Sample Application using JSF, Spring 2.0, and Java Persistence APIs

This Sample Store Catalog app demonstrates the usage of JavaServer Faces, the new Java Persistence APIs, and Spring 2.0 to implement pagination. I took this example  Pagination of Data Sets in a Sample Application using JSF, Catalog Facade Stateless Session, and Java Persistence APIs  and modified it slightly to use a Spring Bean instead of a EJB 3.0 Stateless Session Bean.  If you compare the two, you will see that the code is almost the same, the main difference is the extra xml configuration for Spring, and for me it wasn't easy to get the .xml configuration right. It took looking at several articles, blogs, examples, and some trial and error to get it working.  (see the references at the end).
download the SpringJPA sample application code
Note: I updated the  Spring  JSF integration part of this application to use the org.springframework.web.jsf.DelegatingVariableResolver instead of a  JSF Managed Bean ServiceLocator in order to get a reference to the CatalogService Spring Bean from the Spring application context.

Explanation of the usage of JSF, Spring 2.0 , and Java Persistence APIs in a sample Store Catalog Application

The image below shows the Catalog Listing page, which allows a user to page through a list of items in a store.

The List.jsp page uses a JSF dataTable component to display a list of catalog items

The dataTable component is useful when you want to show a set of results in a table. In a JavaServer Faces application, the UIData component (the superclass of dataTable)  supports binding to a collection of data objects. It does the work of iterating over each record in the data source. The HTML dataTable renderer displays the data as an HTML table.

In the List.jsp web page the dataTable is defined as shown below:  (Note: Red colors are for Java EE tags, annotations code, Blue for Spring specific and Green for my code or variables)

Code Sample from:  List.jsp


<h:dataTable value='#{item.items}' var='dataTableItem' border="1"
      cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">



The value attribute of a dataTable tag references the data to be included in the table. The var attribute specifies a name that is used by the components within the dataTable tag as an alias to the data referenced in the value attribute of dataTable.  In the dataTable tag from the List.jsp page, the value attribute points to a list of catalog items. The var attribute points to a single item in that list. As the UIData component iterates through the list, each reference to dataTableItem points to the current item in the list.

The dataTable's value is bound to the items property of the item controller class, ItemController, which is defined in the faces-config.xml file:

Code Sample from: faces-context.xml


 <managed-bean>
    <managed-bean-name>item</managed-bean-name>
      <managed-bean-class>
         sessionpagination.ItemController
      </managed-bean-class>
    <managed-bean-scope>session</managed-bean-scope>
     <managed-property>
          <property-name>catalogService</property-name>
          <value>#{catalogService}</value>
    </managed-property>
 </managed-bean>




This ItemController ManagedBean items property is defined as shown below:

Code Sample from: ItemController.java

    public DataModel getItems() {
        if (model==null  || index != firstItem){
            model=getNextItems();
        }
        return this.model;
    }
   
    public DataModel getNextItems() {      
        model = new ListDataModel(catalogService.getItems(firstItem,batchSize));
        index = firstItem;      
        return this.model;
    }



The getItems() method wraps a List of item objects, returned from the catalogService,  in a DataModel.
UIData, the superclass of dataTable, supports data binding to a collection of data objects represented by a DataModel instance.  The data collection underlying a DataModel instance is modeled as a collection of row objects that can be accessed by a row index.  The APIs provide mechanisms to position to a specified row index, and to retrieve an object that represents the data that corresponds to the current row index.   

The Item properties Name, Photo, and price  are displayed with the column component:

Code Sample from: List.jsp


  <h:column>
      <f:facet name="header">
          <h:outputText value="Price"/>
      </f:facet>
      <h:outputText value="#{dataTableItem.price}"/>
  </h:column>



The column tags represent columns of data in a UIData component. While the UIData component is iterating over the rows of data, it processes the UIColumn component associated with each column tag for each row in the table.

The UIData component  iterates through the list of items (item.items)  and displays the dataTableItem.price. Each time UIData iterates through the list of items, it renders one cell in each column.

The dataTable and column tags use facet to represent parts of the table that are not repeated or updated. These include headers, footers, and captions.

