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Spring Web Flow Reference Guide

Keith Donald
Erwin Vervaet
Jeremy Grelle
Scott Andrews
Rossen Stoyanchev
Phil Webb
Spring Web Flow Reference Guide
by Keith Donald, Erwin Vervaet, Jeremy Grelle, Scott Andrews, Rossen Stoyanchev, and Phil Webb
Version 2.3.2

Published
Copies of this document may be made for your own use and for distribution to others, provided that you do not charge any fee for such copies and
further provided that each copy contains this Copyright Notice, whether distributed in print or electronically.
Table of Contents
Preface ...................................................................................................................... x
1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1
What this guide covers ......................................................................................................... 1
What Web Flow requires to run ............................................................................................. 1
Where to get support ............................................................................................................ 1
Where to follow development ................................................................................................ 1
How to access Web Flow artifacts from Maven Central .............................................................. 1
How to access Web Flow artifacts with Ivy .............................................................................. 2
How to access nightly builds and milestone releases .................................................................. 3
Accessing snapshots and milestones with Maven ....................................................................... 3
2. What's New ............................................................................................................ 4
Spring Web Flow 2.3 ........................................................................................................... 4
Embedding A Flow On A Page .............................................................................................. 4
Support For JSR-303 Bean Validation ..................................................................................... 4
Flow-Managed Persistence Context Propagation ....................................................................... 4
Portlet 2.0 Resource Requests ................................................................................................ 4
Custom ConversationManager ............................................................................................... 4
Redirect In Same State ......................................................................................................... 4
Samples ............................................................................................................................ 4
Spring Web Flow 2.2 ........................................................................................................... 5
JSF 2 Support ..................................................................................................................... 5
Spring Security Facelets Tag Library ...................................................................................... 5
Spring JavaScript Updates .................................................................................................... 6
JFS Portlet Support .............................................................................................................. 6
3. Defining Flows ........................................................................................................ 7
Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 7
What is a flow? ................................................................................................................... 7
What is the makeup of a typical flow? ..................................................................................... 7
How are flows authored? ...................................................................................................... 7
Essential language elements .................................................................................................. 7
flow .................................................................................................................................. 7
view-state .......................................................................................................................... 8
transition ........................................................................................................................... 8
end-state ............................................................................................................................ 8
Checkpoint: Essential language elements ................................................................................. 8
Actions ............................................................................................................................. 9
evaluate ............................................................................................................................. 9
Checkpoint: flow actions .................................................................................................... 10
Input/Output Mapping ........................................................................................................ 10
input ............................................................................................................................... 11
output ............................................................................................................................. 11
Checkpoint: input/output mapping ........................................................................................ 12
Variables ......................................................................................................................... 12
var ................................................................................................................................. 12
Calling subflows ............................................................................................................... 13
subflow-state .................................................................................................................... 13
Checkpoint: calling subflows ............................................................................................... 14
4. Expression Language (EL) ...................................................................................... 15
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 15
Expression types ............................................................................................................... 15
EL Implementations .......................................................................................................... 16
Spring EL ........................................................................................................................ 16
Unified EL ....................................................................................................................... 16

iv
Spring Web Flow

OGNL ............................................................................................................................ 17
EL portability ................................................................................................................... 17
Special EL variables .......................................................................................................... 17
flowScope ....................................................................................................................... 18
viewScope ....................................................................................................................... 18
requestScope .................................................................................................................... 19
flashScope ....................................................................................................................... 19
conversationScope ............................................................................................................ 19
requestParameters ............................................................................................................. 19
currentEvent .................................................................................................................... 19
currentUser ...................................................................................................................... 20
messageContext ................................................................................................................ 20
resourceBundle ................................................................................................................. 20
flowRequestContext .......................................................................................................... 20
flowExecutionContext ....................................................................................................... 20
flowExecutionUrl .............................................................................................................. 20
externalContext ................................................................................................................ 20
Scope searching algorithm .................................................................................................. 21
5. Rendering views .................................................................................................... 22
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 22
Defining view states .......................................................................................................... 22
Specifying view identifiers .................................................................................................. 22
Flow relative view ids ........................................................................................................ 22
Absolute view ids .............................................................................................................. 22
Logical view ids ............................................................................................................... 22
View scope ...................................................................................................................... 23
Allocating view variables ................................................................................................... 23
Assigning a viewScope variable ........................................................................................... 23
Manipulating objects in view scope ...................................................................................... 23
Executing render actions ..................................................................................................... 24
Binding to a model ............................................................................................................ 24
Performing type conversion ................................................................................................ 24
Type Conversion Options ................................................................................................... 24
Upgrading to Spring 3 Type Conversion And Formatting .......................................................... 25
Configuring Type Conversion and Formatting ........................................................................ 25
Working With Spring 3 Type Conversion And Formatting ........................................................ 27
Formatting Annotations ...................................................................................................... 27
Working With Dates .......................................................................................................... 28
Suppressing binding .......................................................................................................... 28
Specifying bindings explicitly ............................................................................................. 28
Validating a model ............................................................................................................ 29
JSR-303 Bean Validation .................................................................................................... 29
Programmatic validation ..................................................................................................... 30
ValidationContext ............................................................................................................. 32
Suppressing validation ....................................................................................................... 32
Executing view transitions .................................................................................................. 32
Transition actions .............................................................................................................. 32
Global transitions .............................................................................................................. 33
Event handlers .................................................................................................................. 33
Rendering fragments .......................................................................................................... 33
Working with messages ...................................................................................................... 34
Adding plain text messages ................................................................................................. 34
Adding internationalized messages ....................................................................................... 34
Using message bundles ...................................................................................................... 34
Understanding system generated messages ............................................................................. 35
Displaying popups ............................................................................................................. 35
View backtracking ............................................................................................................ 36
Discarding history ............................................................................................................. 36

v
Spring Web Flow

Invalidating history ........................................................................................................... 36

6. Executing actions ................................................................................................... 37
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 37
Defining action states ......................................................................................................... 37
Defining decision states ...................................................................................................... 38
Action outcome event mappings .......................................................................................... 38
Action implementations ...................................................................................................... 38
Invoking a POJO action ...................................................................................................... 38
Invoking a custom Action implementation ............................................................................. 39
Invoking a MultiAction implementation ................................................................................ 39
Action exceptions .............................................................................................................. 39
Handling a business exception with a POJO action .................................................................. 39
Handling a business exception with a MultiAction ................................................................... 40
Other Action execution examples ......................................................................................... 40
on-start ........................................................................................................................... 40
on-entry .......................................................................................................................... 41
on-exit ............................................................................................................................ 41
on-end ............................................................................................................................ 41
on-render ......................................................................................................................... 42
on-transition ..................................................................................................................... 42
Named actions .................................................................................................................. 42
Streaming actions .............................................................................................................. 43
Handling File Uploads ....................................................................................................... 43
7. Flow Managed Persistence ...................................................................................... 45
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 45
FlowScoped PersistenceContext ........................................................................................... 45
Flow Managed Persistence And Sub-Flows ............................................................................ 46
8. Securing Flows ...................................................................................................... 47
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 47
How do I secure a flow? ..................................................................................................... 47
The secured element .......................................................................................................... 47
Security attributes ............................................................................................................. 47
Matching type .................................................................................................................. 48
The SecurityFlowExecutionListener ..................................................................................... 48
Custom Access Decision Managers ...................................................................................... 48
Configuring Spring Security ................................................................................................ 48
Spring configuration .......................................................................................................... 49
web.xml Configuration ....................................................................................................... 49
9. Flow Inheritance .................................................................................................... 50
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 50
Is flow inheritance like Java inheritance? ............................................................................... 50
Types of Flow Inheritance .................................................................................................. 50
Flow level inheritance ........................................................................................................ 50
State level inheritance ........................................................................................................ 50
Abstract flows .................................................................................................................. 51
Inheritance Algorithm ........................................................................................................ 51
Mergeable Elements .......................................................................................................... 51
Non-mergeable Elements .................................................................................................... 52
10. System Setup ...................................................................................................... 53
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 53
webflow-config.xsd ........................................................................................................... 53
Basic system configuration ................................................................................................. 53
FlowRegistry .................................................................................................................... 53
FlowExecutor ................................................................................................................... 53
flow-registry options .......................................................................................................... 54
Specifying flow locations ................................................................................................... 54
Assigning custom flow identifiers ........................................................................................ 54
Assigning flow meta-attributes ............................................................................................ 54

vi
Spring Web Flow

Registering flows using a location pattern .............................................................................. 54

