Create xml with jsf

Question

Hello everybody,

I need to send xml to the browser with my jsf application. This xml is generated by the application. I try to create it but my jsf application sends html every time.

How can I change the content-type to send xml ?

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

I would have a servlet return XML rather than the JSF stuff. I take JSF (and JSPs and any other UI layer) as returning "human readable" content. XML is machine readable.

RE: Session data - I've never done this, not used JSF just know it as a UI layer, but a quick google returns: http://blogs.sun.com/chrisf/entry/retrieving%5Fjsf%5Fsession%5Fvariables%5Fin

Answer 2

For Montecristo :

I try to use it but it doesn't work.

For mlk:

If I must use another servlet, how can I access to the jsf session data with the user connected and other things ?

Answer 3

You need to specify the content-type (sec. 14.17) of the returning page as text/xml. It'll currently be set as text/html.

Browsers have used a variety of mechanisms to determine the type of the data being returned, but the proper, most reliable way is to set the HTTP Content-type header.

I'm sorry - I'm not JSF knowledgeable, so I can't advise on how to fix this, but it gives you something to look for now!

Answer 4

I already searched in this way before to post here but I didn't found in google how to set the content-type in jsf.

It's for this reason that I post here ;)

Answer 5

You can set the content-type within your JSP. I assume you are using a JSP and creating the xml content from a backing bean? A JSP like this would output XML:

<%@page contentType="text/xml"%><?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<portfolio>
  <stock>
    <symbol>SUNW</symbol>
    <name>Sun Microsystems</name>
    <price>17.1</price>
  </stock>
  <stock>
    <symbol>AOL</symbol>
    <name>America Online</name>
    <price>51.05</price>
  </stock>
  <stock>
    <symbol>IBM</symbol>
    <name>International Business
    Machines</name>
    <price>116.10</price>
  </stock>
  <stock>
    <symbol>MOT</symbol>
    <name>MOTOROLA</name>
    <price>15.20</price>
  </stock>
</portfolio>

You could then easily change these hardcoded values to be bean values from your backing-bean in the way you would normally do for HTML-outputting JSPs.

Answer 6

There are several ways to do this. Doing it in JSP is a bit nasty.

As already mentioned you can use a Servlet and inject/load your variables in there. Eg by accessing the session context:

MyBean myBean = (MyBean)FacesContext.getCurrentInstance()
                         .getExternalContext().getSessionMap().get("myBean");

Or you can output it to the HTTP Response from a method in your Backing Bean. Eg:

try {
    String xml = "<person>damian</person>";
    FacesContext ctx = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
    final HttpServletResponse resp = (HttpServletResponse)ctx.getExternalContext().getResponse();

    resp.setContentType("text/xml");
    resp.setContentLength(xml.length());
    resp.getOutputStream().write(xml.getBytes());
    resp.getOutputStream().flush();
    resp.getOutputStream().close();

    ctx.responseComplete();

} catch (IOException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

Or if you are using Facelets you can set the response type in the <f:view> tag.

Answer 7

Thanks damo, I'll try asap.

As I use facelet, I'll try your second option ;)

Answer 8

Thanks a lot Damo, it's working now.