The  recommended way to integrate Spring with JSF is to configure the Spring DelegatingVariableResolver in the faces-context.xml.  The <application> <variable-resolver> elements in a faces-config.xml file allows a Faces-based application to register a custom replacement class for the implementation of the standard Faces VariableResolver implementation. The Spring DelegatingVariableResolver  first delegates to the original resolver of the underlying JSF implementation, then to the Spring root WebApplicationContext.   This allows you to configure Spring Beans as managed properties of your JSF Managed Beans. For example, below the  catalogService Spring Bean is configured as a managed property of the ItemController JSF ManagedBean:

Code Sample from: faces-context.xml

  <application>
    <variable-resolver>
      org.springframework.web.jsf.DelegatingVariableResolver
    </variable-resolver>
 </application>
 <managed-bean>
    <managed-bean-name>item</managed-bean-name>
      <managed-bean-class>
         sessionpagination.ItemController
      </managed-bean-class>
    <managed-bean-scope>session</managed-bean-scope>
     <managed-property>
          <property-name>catalogService</property-name>
          <value>#{catalogService}</value>
    </managed-property>
 </managed-bean>

The catalogService, and its implementation  CatalogDAO,  is defined as a Spring bean in the Spring configuration resource file /WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml :

Code Sample from: applicationContext.xml

  
    <bean id="catalogService" class="service.CatalogDAO"/>     
 
    <bean name="itemController" class="sessionpagination.ItemController">
        <property name="catalogService">
            <ref bean="catalogService"/>
        </property>
    </bean>
   
</beans>

<property name="catalogService"> refers to the ItemController setCatalogService method. The Spring root WebApplicationContext will inject the catalogService Spring Bean into the catalogService property of the ItemController JSF ManagedBean :

Code Sample from: ItemController.java


  public class ItemController {

  private CatalogService catalogService ;
   
  public void setCatalogService(CatalogService catalogService) {
        this.catalogService = catalogService; 
  }

For more information on using JSF with Spring, see Spring - Java/J2EE Application Framework Integrating with JavaServer Faces .

Using the Java Persistence API (JPA) with Spring 2.0

The Spring bean CatalogDAO uses the Java Persistence API EntityManager Query object to return a list of items. The CatalogDAO annotates the field private EntityManager em;  with @PersistenceContext , which causes an entity manager to be injected. (note that using the @PersistenceContext annotation is the same way an Entity Manager is injected for a EJB 3.0 Session Bean.)
 

Code Sample from: CatalogDAO.java


@Repository
@Transactional
public class CatalogDAO implements CatalogService {
   
    @PersistenceContext(unitName="PetCatalogPu")
    private EntityManager em;

    public List<Item>  getItems(int firstItem,int batchSize) {      
       Query q = em.createQuery("select object(o) from Item as o");
       q.setMaxResults(batchSize);
       q.setFirstResult(firstItem);
       List<Item> items= q.getResultList();
       return items;      
   }
   


The Java Persistence Query APIs are used to create and execute queries that can return a list of results.  The JPA Query interface provides support for pagination via the setFirstResult() and setMaxResults() methods: q.setMaxResults(int maxResult) sets the maximum number of results to retrieve. q.setFirstResult(int startPosition) sets the position of the first result to retrieve.

In the code below, we show the Item entity class which maps to the  ITEM table that stores the item instances. This is a typical Java Persistence entity object. There are two requirements for an entity:

1. annotating the class with an @Entity annotation.
   
2. annotating   the primary key identifier with @Id
   

Because the fields name, description.... are basic mappings from the object fields to columns of the same name in the database table, they don't have to be annotated.  The O/R  relationships with Address and Product are also annotated. For more information on defining JPA entities see Pro EJB 3: Java Persistence API book.

Code Sample from: Item.java


@Entity
public class Item implements java.io.Serializable {

    @Id  
    private String itemID;
    private String name;   
    private String description;   
    private String imageurl;   
    private String imagethumburl; 
    private BigDecimal price;
    @OneToOne(cascade={CascadeType.PERSIST})
    private Address address;
    @ManyToOne
    private Product product;
    
    public Item() { }
     
    public String getItemID() {
        return itemID;
    }
    public void setItemID(String itemID) {
        this.itemID = itemID;
    }
    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }
    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }   
    public String getDescription() {
        return description;
    }
    public void setDescription(String description) {
        this.description = description;
    }
    public BigDecimal getPrice() {
       return price;
    } 
    public void setPrice(BigDecimal price) {
        this.price = price;
    }
    public void setAddress(Address address) {
        this.address = address;
    }
    public Product getProduct() {
        return product;
    }
    public void setProduct(Product product) {
        this.product = product;
    }

    ...
}   



The ItemController ManagedBean pages through the list of Items by maintaining the firstItem and batchSize attributes and passing these as parameters to the CatalogService getItems(firstItem, batchSize) method. The ItemController's <managed-bean-scope> is defined as session, a JSF Managedbean with session scope will be stored in the session meaning that the bean's properties will stay alive for the life of the Http Session.