Flow location base path ...................................................................................................... 54
Configuring FlowRegistry hierarchies ................................................................................... 55
Configuring custom FlowBuilder services .............................................................................. 55
flow-executor options ........................................................................................................ 56
Attaching flow execution listeners ........................................................................................ 57
Tuning FlowExecution persistence ....................................................................................... 57
11. Spring MVC Integration ........................................................................................ 58
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 58
Configuring web.xml ......................................................................................................... 58
Dispatching to flows .......................................................................................................... 58
Registering the FlowHandlerAdapter .................................................................................... 58
Defining flow mappings ..................................................................................................... 58
Flow handling workflow ..................................................................................................... 59
Implementing custom FlowHandlers ..................................................................................... 59
Example FlowHandler ....................................................................................................... 60
Deploying a custom FlowHandler ........................................................................................ 61
FlowHandler Redirects ....................................................................................................... 61
View Resolution ............................................................................................................... 61
Signaling an event from a View ........................................................................................... 62
Using a named HTML button to signal an event ...................................................................... 62
Using a hidden HTML form parameter to signal an event ......................................................... 62
Using a HTML link to signal an event ................................................................................... 62
Embedding A Flow On A Page ............................................................................................ 63
Embedded Mode Vs Default Redirect Behavior ...................................................................... 63
Embedded Flow Examples .................................................................................................. 63
12. Spring JavaScript Quick Reference .......................................................................... 65
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 65
Serving Javascript Resources ............................................................................................... 65
Including Spring Javascript in a Page .................................................................................... 66
Spring Javascript Decorations .............................................................................................. 67
Handling Ajax Requests ..................................................................................................... 68
Providing a Library-Specific AjaxHandler ............................................................................. 69
Handling Ajax Requests with Spring MVC Controllers ............................................................ 69
Handling Ajax Requests with Spring MVC + Spring Web Flow ................................................. 69
13. JSF Integration .................................................................................................... 71
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 71
JSF Integration For Spring Developers .................................................................................. 71
Configuring web.xml ......................................................................................................... 72
Configuring web.xml in JSF 1.2 ........................................................................................... 72
Configuring Web Flow for use with JSF ................................................................................ 74
Configuring Spring MVC for JSF 2 ...................................................................................... 74
Configuring faces-config.xml .............................................................................................. 75
Replacing the JSF Managed Bean Facility ............................................................................. 75
Using Flow Variables ........................................................................................................ 76
Using Scoped Spring Beans ................................................................................................ 76
Manipulating The Model .................................................................................................... 77
Data Model Implementations ............................................................................................... 77
Handling JSF Events With Spring Web Flow ......................................................................... 78
Handling JSF In-page Action Events ..................................................................................... 78
Handling JSF Action Events ................................................................................................ 79
Performing Model Validation .............................................................................................. 79
Handling Ajax Events In JSF 2.0 .......................................................................................... 80
Handling File Uploads with JSF ........................................................................................... 80
Handling Ajax Events In JSF 1.2 .......................................................................................... 81
Embedding a Flow On a Page .............................................................................................. 82
Redirect In Same State ....................................................................................................... 83
Using the Spring Security Facelets Tag Library ....................................................................... 83

vii
Spring Web Flow

Enhancing The User Experience With Rich Web Forms in JSF 1.2 ............................................. 86
Validating a Text Field ....................................................................................................... 86
Validating a Numeric Field ................................................................................................. 86
Validating a Date Field ...................................................................................................... 86
Preventing an Invalid Form Submission ................................................................................. 87
Third-Party Component Library Integration ........................................................................... 87
Rich Faces Integration (JSF 1.2) .......................................................................................... 87
Apache MyFaces Trinidad Integration (JSF 1.2) ...................................................................... 88
14. Portlet Integration ................................................................................................ 90
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 90
Configuring web.xml and portlet.xml .................................................................................... 90
Configuring Spring ............................................................................................................ 91
Flow Handlers .................................................................................................................. 91
Handler Mappings ............................................................................................................. 91
Flow Handler Adapter ........................................................................................................ 91
Portlet Views ................................................................................................................... 92
Portlet Modes and Window States ........................................................................................ 92
Window State ................................................................................................................... 92
Portlet Mode .................................................................................................................... 92
Using Portlets with JSF ...................................................................................................... 93
....................................................................................................................................... 93
Issues in a Portlet Environment ............................................................................................ 93
Redirects ......................................................................................................................... 93
Switching Portlet Modes ..................................................................................................... 94
15. Testing flows ...................................................................................................... 95
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 95
Extending AbstractXmlFlowExecutionTests ........................................................................... 95
Specifying the path to the flow to test .................................................................................... 95
Registering flow dependencies ............................................................................................. 95
Testing flow startup ........................................................................................................... 96
Testing flow event handling ................................................................................................ 96
Mocking a subflow ............................................................................................................ 96
16. Upgrading from 1.0 .............................................................................................. 98
Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 98
Flow Definition Language .................................................................................................. 98
Flow Definition Updater Tool .............................................................................................. 98
EL Expressions ................................................................................................................. 99
Web Flow Configuration .................................................................................................... 99
Web Flow Bean Configuration ............................................................................................ 99
Web Flow Schema Configuration ......................................................................................... 99
Flow Controller .............................................................................................................. 100
Flow URL Handler .......................................................................................................... 100
View Resolution ............................................................................................................. 100
New Web Flow Concepts ................................................................................................. 101
Automatic Model Binding ................................................................................................ 101
OGNL vs Spring EL ........................................................................................................ 101
Flash Scope ................................................................................................................... 101
JSF ............................................................................................................................... 101
External Redirects ........................................................................................................... 102
A. Flow Definition Language 1.0 to 2.0 Mappings ......................................................... 103

viii
List of Tables
6.1. Action method return value to event id mappings ...................................................... 38
A.1. Mappings ........................................................................................................ 103

ix
Preface
Many web applications require the same sequence of steps to execute in different contexts. Often these
sequences are merely components of a larger task the user is trying to accomplish. Such a reusable se-
quence is called a flow.

Consider a typical shopping cart application. User registration, login, and cart checkout are all examples
of flows that can be invoked from several places in this type of application.

Spring Web Flow is the module of Spring for implementing flows. The Web Flow engine plugs into the
Spring Web MVC platform and provides declarative flow definition language. This reference guide
shows you how to use and extend Spring Web Flow.

x
Chapter 1. Introduction
What this guide covers
This guide covers all aspects of Spring Web Flow. It covers implementing flows in end-user applications
and working with the feature set. It also covers extending the framework and the overall architectural
model.

What Web Flow requires to run

Java 1.5 or higher

Spring 3.0 or higher

Where to get support

Professional from-the-source support on Spring Web Flow is available from SpringSource [ht-
tp://www.springsource.com], the company behind Spring, and Ervacon [http://www.ervacon.com], oper-
ated by Web Flow project co-founder Erwin Vervaet

Where to follow development

You can help make Web Flow best serve the needs of the Spring community by interacting with de-
velopers at the Spring Community Forums [http://forum.springframework.org].

Report bugs and influence the Web Flow project roadmap using the Spring Issue Tracker [ht-
tp://jira.springframework.org].

Subscribe to the Spring Community Portal [http://www.springframework.org] for the latest Spring news
and announcements.

Visit the Web Flow Project Home [http://www.springframework.org/webflow] for more resources on
the project.

How to access Web Flow artifacts from Maven

Central
Each jar in the Web Flow distribution is available in the Maven Central Repository [ht-
tp://search.maven.org]. This allows you to easily integrate Web Flow into your application if you are
already using Maven as the build system for your web development project.

To access Web Flow jars from Maven Central, declare the following dependency in your pom (includes
transitive dependencies "spring-binding" and "spring-js"):

<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.webflow</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-webflow</artifactId>
<version>x.y.z.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>

1
Introduction

If using JavaServer Faces, declare the following dependency in your pom (includes transitive dependen-
cies "spring-binding", "spring-webflow" and "spring-js"):

<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.webflow</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-faces</artifactId>
<version>x.y.z.RELEASE</version>
</dependency>

How to access Web Flow artifacts with Ivy

To access Spring Web Flow jars with Ivy, add the following repositories to your Ivy config:

To access Spring Web Flow jars as well as 3rd party dependencies with Ivy, add the following reposit-
ory to your Ivy config:

Then declare the following dependencies in your ivy.xml:

<dependency org="org.springframework.webflow" name="org.springframework.binding"

rev="x.y.z.RELEASE" conf="compile->runtime" />
<dependency org="org.springframework.webflow" name="org.springframework.js"
rev="x.y.z.RELEASE" conf="compile->runtime" />
<dependency org="org.springframework.webflow" name="org.springframework.webflow"
rev="x.y.z.RELEASE" conf="compile->runtime" />

If using JavaServer Faces, declare the following dependency in your pom (also adds the above depend-
encies):

2
Introduction

<dependency org="org.springframework.webflow" name="org.springframework.faces"

rev="x.y.z.RELEASE" conf="compile->runtime" />

How to access nightly builds and milestone re-

leases
Nightly snapshots of Web Flow development branches are available using Maven. These snapshot
builds are useful for testing out fixes you depend on in advance of the next release, and provide a con-
venient way for you to provide feedback about whether a fix meets your needs.

Accessing snapshots and milestones with Maven

For milestones and snapshots you'll need to use the SpringSource repository. Add the following reposit-
ory to your Maven pom.xml:

<repository>
<id>springsource-repository</id>
<name>Spring project snapshots, milestones, and releases</name>
<url>http://repo.springsource.org/snapshot</url>
</repository>

Then declare the following dependencies:

<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.webflow</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-binding</artifactId>
<version>x.y.z.BUILD-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.webflow</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-js</artifactId>
<version>x.y.z.BUILD-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.webflow</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-webflow</artifactId>
<version>x.y.z.BUILD-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>

And if using JavaServerFaces:

<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.webflow</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-faces</artifactId>
<version>x.y.z.BUILD-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>

3
Chapter 2. What's New
Spring Web Flow 2.3
Embedding A Flow On A Page
By default Web Flow does a client-side redirect upon entering every view state. That makes it im-
possible to embed a flow on a page or within a modal dialog and execute more than one view state
without causing a full-page refresh. Web Flow now supports launching a flow in "embedded" mode. In
this mode a flow can transition to other view states without a client-side redirect during Ajax requests.
See the section called “Embedding A Flow On A Page” and the section called “Embedding a Flow On a
Page”.

