Prior to version 2.1 of Spring Web Flow, support for JSF Portlets was considered experimental and relied on a Portlet Bridge for JSF implementation. Furthermore JSR-329 (the latest specification in this area), which targets Portlet API 2.0 and JSF 1.2 environments at the time of writing is not yet final causing portlet bridge implementations to also remain incomplete.

A closer comparison of Spring Web Flow and a Portlet Bridge for JSF shows the two have significant overlap. They both drive the JSF lifecycle and they both shield JSF from knowledge about Portlet action and render requests.

Considering all of the above, starting with version 2.2, Spring Web Flow provides support for JSF Portlets using its own internal Portlet integration rather than a Portlet Bridge for JSF. We believe this will provide value for Web Flow users by reducing the number of dependencies in what is already a fairly complex combination of technologies with specifications lagging behind.

What this practically means is the configuration required for JSF Portlets is very similar to what is alread documented in the rest of this chapter with the exception of the section called “Portlet Views”, which is not necessary with JSF.

Review the swf-booking-portlet-faces sample in the Web Flow distribution for a working JSF Portlets example with complete configuration details. The main thing you'll need to notice in addition to what has already been described in this chapter is the faces-config.xml configuration:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE faces-config PUBLIC
  "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD JavaServer Faces Config 1.0//EN"
  "http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-facesconfig_1_0.dtd">

<faces-config>
    <application>
        <view-handler>
            org.springframework.faces.webflow.application.portlet.PortletFaceletViewHandler
        </view-handler>  
    </application>
</faces-config>