message}</span>
        </c:if>
    </div>



    <div class="login">
        <form action="../j_spring_security_check" method="post">
            <h:panelGrid columns="2">
                <h:outputText value="Username" />
                <h:inputText id="j_username" />
                <h:outputText value="Password" />
                <h:inputSecret id="j_password" />
            </h:panelGrid>

            <div class="submit">
                <button type="submit" class="ui-button ui-widget ui-state-default ui-corner-all ui-button-text-only">
                    <span class="ui-button-text">Login</span>
                </button>
            </div>
        </form>
    </div>

Answer 2

<h:form id="login" prependId="false"              onsubmit="document.getElementById('login').action='j_security_check';">