Support For JSR-303 Bean Validation

Support for the JSR-303 Bean Validation API is now available building on equivalent support available
in Spring MVC. See the section called “Validating a model” for more details.

Flow-Managed Persistence Context Propagation

Starting with Web Flow 2.3 a flow managed PersistenceContext is automatically extended
(propagated) to sub-flows assuming the subflow also has the feature enabled as well. See the section
called “Flow Managed Persistence And Sub-Flows”.

Portlet 2.0 Resource Requests

Support for Portlet 2.0 resource requests has now been added enabling Ajax requests with partial render-
ing. URLs for such requests can be prepared with the <portlet:resourceURL> tag in JSP pages.
Server-side processing is similar to a combined an action and a render requests but combined in a single
request. Unlike a render request, the response from a resource request includes content from the target
portlet only.

Custom ConversationManager
The <flow-execution-repository> element now provides a conversation-manager attribute ac-
cepting a reference to a ConversationManager instance.

Redirect In Same State

By default Web Flow does a client-side redirect when remaining in the same view state as long as the
current request is not an Ajax request. This is useful after form validation failure. Hitting Refresh or
Back won't result in browser warnings. Hence this behavior is usually desirable. However a new flow
execution attribute makes it possible to disable it and that may also be necessary in some cases specific
to JSF 2 applications. See the section called “Redirect In Same State”.

Samples
The process for building the samples included with the distribution has been simplified. Maven can be
used to build all samples in one step. Eclipse settings include source code references to simplify debug-
ging.

4
What's New

Additional samples can be accessed as follows:

mkdir spring-samples
cd spring-samples
svn co https://src.springframework.org/svn/spring-samples/webflow-primefaces-showca
cd webflow-primefaces-showcase
mvn package
# import into Eclipse

mkdir spring-samples
cd spring-samples
svn co https://src.springframework.org/svn/spring-samples/webflow-showcase
cd webflow-showcase
mvn package
# import into Eclipse

Spring Web Flow 2.2

JSF 2 Support
Comprehensive JSF 2 Support
Building on 2.1, Spring Web Flow version 2.2 adds support for core JSF 2 features The following fea-
tures that were not supported in 2.1 are now available: partial state saving, JSF 2 resource request, hand-
ling, and JSF 2 Ajax requests. At this point support for JSF 2 is considered comprehensive although not
covering every JSF 2 feature -- excluded are mostly features that overlap with the core value Web Flow
provides such as those relating to navigation and state management.

See the section called “Configuring Web Flow for use with JSF” for important configuration changes.
Note that partial state saving is only supported with Sun Mojarra 2.0.3 or later. It is not yet supported
with Apache MyFaces. This is due to the fact MyFaces was not as easy to customize with regards to
how component state is stored. We will work with Apache MyFaces to provide this support. In the mean
time you will need to use the javax.faces.PARTIAL_STATE_SAVING context parameter in
web.xml to disable partial state saving with Apache MyFaces.

Travel Sample With the PrimeFaces Components

The main Spring Travel sample demonstrating Spring Web Flow and JSF support is now built on JSF 2
and components from the PrimeFaces component library. Please check out the booking-faces sample in
the distribution.

Additional samples can be found at the Spring Web Flow - Prime Faces Showcase [ht-
tps://src.springframework.org/svn/spring-samples/webflow-primefaces-showcase], an SVN repository
within the spring-samples [https://src.springframework.org/svn/spring-samples] repository. Use these
commands to check out and build:

svn co https://src.springframework.org/svn/spring-samples/webflow-primefaces-showca
cd webflow-primefaces-showcase
mvn package

Spring Security Facelets Tag Library

A new Spring Security tag library is available for use with with JSF 2.0 or with JSF 1.2 Facelets views.

5
What's New

It provides an <authorize> tag as well as several EL functions. See the section called “Using the Spring
Security Facelets Tag Library” for more details.

Spring JavaScript Updates

Deprecated ResourcesServlet
Starting with Spring 3.0.4, the Spring Framework includes a replacement for the ResourcesServlet.
Please see the Spring Framework documentation for details on the custom mvc namespace, specifically
the new "resources" [ht-
tp://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/spring-framework-reference/html/mvc.html#mvc-static-res
ources] element.

Dojo 1.5 and dojox

The bundled custom Dojo build is upgraded to version 1.5. It now includes dojox.

Note that applications are generally encouraged to prepare their own custom Dojo build for optimized
performance depending on what parts of Dojo are commonly used together. For examples see the scripts
[ht-
tps://src.springframework.org/svn/spring-webflow/branches/spring-webflow-2.2-maintenance/spring-js-
resources/scripts/dojo] used by Spring Web Flow to prepare its own custom Dojo build.

Two Spring JS artifacts

The spring-js artifact has been split in two -- the new artifact (spring-js-resources) con-
tains client side resource (.js, .css, etc.) while the existing artifact (spring-js) contains server-side
Java code only.

Applications preparing their own custom Dojo build have an option now to avoid including spring-
js-resources and put Spring.js and Spring-Dojo.js directly under the root of their web
application.

Client resources moved into META-INF/web-resources

Bundled client resources (.js, .css, etc.) have been moved to META-INF/web-resources from their
previous location under META-INF. This change is transparent for applications but will result in sim-
pler and safer configuration when using the new resource handling mechanism available in Spring 3.0.4.

JFS Portlet Support

Portlet API 2.0 and JSF 1.2 support
In previous versions of Spring Web Flow support for JSF Portlets relied on a Portlet Bridge for JSF im-
plementation and was considered experimental. Spring Web Flow 2.2 adds support for JSF Portlets
based on its own internal Portlet integration targeting Portlet API 2.0 and JSF 1.2 environments. See the
section called “Using Portlets with JSF” for more details. The Spring Web Flow Travel JSF Portlets
sample has been successfully tested on the Apache Pluto portal container.

6
Chapter 3. Defining Flows
Introduction
This chapter begins the Users Section. It shows how to implement flows using the flow definition lan-
guage. By the end of this chapter you should have a good understanding of language constructs, and be
capable of authoring a flow definition.

What is a flow?
A flow encapsulates a reusable sequence of steps that can execute in different contexts. Below is a Gar-
rett Information Architecture [http://www.jjg.net/ia/visvocab/] diagram illustrating a reference to a flow
that encapsulates the steps of a hotel booking process:

Site Map illustrating a reference to a flow

What is the makeup of a typical flow?

In Spring Web Flow, a flow consists of a series of steps called "states". Entering a state typically results
in a view being displayed to the user. On that view, user events occur that are handled by the state.
These events can trigger transitions to other states which result in view navigations.

The example below shows the structure of the book hotel flow referenced in the previous diagram:

Flow diagram

How are flows authored?

Flows are authored by web application developers using a simple XML-based flow definition language.
The next steps of this guide will walk you through the elements of this language.

Essential language elements

flow
Every flow begins with the following root element:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

All states of the flow are defined within this element. The first state defined becomes the flow's starting
point.

7
Defining Flows

view-state
Use the view-state element to define a step of the flow that renders a view:

<view-state id="enterBookingDetails" />

By convention, a view-state maps its id to a view template in the directory where the flow is located. For
example, the state above might render /
WEB-INF/hotels/booking/enterBookingDetails.xhtml if the flow itself was located in
the /WEB-INF/hotels/booking directory.

transition
Use the transition element to handle events that occur within a state:

<view-state id="enterBookingDetails">
<transition on="submit" to="reviewBooking" />
</view-state>

These transitions drive view navigations.

end-state
Use the end-state element to define a flow outcome:

<end-state id="bookingCancelled" />

When a flow transitions to a end-state it terminates and the outcome is returned.

Checkpoint: Essential language elements

With the three elements view-state, transition, and end-state, you can quickly express
your view navigation logic. Teams often do this before adding flow behaviors so they can focus on de-
veloping the user interface of the application with end users first. Below is a sample flow that imple-
ments its view navigation logic using these elements:

8
Defining Flows

</view-state>
<end-state id="bookingConfirmed" />
<end-state id="bookingCancelled" />
</flow>

Actions
Most flows need to express more than just view navigation logic. Typically they also need to invoke
business services of the application or other actions.

Within a flow, there are several points where you can execute actions. These points are:

• On flow start

• On state entry

• On view render

• On transition execution

• On state exit

• On flow end

Actions are defined using a concise expression language. Spring Web Flow uses the Unified EL by de-
fault. The next few sections will cover the essential language elements for defining actions.

evaluate
The action element you will use most often is the evaluate element. Use the evaluate element to
evaluate an expression at a point within your flow. With this single tag you can invoke methods on
Spring beans or any other flow variable. For example:

<evaluate expression="entityManager.persist(booking)" />

Assigning an evaluate result

If the expression returns a value, that value can be saved in the flow's data model called flowScope:

<evaluate expression="bookingService.findHotels(searchCriteria)" result="flowScope.

