JSF 2 inject Spring bean/service with @ManagedProperty and no xml

Question

I would like to use jsf annotations and some spring annotations to inject a spring bean/service into a jsf managed bean. (on the jsf bean i only want to use jsf annotations) I dont want to use annotations like @named / @inject.

I have tried to find a solution on the net but without any luck.

Example

@ManagedBean
@ViewScoped 
public class MyBean {

    @ManagedProperty(value = "#{mySpringBean}")
    private MySpringBean mySpringBean;

    public void setMySpringBean(MySpringBean mySpringBean) {
        this.mySpringBean = mySpringBean;
    }

    public void doSomething() {
    //do something with mySpringBean
    }
}

Is something like this possible without the use of xml. For example, I would NOT like to use something like

FacesContextUtils.getWebApplicationContext(context).getBean("MySpringBean");

or in faces-config.xml

<managed-bean>
    <managed-bean-name>myBean</managed-bean-name>
    <managed-bean-class>com.mytest.MyBean</managed-bean-class>
    <managed-bean-scope>view</managed-bean-scope>
    <managed-property>
        <property-name>mySpringBean</property-name>
        <value>#{mySpringBean}</value>
    </managed-property>
</managed-bean>

Is something like the above possible with annotations and without defining all the jsf beans/properties and the spring beans/properties for every bean in the config xml files?

Answer 1

If you already have Spring container why not use its @Autowired annotation. For that, Update your faces-config.xml as suggested by Boni. Then add these listeners to your web.xml after this

<context-param>
    <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
    <param-value>/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

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

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

Then add these to your applicationContext.xml

<context:component-scan base-package="com.examples" />

Now you can use Spring annotations and your bean will be something like this:

package com.examples;
@Component
@Scope(value="request")
public class MyBean {
    @Autowired
    private MySpringBeanClass mySpringBean;
}

Annotate your MySpringBeanClass with @Service

See Also:

• @Scope("request") not working

Answer 2

Put this code in your faces-config.xml

<faces-config xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee 
    http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-facesconfig_2_0.xsd"
    version="2.0">
    <application>
        <el-resolver>org.springframework.web.jsf.el.SpringBeanFacesELResolver</el-resolver>
    </application>
</faces-config>

Then in your ManageBean Constructor call;

WebApplicationContext ctx =  FacesContextUtils.getWebApplicationContext(FacesContext.getCurrentInstance());
mySpringBean = ctx.getBean(MySpringBean.class);

MySpringBean mean your Spring Bean Class

Answer 3

Assuming you have configured Spring properly in web.xml and applicationContext.xml. Make the following entry in faces-config.xml

<application>
     <el-resolver>org.springframework.web.jsf.el.SpringBeanFacesELResolver</el-resolver>
</application>

Your sample code given above seems fine. What will happen with above entry is Managed Property will be first looked in beans managed by JSF if not found will be searched in beans managed by Spring. Your spring bean should have proper annotations marked and name given in @ManagedProperty should match with default/name given to bean.

As mentioned by @Boni that is not required it is auto injected. I have used settings as you desire.

A side note: Since you are opting for view scope please have a look at this link The benefits and pitfalls of @ViewScoped