The ItemController ItemCount  property is  used to get and display the number of Catolog items in the  data base on the List.jsp page:

Code Sample from: List.jsp


<h:outputText value="Item #{item.firstItem + 1}..#{item.lastItem} of
     #{item.itemCount}"/>



This ItemController ItemCount property is defined as shown below:

Code Sample from: ItemController.java


    public int getItemCount() {      
        int count = catalogService.getItemsCount();
        return count;     
    }


The ItemController getItemCount() method calls the CatalogService interface to get the count of the list of items. The CatalogDAO Spring bean  getItemCount() method uses the JPA Query interface to get the count of all items in the database item table:

Code Sample from: CatalogDAO.java

public class CatalogDAO implements CatalogService {
. . .
    public int  getItemCount() {
        Query q = entityManager.createQuery("select count(o) from Item as o");     
        int count = ((Long)q.getSingleResult()).intValue();     
        return count;
    }   
    


A JSF commandLink is  used to provide a link to click on to display the next page of items. The commandLink tag represents an HTML hyperlink and is rendered as an HTML <a> element. The commandLink tag is used to submit an action event to the application. 

Code Sample from: List.jsp


 <h:commandLink action="#{item.next}" value="Next #{item.batchSize}"
    rendered="#{item.lastItem + item.batchSize <= item.itemCount}"/>   


This commandLink action attribute references the ItemController backing bean next() method which calculates the next page's first row number  and returns a logical outcome String, which causes the List.jsp page to display the next page's list . The ItemController next method is defined as shown below:

Code Sample from: ItemController.java

   public String next() {
       if (firstItem + batchSize < getItemCount()) {
           firstItem += batchSize;
       }
       return "item_list";
   }


The JavaServer Faces NavigationHandler matches the logical outcome,  item_list against the navigation rules in the application configuration resource file faces-config.xml to determine which page to access next. In this case, the JavaServer Faces implementation loads the List.jsp page after this method returns.

Code Sample from: faces-config.xml

  <navigation-rule>
      <navigation-case>
          <from-outcome>item_list</from-outcome>
          <to-view-id>/item/List.jsp</to-view-id>
      </navigation-case>
  </navigation-rule>



A JSF commandLink is  used to provide a link to click on to display the previous page of items. This commandLink action attribute  references the  ItemController  prev() method that calculates the previous page's first row number  and returns a logical outcome String, which causes the List page to display the previous page of items :

Code Sample from: List.jsp


 <h:commandLink action="#{item.prev}" value="Previous #{item.batchSize}"        
        rendered="#{item.firstItem >=item.batchSize}"/>



 This ItemController  prev() method  is defined as shown below: 
 

Code Sample from: ItemController.java

    public String prev() {
        firstItem -= batchSize;
        if (firstItem < 0) {
            firstItem = 0;
        }
        return "item_list";
    }     


A JSF ommandLink is  used to provide a link to click on to display a page with the item details. This commandLink action attribute  references The ItemController detailSetup() method:

Code Sample from: List.jsp


   <h:column>
       <f:facet name="header">
          <h:outputText value="Name"/>
       </f:facet>
       <h:commandLink action="#{item.detailSetup}" value="#{dataTableItem.name}"/>   
   </h:column>


The ItemController detailSetup() method  gets the item data from the current row of the dataModel, and returns a string which causes the Detail.jsp page to display the item details :

Code Sample from: ItemController.java


    public String detailSetup() {
        item = (Item) model.getRowData();
        return "item_detail";
    }


The JavaServer Faces NavigationHandler matches the logical outcome,  item_detail against the navigation rules in the application configuration resource file to determine which page to access next. In this case, the JavaServer Faces implementation loads the Detail.jsp page after this method returns.