Converting an evaluate result

If the expression returns a value that may need to be converted, specify the desired type using the res-
ult-type attribute:

9
Defining Flows

<evaluate expression="bookingService.findHotels(searchCriteria)" result="flowScope.

result-type="dataModel"/>

Checkpoint: flow actions

Now review the sample booking flow with actions added:

This flow now creates a Booking object in flow scope when it starts. The id of the hotel to book is ob-
tained from a flow input attribute.

Input/Output Mapping
Each flow has a well-defined input/output contract. Flows can be passed input attributes when they start,
and can return output attributes when they end. In this respect, calling a flow is conceptually similar to
calling a method with the following signature:

FlowOutcome flowId(Map<String, Object> inputAttributes);

... where a FlowOutcome has the following signature:

public interface FlowOutcome {

public String getName();
public Map<String, Object> getOutputAttributes();

10
Defining Flows

input
Use the input element to declare a flow input attribute:

<input name="hotelId" />

Input values are saved in flow scope under the name of the attribute. For example, the input above
would be saved under the name hotelId.

Declaring an input type

Use the type attribute to declare the input attribute's type:

<input name="hotelId" type="long" />

If an input value does not match the declared type, a type conversion will be attempted.

Assigning an input value

Use the value attribute to specify an expression to assign the input value to:

<input name="hotelId" value="flowScope.myParameterObject.hotelId" />

If the expression's value type can be determined, that metadata will be used for type coersion if no type
attribute is specified.

Marking an input as required

Use the required attribute to enforce the input is not null or empty:

<input name="hotelId" type="long" value="flowScope.hotelId" required="true" />

output
Use the output element to declare a flow output attribute. Output attributes are declared within end-
states that represent specific flow outcomes.

<end-state id="bookingConfirmed">
<output name="bookingId" />
</end-state>

11
Defining Flows

Output values are obtained from flow scope under the name of the attribute. For example, the output
above would be assigned the value of the bookingId variable.

Specifying the source of an output value

Use the value attribute to denote a specific output value expression:

<output name="confirmationNumber" value="booking.confirmationNumber" />

Checkpoint: input/output mapping

Now review the sample booking flow with input/output mapping:

The flow now accepts a hotelId input attribute and returns a bookingId output attribute when a
new booking is confirmed.

Variables
A flow may declare one or more instance variables. These variables are allocated when the flow starts.
Any @Autowired transient references the variable holds are also rewired when the flow resumes.

var

12
Defining Flows

Use the var element to declare a flow variable:

<var name="searchCriteria" class="com.mycompany.myapp.hotels.search.SearchCriteria"

Make sure your variable's class implements java.io.Serializable, as the instance state is saved
between flow requests.

Calling subflows
A flow may call another flow as a subflow. The flow will wait until the subflow returns, then respond to
the subflow outcome.

subflow-state
Use the subflow-state element to call another flow as a subflow:

<subflow-state id="addGuest" subflow="createGuest">

The above example calls the createGuest flow, then waits for it to return. When the flow returns
with a guestCreated outcome, the new guest is added to the booking's guest list.

Passing a subflow input

Use the input element to pass input to the subflow:

<subflow-state id="addGuest" subflow="createGuest">

Mapping subflow output

Simply refer to a subflow output attribute by its name within a outcome transition:

<transition on="guestCreated" to="reviewBooking">

In the above example, guest is the name of an output attribute returned by the guestCreated out-
come.

13
Defining Flows

Checkpoint: calling subflows

Now review the sample booking flow calling a subflow:

The flow now calls a createGuest subflow to add a new guest to the guest list.

14
Chapter 4. Expression Language (EL)
Introduction
Web Flow uses EL to access its data model and to invoke actions. This chapter will familiarize you with
EL syntax, configuration, and special EL variables you can reference from your flow definition.

EL is used for many things within a flow including:

1. Access client data such as declaring flow inputs or referencing request parameters.

2. Access data in Web Flow's RequestContext such as flowScope or currentEvent.

3. Invoke methods on Spring-managed objects through actions.

4. Resolve expressions such as state transition criteria, subflow ids, and view names.

EL is also used to bind form parameters to model objects and reversely to render formatted form fields
from the properties of a model object. That however does not apply when using Web Flow with JSF in
which case the standard JSF component lifecyle applies.

Expression types
An important concept to understand is there are two types of expressions in Web Flow: standard expres-
sions and template expressions.

Standard Expressions
The first and most common type of expression is the standard expression. Such expressions are evalu-
ated directly by the EL and need not be enclosed in delimiters like #{}. For example:

<evaluate expression="searchCriteria.nextPage()" />

The expression above is a standard expression that invokes the nextPage method on the search-
Criteria variable when evaluated. If you attempt to enclose this expression in a special delimiter like
#{} you will get an IllegalArgumentException. In this context the delimiter is seen as redund-
ant. The only acceptable value for the expression attribute is an single expression string.

Template expressions
The second type of expression is a template expression. A template expression allows mixing of literal
text with one or more standard expressions. Each standard expression block is explicitly surrounded
with the #{} delimiters. For example:

<view-state id="error" view="error-#{externalContext.locale}.xhtml" />

The expression above is a template expression. The result of evaluation will be a string that concatenates
literal text such as error- and .xhtml with the result of evaluating externalContext.locale.

15
Expression Language (EL)

As you can see, explicit delimiters are necessary here to demarcate standard expression blocks within
the template.

Note
See the Web Flow XML schema for a complete listing of those XML attributes that accept standard expres-
sions and those that accept template expressions. You can also use F2 in Eclipse (or equivalent shortcut in
other IDEs) to access available documentation when typing out specific flow definition attributes.

EL Implementations
Spring EL
Starting with version 2.1 Web Flow uses the Spring Expression Language [ht-
tp://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/spring-framework-reference/html/expressions.html]
(Spring EL). Spring EL was created to provide is a single, well-supported expression language for use
across all the products in the Spring portfolio. It is distributed as a separate jar
org.springframework.expression in the Spring Framework. Existing applications will need
to remove dependencies on org.jboss.el or org.ognl and use
org.springframework.expression instead. See the section below on EL Portability for other
notes on upgrading.

Unified EL
In Web Flow 2.0 Unified EL [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Expression_Language] was the de-
fault expression language with jboss-el as the implementation. Use of Unified EL also implies a de-
pendency on el-api although that is typically provided by your web container. Tomcat 6 includes it,
for example. Spring EL is the default and recommended expression language to use. However it is pos-
sible to replace it with Unified EL if you wish to do so. You need the following Spring configuration to
plug in the WebFlowELExpressionParser to the flow-builder-services:

<webflow:flow-builder-services expression-parser="expressionParser"/>
<bean id="expressionParser" class="org.springframework.webflow.expression.el.WebFlo
<constructor-arg>
<bean class="org.jboss.el.ExpressionFactoryImpl" />
</constructor-arg>
</bean>

Note that if your application is registering custom converters it's important to ensure the WebFlowEL-
ExpressionParser is configured with the conversion service that has those custom converters.

<webflow:flow-builder-services expression-parser="expressionParser" conversion-serv

16
Expression Language (EL)

OGNL
OGNL [http://www.ognl.org] is the third supported expression language. OGNL is the EL most familiar
to Web Flow version 1.0 users. Please refer to the OGNL language guide [ht-
tp://www.ognl.org/2.6.9/Documentation/html/LanguageGuide/index.html] for specifics on its EL syntax.
If you wish to use OGNL this is the Spring configuration necessary to plug it in:

<webflow:flow-builder-services expression-parser="expressionParser"/>
<bean id="expressionParser" class="org.springframework.webflow.expression.WebFlowOg

Note that if your application is registering custom converters it's important to ensure the WebFlowOgn-
lExpressionParser is configured with the conversion service that has those custom converters.

<webflow:flow-builder-services expression-parser="expressionParser" conversion-serv

EL portability
In general, you will find Spring EL, Unified EL and OGNL to have a very similar syntax.

Note however there are some advantages to Spring EL. For example Spring EL is closely integrated
with the type conversion of Spring 3 and that allows you to take full advantage of its features. Specific-
ally the automatic detection of generic types as well as the use of formatting annotations is currently
supported with Spring EL only.

There are some minor changes to keep in mind when upgrading to Spring EL from Unified EL or OGNL
as follows:

1. Expressions deliniated with ${} in flow definitions must be changed to #{}.

2. Expressions testing the current event #{currentEvent == 'submit'} must be changed to

#{currentEvent.id == 'submit'}.

3. Resolving properties such as #{currentUser.name} may cause NullPointerException without

any checks such as #{currentUser != null ? currentUser.name : null}. A much
better alternative though is the safe navigation operator #{currentUser?.name}.

For more information on Spring EL syntax please refer to the Language Reference [ht-
tp://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/spring-framework-reference/html/expressions.html#expres
sions-language-ref] section in the Spring Documentation.

Special EL variables
There are several implicit variables you may reference from within a flow. These variables are discussed
in this section.

17
Expression Language (EL)

Keep in mind this general rule. Variables referring to data scopes (flowScope, viewScope, requestScope,
etc.) should only be used when assigning a new variable to one of the scopes.

For example when assigning the result of the call to bookingSer-

vice.findHotels(searchCriteria) to a new variable called "hotels" you must prefix it with a
scope variable in order to let Web Flow know where you want it stored:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

However when setting an existing variable such as "searchCriteria" in the example below, you reference
the variable directly without prefixing it with any scope variables:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

The following is the list of implicit variables you can reference within a flow definition:

flowScope
Use flowScope to assign a flow variable. Flow scope gets allocated when a flow starts and destroyed
when the flow ends. With the default implementation, any objects stored in flow scope need to be Serial-
izable.

<evaluate expression="searchService.findHotel(hotelId)" result="flowScope.hotel" />

viewScope
Use viewScope to assign a view variable. View scope gets allocated when a view-state enters and
destroyed when the state exits. View scope is only referenceable from within a view-state. With the
default implementation, any objects stored in view scope need to be Serializable.

18
Expression Language (EL)

<on-render>
<evaluate expression="searchService.findHotels(searchCriteria)" result="viewSco
result-type="dataModel" />
</on-render>

requestScope
Use requestScope to assign a request variable. Request scope gets allocated when a flow is called
and destroyed when the flow returns.

<set name="requestScope.hotelId" value="requestParameters.id" type="long" />

flashScope
Use flashScope to assign a flash variable. Flash scope gets allocated when a flow starts, cleared after
every view render, and destroyed when the flow ends. With the default implementation, any objects
stored in flash scope need to be Serializable.

<set name="flashScope.statusMessage" value="'Booking confirmed'" />

conversationScope
Use conversationScope to assign a conversation variable. Conversation scope gets allocated when
a top-level flow starts and destroyed when the top-level flow ends. Conversation scope is shared by a
top-level flow and all of its subflows. With the default implementation, conversation scoped objects are
stored in the HTTP session and should generally be Serializable to account for typical session replica-
tion.

<evaluate expression="searchService.findHotel(hotelId)" result="conversationScope.h

requestParameters
Use requestParameters to access a client request parameter:

<set name="requestScope.hotelId" value="requestParameters.id" type="long" />

currentEvent
Use currentEvent to access attributes of the current Event:

<evaluate expression="booking.guests.add(currentEvent.attributes.guest)" />

19
Expression Language (EL)

currentUser
Use currentUser to access the authenticated Principal:

<evaluate expression="bookingService.createBooking(hotelId, currentUser.name)"

result="flowScope.booking" />

messageContext
Use messageContext to access a context for retrieving and creating flow execution messages, in-
cluding error and success messages. See the MessageContext Javadocs for more information.

<evaluate expression="bookingValidator.validate(booking, messageContext)" />

resourceBundle
Use resourceBundle to access a message resource.

<set name="flashScope.successMessage" value="resourceBundle.successMessage" />

flowRequestContext
Use flowRequestContext to access the RequestContext API, which is a representation of the
current flow request. See the API Javadocs for more information.

flowExecutionContext
Use flowExecutionContext to access the FlowExecutionContext API, which is a repres-
entation of the current flow state. See the API Javadocs for more information.

flowExecutionUrl
Use flowExecutionUrl to access the context-relative URI for the current flow execution view-
state.

externalContext
Use externalContext to access the client environment, including user session attributes. See the
ExternalContext API JavaDocs for more information.

20
Expression Language (EL)

Scope searching algorithm

As mentioned earlier in this section when assigning a variable in one of the flow scopes, referencing that
scope is required. For example:

<set name="requestScope.hotelId" value="requestParameters.id" type="long" />

When simply accessing a variable in one of the scopes, referencing the scope is optional. For example:

<evaluate expression="entityManager.persist(booking)" />

When no scope is specified, like in the use of booking above, a scope searching algorithm is used. The
algorithm will look in request, flash, view, flow, and conversation scope for the variable. If no such vari-
able is found, an EvaluationException will be thrown.

21
Chapter 5. Rendering views
Introduction
This chapter shows you how to use the view-state element to render views within a flow.

Defining view states

Use the view-state element to define a step of the flow that renders a view and waits for a user event
to resume:

<view-state id="enterBookingDetails">
<transition on="submit" to="reviewBooking" />
</view-state>

Below is a sample directory structure showing views and other resources like message bundles co-
located with their flow definition:

Flow Packaging

Specifying view identifiers

Use the view attribute to specify the id of the view to render explicitly.

Flow relative view ids

The view id may be a relative path to view resource in the flow's working directory:

<view-state id="enterBookingDetails" view="bookingDetails.xhtml">

Absolute view ids

The view id may be a absolute path to a view resource in the webapp root directory:

<view-state id="enterBookingDetails" view="/WEB-INF/hotels/booking/bookingDetails.x

Logical view ids

With some view frameworks, such as Spring MVC's view framework, the view id may also be a logical

22
Rendering views

identifier resolved by the framework:

<view-state id="enterBookingDetails" view="bookingDetails">

See the Spring MVC integration section for more information on how to integrate with the MVC
ViewResolver infrastructure.

View scope
A view-state allocates a new viewScope when it enters. This scope may be referenced within the
view-state to assign variables that should live for the duration of the state. This scope is useful for ma-
nipulating objects over a series of requests from the same view, often Ajax requests. A view-state des-
troys its viewScope when it exits.

Allocating view variables

Use the var tag to declare a view variable. Like a flow variable, any @Autowired references are auto-
matically restored when the view state resumes.

<var name="searchCriteria" class="com.mycompany.myapp.hotels.SearchCriteria" />

Assigning a viewScope variable

Use the on-render tag to assign a variable from an action result before the view renders:

<on-render>
<evaluate expression="bookingService.findHotels(searchCriteria)" result="viewSc
</on-render>

Manipulating objects in view scope

Objects in view scope are often manipulated over a series of requests from the same view. The following
example pages through a search results list. The list is updated in view scope before each render. Asyn-
chronous event handlers modify the current data page, then request re-rendering of the search results
fragment.

<view-state id="searchResults">
<on-render>
<evaluate expression="bookingService.findHotels(searchCriteria)"
result="viewScope.hotels" />
</on-render>
<transition on="next">
<evaluate expression="searchCriteria.nextPage()" />
<render fragments="searchResultsFragment" />
</transition>
<transition on="previous">
<evaluate expression="searchCriteria.previousPage()" />
<render fragments="searchResultsFragment" />

23
Rendering views

</transition>
</view-state>

Executing render actions

Use the on-render element to execute one or more actions before view rendering. Render actions are
executed on the initial render as well as any subsequent refreshes, including any partial re-renderings of
the view.

<on-render>
<evaluate expression="bookingService.findHotels(searchCriteria)" result="viewSc
</on-render>

Binding to a model
Use the model attribute to declare a model object the view binds to. This attribute is typically used in
conjunction with views that render data controls, such as forms. It enables form data binding and valida-
tion behaviors to be driven from metadata on your model object.

The following example declares an enterBookingDetails state manipulates the booking model:

<view-state id="enterBookingDetails" model="booking">

The model may be an object in any accessible scope, such as flowScope or viewScope. Specifying
a model triggers the following behavior when a view event occurs:

1. View-to-model binding. On view postback, user input values are bound to model object properties for
you.

2. Model validation. After binding, if the model object requires validation that validation logic will be
invoked.

For a flow event to be generated that can drive a view state transition, model binding must complete suc-
cessfully. If model binding fails, the view is re-rendered to allow the user to revise their edits.

Performing type conversion

When request parameters are used to populate the model (commonly referred to as data binding), type
conversion is required to parse String-based request parameter values before setting target model proper-
ties. Default type conversion is available for many common Java types such as numbers, primitives,
enums, and Dates. Users also have the ability to register their own type conversion logic for user-defined
types, and to override the default Converters.

Type Conversion Options

Starting with version 2.1 Spring Web Flow uses the type conversion [ht-

24
Rendering views

tp://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/spring-framework-reference/html/validation.html#core-con
vert] and formatting [ht-
tp://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/spring-framework-reference/html/validation.html#format]
system introduced in Spring 3 for nearly all type conversion needs. Previously Web Flow applications
used a type conversion mechanism that was different from the one in Spring MVC, which relied on the
java.beans.PropertyEditor abstraction. Spring 3 offers a modern type conversion alternative
to PropertyEditors that was actually influenced by Web Flow's own type conversion system. Hence Web
Flow users should find it natural to work with the new Spring 3 type conversion. Another obvious and
very important benefit of this change is that a single type conversion mechanism can now be used across
Spring MVC And Spring Web Flow.

Upgrading to Spring 3 Type Conversion And Formatting

What does this practically mean for existing applications? Existing applications are likely registering
their own converters of type
org.springframework.binding.convert.converters.Converter through a sub-class
of DefaultConversionService available in Spring Binding. Those converters can continue to be
registered as before. They will be adapted as Spring 3 GenericConverter types and registered with
a Spring 3 org.springframework.core.convert.ConversionService instance. In other
words existing converters will be invoked through Spring's type conversion service.