Code Sample from: faces-config.xml


    <navigation-rule>
        <navigation-case>
            <from-outcome>item_detail</from-outcome>
            <to-view-id>/item/Detail.jsp</to-view-id>  
        </navigation-case>
    </navigation-rule>    
   

The Detail.jsp uses the outputText component to display the ItemController ManagedBean's item properties:

Code Sample from: detail.jsp


    <h:outputText value="#{item.item.name}" title="Name" />
    <h:outputText value="#{item.item.description}" title="Description"/>
    <h:graphicImage url="#{item.item.imageurl}" title="Imageurl" />
    <h:outputText value="#{item.item.price}" title="Price" />
    <h:outputText value="#{item.item.address.city}" title="Address" />
    <h:outputText value="#{item.item.contactinfo.email}" title="Address"/>  

   

Conclusion
This concludes the sample application which demonstrates how to work with the JSF dataTable and  DataModel  to page through a list of  Item Entities which are retrieved using the Catalog methods which use  the Java Persistence APIs with Spring 2.0.



Setting up the database tables for the sample application:

• edit the properties in the SpringJPA/setup/javadb.properties file, then run the ant script in the directory SpringJPA/setup, or just run the sql in the directory SpringJPA/setup/sql/javadb with whatever tool you have.
  

Configuration of the Application for Spring 2.0, JSF, JPA, running on Glassfish

 To set up glassfish and the netbeans project for Spring, I modified the steps from  Spring and Hibernate in GlassFish  :     Setting Things Up:

• download and extract  Spring  ( I downloaded 2.1).
• Download and install NetBeans 5.5.1
• Download and install GlassFish V1, following the instructions on the download page. Alternatively you can use Sun Java System Application Server PE 9, Sun's GlassFish distribution.
• Add the Glassfish server to Netbeans:
• Start NetBeans and switch to the Runtime window (Ctrl+5).
• Right-click the Servers node and select Add Server.
• select Sun Java System Application Server (Sun's binary distribution of GlassFish).
• Browse to the location where you installed GlassFish and select Finish.

    Create the Spring Library in Netbeans:

• Open the Netbeans Library Manager (Tools menu) and create a new library called Spring.
• Add the following jars to the Classpath:
• dist/spring.jar, dist/weaving/spring-aspects.jar, lib/jakarta-commons/commons-logging.jar, lib/log4j/log4j-1.2.9.jar .
  
• Set the Sources to the Spring src directory.
• Set the Javadoc to the Spring docs/api directory.
  This library is now available for use by any project.

Open and Run the SpringJPA Project

Download The SpringJPA application. Unzip the code. From Netbeans do Open Project and select the Netbeans project SpringJPA from the unzipped directory. The SpringJPA application is a NetBeans Enterprise Application Project, which is actually comprised of 2 projects: SpringJPA and SpringJPA-war. SpringJPA-war is a Java EE Module of the SpringJPA project.  SpringJPA-war generates the war file and SpringJPA generates the ear file which contains the war.

Open the SpringJPA project. You will see this dialog when you open the project, because the Enterprise Application Project stores the absolute location to its J2EE Modules, you need to configure the location for the SpringJPA-war.

• Click Close. The SpringJPA project will be in bold red.
• Right click the project and select Resolve Reference Problems from the context menu.
• Use the Resolve Reference Problems dialog to map the SpringJPA-war module to its project, which you'll find is a subdirectory beneath the SpringJPA directory .
  
• After the references are resolved, right-click the SpringJPA project and select Open Required Projects (now that the dependencies are correct, the SpringJPA-war project will always open with the SpringJPA project).
• There are still additional references problems with the web module,  since it references the Spring jar files that are needed to build the project.
• add the new Spring library to the SpringJPA-war...
  in the project window under  SpringJPA-war:
  right click on Librairies, Add Library
  Select the Spring Library (that you created above) from the list, then click Add Library . This will add the Spring jar files to your SpringJPA-war project.
  
• All references should now be resolved.  Right-click the SpringJPA project and select clean and build project.
  
• Press F6 to test run the project. NetBeans will build, package, deploy and launch the application.

     Creating your own Netbeans with Spring & Glassfish Project :

• If you want to create your own application, Create a new Netbeans Enterprise Application:
  
• In Netbeans  select File New Project, then select Enterprise ..Enterprise Application, on the New Enterprise Application Window, for Server select Sun Java System Applicaton server,  Java EE 5 Version, and Select the Create Web Application Module as shown below:
  

                     

• change your Netbeans project properties to add the new Spring library...
  in the project window under  your application's war:
  right click on Librairies, Add Library
  Select Spring Library from the list, then click Add Library .
• to Generate Entity classes from the database tables: In the project window, right click on the war, select new File..Persistence Entity classes from database.  Click next, then select your datasource, tables and create your persistence unit. For more info on how to do this try out the following Hands On Lab: Java EE 5, EJB 3.0, Java Persistence API (JPA)
• For Spring configuration add the applicationConfiguration.xml and modify the web.xml and faces-config.xml as described below.
  