The only exception to this rule are named converters, which can be referenced from a binding ele-
ment in a view-state:

public class ApplicationConversionService extends DefaultConversionService {

public ApplicationConversionService() {
addDefaultConverters();
addDefaultAliases();
addConverter("customConverter", new CustomConverter());
}
}

<view-state id="enterBookingDetails" model="booking">

Named converters are not supported and cannot be used with the type conversion service available in
Spring 3. Therefore such converters will not be adapted and will continue to work as before, i.e. will not
involve the Spring 3 type conversion. However, this mechanism is deprecated and applications are en-
couraged to favor Spring 3 type conversion and formatting features.

Also note that the existing Spring Binding DefaultConversionService no longer registers any
default converters. Instead Web Flow now relies on the default type converters and formatters in Spring
3.

In summary the Spring 3 type conversion and formatting is now used almost exclusively in Web Flow.
Although existing applications will work without any changes, we encourage moving towards unifying
the type conversion needs of Spring MVC and Spring Web Flow parts of applications.

Configuring Type Conversion and Formatting

In Spring MVC an instance of a FormattingConversionService is created automatically

25
Rendering views

through the custom MVC namespace:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

Internally that is done with the help of FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean, which

registers a default set of converters and formatters. You can customize the conversion service instance
used in Spring MVC through the conversion-service attribute:

<mvc:annotation-driven conversion-service="applicationConversionService" />

In Web Flow an instance of a Spring Binding DefaultConversionService is created automatic-

ally, which does not register any converters. Instead it delegates to a FormattingConversionSer-
vice instance for all type conversion needs. By default this is not the same FormattingConver-
sionService instance as the one used in Spring 3. However that won't make a practical difference
until you start registering your own formatters.

The DefaultConversionService used in Web Flow can be customized through the flow-
builder-services element:

<webflow:flow-builder-services id="flowBuilderServices" conversion-service="default

Connecting the dots in order to register your own formatters for use in both Spring MVC and in Spring
Web Flow you can do the following. Create a class to register your custom formatters:

public class ApplicationConversionServiceFactoryBean extends FormattingConversionSe

@Override
protected void installFormatters(FormatterRegistry registry) {
// ...
}
}

Configure it for use in Spring MVC:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

26
Rendering views

http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">
<mvc:annotation-driven conversion-service="applicationConversionService" />

<bean id="applicationConversionService" class="somepackage.ApplicationConversio

Connection the Web Flow DefaultConversionService to the same "applicationConversionSer-

vice" bean used in Spring MVC:

<webflow:flow-registry id="flowRegistry" flow-builder-services="flowBuilderServ

<webflow:flow-builder-services id="flowBuilderServices" conversion-service="def
<bean id="defaultConversionService" class="org.springframework.binding.convert.
<constructor-arg ref="applicationConversionSevice"/>
</bean>

Of course it is also possible to mix and match. Register new Spring 3 Formatter types through the
"applicationConversionService". Register existing Spring Binding Converter types through the "de-
faultConversionService".

Working With Spring 3 Type Conversion And Formatting

An important concept to understand is the difference between type converters and formatters.

Type converters in Spring 3, provided in org.springframework.core, are for general-purpose

type conversion between any two object types. In addition to the most simple Converter type, two
other interfaces are ConverterFactory and GenericConverter.

Formatters in Spring 3, provided in org.springframework.context, have the more specialized

purpose of representing Objects as Strings. The Formatter interface extends the Printer and
Parser interfaces for converting an Object to a String and turning a String into an Object.

Web developers will find the Formatter interface most relevant because it fits the needs of web ap-
plications for type conversion.

Note
An important point to be made is that Object-to-Object conversion is a generalization of the more specific
Object-to-String conversion. In fact in the end Formatters are reigstered as GenericConverter
types with Spring's GenericConversionService making them equal to any other converter.

Formatting Annotations

27
Rendering views

One of the best features of the new type conversion is the ability to use annotations for a better control
over formatting in a concise manner. Annotations can be placed on model attributes and on arguments of
@Controller methods that are mapped to requests. Out of the box Spring provides two annotations
NumberFormat and DateTimeFormat but you can create your own and have them registered along
with the associated formatting logic. You can see examples of the DateTimeFormat annotation in the
Spring Travel [https://src.springframework.org/svn/spring-samples/travel] and in the Petcare [ht-
tps://src.springframework.org/svn/spring-samples/petcare] along with other samples in the Spring
Samples [https://src.springframework.org/svn/spring-samples] repository.

Working With Dates

The DateTimeFormat annotation implies use of Joda Time [http://joda-time.sourceforge.net/]. If that
is present on the classpath the use of this annotation is enabled automatically. By default neither Spring
MVC nor Web Flow register any other date formatters or converters. Therefore it is important for ap-
plications to register a custom formatter to specify the default way for printing and parsing dates. The
DateTimeFormat annotation on the other hand provides more fine-grained control where it is neces-
sary to deviate from the default.

For more information on working with Spring 3 type conversion and formatting please refer to the relev-
ant sections of the Spring documentation [ht-
tp://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/spring-framework-reference/html/index.html].

Suppressing binding
Use the bind attribute to suppress model binding and validation for particular view events. The follow-
ing example suppresses binding when the cancel event occurs:

<view-state id="enterBookingDetails" model="booking">

Specifying bindings explicitly

Use the binder element to configure the exact set of model bindings usable by the view. This is partic-
ularly useful in a Spring MVC environment for restricting the set of "allowed fields" per view.

<view-state id="enterBookingDetails" model="booking">

If the binder element is not specified, all public properties of the model are eligible for binding by the
view. With the binder element specified, only the explicitly configured bindings are allowed.

28
Rendering views

Each binding may also apply a converter to format the model property value for display in a custom
manner. If no converter is specified, the default converter for the model property's type will be used.

<view-state id="enterBookingDetails" model="booking">

In the example above, the shortDate converter is bound to the checkinDate and checkout-
Date properties. Custom converters may be registered with the application's ConversionService.

Each binding may also apply a required check that will generate a validation error if the user provided
value is null on form postback:

<view-state id="enterBookingDetails" model="booking">

In the example above, all of the bindings are required. If one or more blank input values are bound, val-
idation errors will be generated and the view will re-render with those errors.

Validating a model
Model validation is driven by constraints specified against a model object. Web Flow supports enforcing
such constraints programatically as well as declaratively with JSR-303 Bean Validation annotations.

JSR-303 Bean Validation

Web Flow provides built-in support for the JSR-303 Bean Validation API building on equivalent sup-
port available in Spring MVC. To enable JSR-303 validation configure the flow-builder-services with
Spring MVC's LocalValidatorFactoryBean:

<webflow:flow-registry flow-builder-services="flowBuilderServices" />

<webflow:flow-builder-services id="flowBuilderServices" validator="validator" />

29
Rendering views

<bean id="validator" class="org.springframework.validation.beanvalidation.LocalVali

With the above in place, the configured validator will be applied to all model attributes after data bind-
ing.

Note that JSR-303 bean validation and validation by convention (explained in the next section) are not
mutually exclusive. In other words Web Flow will apply all available validation mechanisms.

Programmatic validation
There are two ways to perform model validation programatically. The first is to implement validation lo-
gic in your model object. The second is to implement an external Validator. Both ways provide you
with a ValidationContext to record error messages and access information about the current user.

Implementing a model validate method

Defining validation logic in your model object is the simplest way to validate its state. Once such logic
is structured according to Web Flow conventions, Web Flow will automatically invoke that logic during
the view-state postback lifecycle. Web Flow conventions have you structure model validation logic by
view-state, allowing you to easily validate the subset of model properties that are editable on that view.
To do this, simply create a public method with the name validate${state}, where ${state} is
the id of your view-state where you want validation to run. For example:

public class Booking {

private Date checkinDate;
private Date checkoutDate;
...
public void validateEnterBookingDetails(ValidationContext context) {
MessageContext messages = context.getMessageContext();
if (checkinDate.before(today())) {
messages.addMessage(new MessageBuilder().error().source("checkinDate").
defaultText("Check in date must be a future date").build());
} else if (!checkinDate.before(checkoutDate)) {
messages.addMessage(new MessageBuilder().error().source("checkoutDate")
defaultText("Check out date must be later than check in date").buil
}
}
}

In the example above, when a transition is triggered in a enterBookingDetails view-state that is

editing a Booking model, Web Flow will invoke the validateEnterBookingDe-
tails(ValidationContext) method automatically unless validation has been suppressed for that
transition. An example of such a view-state is shown below:

<view-state id="enterBookingDetails" model="booking">

Any number of validation methods are defined. Generally, a flow edits a model over a series of views.

30
Rendering views

In that case, a validate method would be defined for each view-state where validation needs to run.