    Configuration of the XML files for Spring 2.0, JSF, and JPA, running on Glassfish

•  Add the file /WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml to the war WEB-INF directory.  This file is where you define your Spring service beans, and resources. Below is the applicationContext.xml for the sample app.  For more information about configuring the Spring applicationContext.xml for JPA see this article: Using the Java Persistence API (JPA) with Spring 2.0

Code Sample from: applicationContext.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:aop="http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop"
       xmlns:tx="http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx"
       xsi:schemaLocation="
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-2.0.xsd
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx http://www.springframework.org/schema/tx/spring-tx-2.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop http://www.springframework.org/schema/aop/spring-aop-2.0.xsd">
   
    <bean id="catalogService" class="service.CatalogDAO"/>     
    <bean id="entityManagerFactory" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalContainerEntityManagerFactoryBean">
        <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
        <property name="loadTimeWeaver">
            <bean class="org.springframework.instrument.classloading.glassfish.GlassFishLoadTimeWeaver"/>
        </property>
        <property name="jpaVendorAdapter">
            <bean
                class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.vendor.TopLinkJpaVendorAdapter">
                <property name="showSql" value="true" />
                <property name="generateDdl" value="false" />
                <property name="databasePlatform"
                          value="oracle.toplink.essentials.platform.database.DerbyPlatform" />
            </bean>
        </property>
    </bean>      
    <bean id="dataSource"
          class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource">
        <property name="driverClassName" value="org.apache.derby.jdbc.ClientDriver" />
        <property name="url" value="jdbc:derby://localhost:1527/pet-catalog" />
        <property name="username" value="app" />
        <property name="password" value="app" />
    </bean>     
    <bean class="org.springframework.dao.annotation.PersistenceExceptionTranslationPostProcessor"/>   
    <bean class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.support.PersistenceAnnotationBeanPostProcessor"/>      
    <bean id="transactionManager" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.JpaTransactionManager">
        <property name="entityManagerFactory" ref="entityManagerFactory"/>
        <property name="dataSource" ref="dataSource"/>
    </bean>   
    <tx:annotation-driven />  
    <bean name="itemController" class="sessionpagination.ItemController" scope="session">
        <property name="catalogService">
            <ref bean="catalogService"/>
        </property>
    </bean>
   
</beans>



• Add the spring framework ContextLoaderListener and context parameter to your application's web.xml as shown below. For more information on configuring Spring see these references: Using Spring 2 with JSF , Spring - Java/J2EE Application Framework Integrating with JavaServer Faces,  Advanced Configuration of the Spring MVC Framework
  

Code Sample from: web.xml


    <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>   
   

• Add the DelegatingVariableResolver and any Spring beans (i.e. catalogService) referenced as JSF Managed Bean (i.e. ItemController) properties  to the faces-config.xml : 

Code Sample from: faces-config.xml


  <application>
    <variable-resolver>
    org.springframework.web.jsf.DelegatingVariableResolver 
    </variable-resolver>
 </application>
 <managed-bean>
    <managed-bean-name>item</managed-bean-name>
      <managed-bean-class>
         sessionpagination.ItemController
      </managed-bean-class>
    <managed-bean-scope>session</managed-bean-scope>
     <managed-property>
          <property-name>catalogService</property-name>
          <value>#{catalogService}</value>
    </managed-property>
 </managed-bean>




References

• Using the Java Persistence API (JPA) with Spring 2.0
• Data Access with Spring and JPA on Glassfish
• Using JPA in Spring without referencing Spring
• Spring - Java/J2EE Application Framework Integrating with JavaServer Faces
• Using Spring 2 with JSF
  
• Building JavaServer Faces Applications with Spring and Hibernate
• Spring and Hibernate in GlassFish
• Harnessing the Power of Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) Technology With Spring
• Java EE tutorial (includes great tutorial for JSF and JPA)
• Pro EJB 3: Java Persistence API book
• Java BluePrints Solutions Catalog for the Java Persistence APIs contains a collection of topics and example applications.
• Java Persistence reference page on GlassFish Project 
• Build a real-world Web application with JavaServer Faces, the Spring Framework, and Hibernate