Implementing a Validator
The second way is to define a separate object, called a Validator, which validates your model object. To
do this, first create a class whose name has the pattern ${model}Validator, where ${model} is the
capitialized form of the model expression, such as booking. Then define a public method with the
name validate${state}, where ${state} is the id of your view-state, such as enterBook-
ingDetails. The class should then be deployed as a Spring bean. Any number of validation methods
can be defined. For example:

@Component
public class BookingValidator {
public void validateEnterBookingDetails(Booking booking, ValidationContext cont
MessageContext messages = context.getMessageContext();
if (booking.getCheckinDate().before(today())) {
messages.addMessage(new MessageBuilder().error().source("checkinDate").
defaultText("Check in date must be a future date").build());
} else if (!booking.getCheckinDate().before(booking.getCheckoutDate())) {
messages.addMessage(new MessageBuilder().error().source("checkoutDate")
defaultText("Check out date must be later than check in date").buil
}
}
}

In the example above, when a transition is triggered in a enterBookingDetails view-state that is

editing a Booking model, Web Flow will invoke the validateEnterBookingDe-
tails(Booking, ValidationContext) method automatically unless validation has been sup-
pressed for that transition.

A Validator can also accept a Spring MVC Errors object, which is required for invoking existing
Spring Validators.

Validators must be registered as Spring beans employing the naming convention

${model}Validator to be detected and invoked automatically. In the example above, Spring 2.5
classpath-scanning would detect the @Component and automatically register it as a bean with the name
bookingValidator. Then, anytime the booking model needs to be validated, this book-
ingValidator instance would be invoked for you.

Default validate method

A Validator class can also define a method called validate not associated (by convention) with any
specific view-state.

@Component
public class BookingValidator {
public void validate(Booking booking, ValidationContext context) {
//...
}
}

In the above code sample the method validate will be called every time a Model of type Booking
is validated (unless validation has been suppressed for that transition). If needed the default method can
also be called in addition to an existing state-specific method. Consider the following example:

31
Rendering views

@Component
public class BookingValidator {
public void validate(Booking booking, ValidationContext context) {
//...
}
public void validateEnterBookingDetails(Booking booking, ValidationContext cont
//...
}
}

In above code sample the method validateEnterBookingDetails will be called first. The de-
fault validate method will be called next.

ValidationContext
A ValidationContext allows you to obtain a MessageContext to record messages during validation.
It also exposes information about the current user, such as the signaled userEvent and the current
user's Principal identity. This information can be used to customize validation logic based on what
button or link was activated in the UI, or who is authenticated. See the API Javadocs for Valida-
tionContext for more information.

Suppressing validation
Use the validate attribute to suppress model validation for particular view events:

<view-state id="chooseAmenities" model="booking">

In this example, data binding will still occur on back but validation will be suppressed.

Executing view transitions

Define one or more transition elements to handle user events that may occur on the view. A trans-
ition may take the user to another view, or it may simply execute an action and re-render the current
view. A transition may also request the rendering of parts of a view called "fragments" when handling
an Ajax event. Finally, "global" transitions that are shared across all views may also be defined.

Implementing view transitions is illustrated in the following sections.

Transition actions
A view-state transition can execute one or more actions before executing. These actions may return an
error result to prevent the transition from exiting the current view-state. If an error result occurs, the
view will re-render and should display an appropriate message to the user.

If the transition action invokes a plain Java method, the invoked method may return false to prevent the
transition from executing. This technique can be used to handle exceptions thrown by service-layer
methods. The example below invokes an action that calls a service and handles an exceptional situation:

32
Rendering views

<transition on="submit" to="bookingConfirmed">

public class BookingAction {

public boolean makeBooking(Booking booking, MessageContext context) {
try {
bookingService.make(booking);
return true;
} catch (RoomNotAvailableException e) {
context.addMessage(new MessageBuilder().error().
.defaultText("No room is available at this hotel").build());
return false;
}
}
}

Note
When there is more than one action defined on a transition, if one returns an error result the remaining ac-
tions in the set will not be executed. If you need to ensure one transition action's result cannot impact the
execution of another, define a single transition action that invokes a method that encapsulates all the action
logic.

Global transitions
Use the flow's global-transitions element to create transitions that apply across all views. Glob-
al-transitions are often used to handle global menu links that are part of the layout.

<global-transitions>
<transition on="login" to="login" />
<transition on="logout" to="logout" />
</global-transitions>

Event handlers
From a view-state, transitions without targets can also be defined. Such transitions are called "event
handlers":

These event handlers do not change the state of the flow. They simply execute their actions and re-
render the current view or one or more fragments of the current view.

Rendering fragments
33
Rendering views

Use the render element within a transition to request partial re-rendering of the current view after
handling the event:

The fragments attribute should reference the id(s) of the view element(s) you wish to re-render. Specify
multiple elements to re-render by separating them with a comma delimiter.

Such partial rendering is often used with events signaled by Ajax to update a specific zone of the view.

Working with messages

Spring Web Flow's MessageContext is an API for recording messages during the course of flow ex-
ecutions. Plain text messages can be added to the context, as well as internationalized messages resolved
by a Spring MessageSource. Messages are renderable by views and automatically survive flow exe-
cution redirects. Three distinct message severities are provided: info, warning, and error. In addi-
tion, a convenient MessageBuilder exists for fluently constructing messages.

Adding plain text messages

MessageContext context = ...
MessageBuilder builder = new MessageBuilder();
context.addMessage(builder.error().source("checkinDate")
.defaultText("Check in date must be a future date").build());
context.addMessage(builder.warn().source("smoking")
.defaultText("Smoking is bad for your health").build());
context.addMessage(builder.info()
.defaultText("We have processed your reservation - thank you and enjoy your sta

Adding internationalized messages

MessageContext context = ...
MessageBuilder builder = new MessageBuilder();
context.addMessage(builder.error().source("checkinDate").code("checkinDate.notFutur
context.addMessage(builder.warn().source("smoking").code("notHealthy")
.resolvableArg("smoking").build());
context.addMessage(builder.info().code("reservationConfirmation").build());

Using message bundles

Internationalized messages are defined in message bundles accessed by a Spring MessageSource. To
create a flow-specific message bundle, simply define messages.properties file(s) in your flow's
directory. Create a default messages.properties file and a .properties file for each additional
Locale you need to support.

34
Rendering views

#messages.properties
checkinDate=Check in date must be a future date
notHealthy={0} is bad for your health
reservationConfirmation=We have processed your reservation - thank you and enjoy yo

From within a view or a flow, you may also access message resources using the resourceBundle
EL variable:

<h:outputText value="#{resourceBundle.reservationConfirmation}" />

Understanding system generated messages

There are several places where Web Flow itself will generate messages to display to the user. One im-
portant place this occurs is during view-to-model data binding. When a binding error occurs, such as a
type conversion error, Web Flow will map that error to a message retrieved from your resource bundle
automatically. To lookup the message to display, Web Flow tries resource keys that contain the binding
error code and target property name.

As an example, consider a binding to a checkinDate property of a Booking object. Suppose the

user typed in a alphabetic string. In this case, a type conversion error will be raised. Web Flow will map
the 'typeMismatch' error code to a message by first querying your resource bundle for a message with
the following key:

booking.checkinDate.typeMismatch

The first part of the key is the model class's short name. The second part of the key is the property name.
The third part is the error code. This allows for the lookup of a unique message to display to the user
when a binding fails on a model property. Such a message might say:

booking.checkinDate.typeMismatch=The check in date must be in the format yyyy-mm-dd

If no such resource key can be found of that form, a more generic key will be tried. This key is simply
the error code. The field name of the property is provided as a message argument.

typeMismatch=The {0} field is of the wrong type.

Displaying popups
Use the popup attribute to render a view in a modal popup dialog:

<view-state id="changeSearchCriteria" view="enterSearchCriteria.xhtml" popup="true"

35
Rendering views

When using Web Flow with the Spring Javascript, no client side code is necessary for the popup to dis-
play. Web Flow will send a response to the client requesting a redirect to the view from a popup, and the
client will honor the request.

View backtracking
By default, when you exit a view state and transition to a new view state, you can go back to the previ-
ous state using the browser back button. These view state history policies are configurable on a per-
transition basis by using the history attribute.

Discarding history
Set the history attribute to discard to prevent backtracking to a view:

<transition on="cancel" to="bookingCancelled" history="discard">

Invalidating history
Set the history attribute to invalidate to prevent backtracking to a view as well all previously dis-
played views:

<transition on="confirm" to="bookingConfirmed" history="invalidate">

36
Chapter 6. Executing actions
Introduction
This chapter shows you how to use the action-state element to control the execution of an action
at a point within a flow. It will also show how to use the decision-state element to make a flow
routing decision. Finally, several examples of invoking actions from the various points possible within a
flow will be discussed.

Defining action states

Use the action-state element when you wish to invoke an action, then transition to another state
based on the action's outcome:

<action-state id="moreAnswersNeeded">
<evaluate expression="interview.moreAnswersNeeded()" />
<transition on="yes" to="answerQuestions" />
<transition on="no" to="finish" />
</action-state>

The full example below illustrates a interview flow that uses the action-state above to determine if more
answers are needed to complete the interview:

37
Executing actions

Defining decision states

Use the decision-state element as an alternative to the action-state to make a routing decision us-
ing a convenient if/else syntax. The example below shows the moreAnswersNeeded state above now
implemented as a decision state instead of an action-state:

<decision-state id="moreAnswersNeeded">
<if test="interview.moreAnswersNeeded()" then="answerQuestions" else="finish" /
</decision-state>

Action outcome event mappings

Actions often invoke methods on plain Java objects. When called from action-states and decision-states,
these method return values can be used to drive state transitions. Since transitions are triggered by
events, a method return value must first be mapped to an Event object. The following table describes
how common return value types are mapped to Event objects:

Table 6.1. Action method return value to event id mappings

Method return type Mapped Event identifier expression
java.lang.String the String value
java.lang.Boolean yes (for true), no (for false)
java.lang.Enum the Enum name
any other type success

This is illustrated in the example action state below, which invokes a method that returns a boolean
value:

<action-state id="moreAnswersNeeded">
<evaluate expression="interview.moreAnswersNeeded()" />
<transition on="yes" to="answerQuestions" />
<transition on="no" to="finish" />
</action-state>

Action implementations
While writing action code as POJO logic is the most common, there are several other action implement-
ation options. Sometimes you need to write action code that needs access to the flow context. You can
always invoke a POJO and pass it the flowRequestContext as an EL variable. Alternatively, you may
implement the Action interface or extend from the MultiAction base class. These options provide
stronger type safety when you have a natural coupling between your action code and Spring Web Flow
APIs. Examples of each of these approaches are shown below.

Invoking a POJO action

38
Executing actions

public class PojoAction {

public String method(RequestContext context) {
...
}
}

Invoking a custom Action implementation

public class CustomAction implements Action {

public Event execute(RequestContext context) {
...
}
}

Invoking a MultiAction implementation

public class CustomMultiAction extends MultiAction {

public Event actionMethod1(RequestContext context) {
...
}
public Event actionMethod2(RequestContext context) {
...
}
...
}

Action exceptions
Actions often invoke services that encapsulate complex business logic. These services may throw busi-
ness exceptions that the action code should handle.

Handling a business exception with a POJO action

The following example invokes an action that catches a business exception, adds a error message to the

39
Executing actions

context, and returns a result event identifier. The result is treated as a flow event which the calling flow
can then respond to.

<evaluate expression="bookingAction.makeBooking(booking, flowRequestContext)" />

public class BookingAction {

public String makeBooking(Booking booking, RequestContext context) {
try {
BookingConfirmation confirmation = bookingService.make(booking);
context.getFlowScope().put("confirmation", confirmation);
return "success";
} catch (RoomNotAvailableException e) {
context.addMessage(new MessageBuilder().error().
.defaultText("No room is available at this hotel").build());
return "error";
}
}
}

Handling a business exception with a MultiAction

The following example is functionally equivlant to the last, but implemented as a MultiAction instead of
a POJO action. The MultiAction requires its action methods to be of the signature Event
${methodName}(RequestContext), providing stronger type safety, while a POJO action allows
for more freedom.

<evaluate expression="bookingAction.makeBooking" />

public class BookingAction extends MultiAction {

public Event makeBooking(RequestContext context) {
try {
Booking booking = (Booking) context.getFlowScope().get("booking");
BookingConfirmation confirmation = bookingService.make(booking);
context.getFlowScope().put("confirmation", confirmation);
return success();
} catch (RoomNotAvailableException e) {
context.getMessageContext().addMessage(new MessageBuilder().error().
.defaultText("No room is available at this hotel").build());
return error();
}
}
}

Other Action execution examples

on-start
The following example shows an action that creates a new Booking object by invoking a method on a

40
Executing actions

service:

on-entry
The following example shows a state entry action that sets the special fragments variable that causes
the view-state to render a partial fragment of its view:

<view-state id="changeSearchCriteria" view="enterSearchCriteria.xhtml" popup="true"

<on-entry>
<render fragments="hotelSearchForm" />
</on-entry>
</view-state>

on-exit
The following example shows a state exit action that releases a lock on a record being edited:

<view-state id="editOrder">
<on-entry>
<evaluate expression="orderService.selectForUpdate(orderId, currentUser)"
result="viewScope.order" />
</on-entry>
<transition on="save" to="finish">
<evaluate expression="orderService.update(order, currentUser)" />
</transition>
<on-exit>
<evaluate expression="orderService.releaseLock(order, currentUser)" />
</on-exit>
</view-state>

on-end
The following example shows the equivalent object locking behavior using flow start and end actions:

<flow xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

41
Executing actions

xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow
http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow/spring-webf
<input name="orderId" />
<on-start>
<evaluate expression="orderService.selectForUpdate(orderId, currentUser)"
result="flowScope.order" />
</on-start>
<view-state id="editOrder">
<transition on="save" to="finish">
<evaluate expression="orderService.update(order, currentUser)" />
</transition>
</view-state>
<on-end>
<evaluate expression="orderService.releaseLock(order, currentUser)" />
</on-end>
</flow>

on-render
The following example shows a render action that loads a list of hotels to display before the view is
rendered:

<view-state id="reviewHotels">
<on-render>
<evaluate expression="bookingService.findHotels(searchCriteria)"
result="viewScope.hotels" result-type="dataModel" />
</on-render>
<transition on="select" to="reviewHotel">
<set name="flowScope.hotel" value="hotels.selectedRow" />
</transition>
</view-state>

on-transition
The following example shows a transition action adds a subflow outcome event attribute to a collection:

<subflow-state id="addGuest" subflow="createGuest">

Named actions
The following example shows how to execute a chain of actions in an action-state. The name of each ac-
tion becomes a qualifier for the action's result event.

42
Executing actions

<action-state id="doTwoThings">
<evaluate expression="service.thingOne()">
<attribute name="name" value="thingOne" />
</evaluate>
<evaluate expression="service.thingTwo()">
<attribute name="name" value="thingTwo" />
</evaluate>
<transition on="thingTwo.success" to="showResults" />
</action-state>

In this example, the flow will transition to showResults when thingTwo completes successfully.

Streaming actions
Sometimes an Action needs to stream a custom response back to the client. An example might be a flow
that renders a PDF document when handling a print event. This can be achieved by having the action
stream the content then record "Response Complete" status on the ExternalContext. The responseCom-
plete flag tells the pausing view-state not to render the response because another object has taken care of
it.

<view-state id="reviewItinerary">
<transition on="print">
<evaluate expression="printBoardingPassAction" />
</transition>
</view-state>

public class PrintBoardingPassAction extends AbstractAction {

public Event doExecute(RequestContext context) {
// stream PDF content here...
// - Access HttpServletResponse by calling context.getExternalContext().get
// - Mark response complete by calling context.getExternalContext().recordR
return success();
}
}

In this example, when the print event is raised the flow will call the printBoardingPassAction. The ac-
tion will render the PDF then mark the response as complete.

Handling File Uploads

Another common task is to use Web Flow to handle multipart file uploads in combination with Spring
MVC's MultipartResolver. Once the resolver is set up correctly as described here [ht-
tp://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/2.5.x/reference/mvc.html#mvc-multipart] and the submitting
HTML form is configured with enctype="multipart/form-data", you can easily handle the
file upload in a transition action.

Note
The file upload example below below is not relevant when using Web Flow with JSF. See the section
called “Handling File Uploads with JSF” for details of how to upload files using JSF.

43
Executing actions

Given a form such as:

<form:form modelAttribute="fileUploadHandler" enctype="multipart/form-data">

Select file: <input type="file" name="file"/>
<input type="submit" name="_eventId_upload" value="Upload" />
</form:form>

and a backing object for handling the upload such as:

package org.springframework.webflow.samples.booking;
import org.springframework.web.multipart.MultipartFile;
public class FileUploadHandler {
private transient MultipartFile file;
public void processFile() {
//Do something with the MultipartFile here
}
public void setFile(MultipartFile file) {
this.file = file;
}
}

you can process the upload using a transition action as in the following example:

<view-state id="uploadFile" model="uploadFileHandler">

The MultipartFile will be bound to the FileUploadHandler bean as part of the normal form
binding process so that it will be available to process during the execution of the transition action.

44
Chapter 7. Flow Managed Persistence
Introduction
Most applications access data in some way. Many modify data shared by multiple users and therefore re-
quire transactional data access properties. They often transform relational data sets into domain objects
to support application processing. Web Flow offers "flow managed persistence" where a flow can create,
commit, and close a object persistence context for you. Web Flow integrates both Hibernate and JPA ob-
ject persistence technologies.

Apart from flow-managed persistence, there is the pattern of fully encapsulating PersistenceContext
management within the service layer of your application. In that case, the web layer does not get in-
volved with persistence, instead it works entirely with detached objects that are passed to and returned
by your service layer. This chapter will focus on the flow-managed persistence, exploring how and when
to use this feature.

FlowScoped PersistenceContext
This pattern creates a PersistenceContext in flowScope on flow startup, uses that context for
data access during the course of flow execution, and commits changes made to persistent entities at the
end. This pattern provides isolation of intermediate edits by only committing changes to the database at
the end of flow execution. This pattern is often used in conjunction with an optimistic locking strategy to
protect the integrity of data modified in parallel by multiple users. To support saving and restarting the
progress of a flow over an extended period of time, a durable store for flow state must be used. If a save
and restart capability is not required, standard HTTP session-based storage of flow state is sufficient. In
that case, session expiration or termination before commit could potentially result in changes being lost.

To use the FlowScoped PersistenceContext pattern, first mark your flow as a persistence-con-
text:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

Then configure the correct FlowExecutionListener to apply this pattern to your flow. If using
Hibernate, register the HibernateFlowExecutionListener. If using JPA, register the Jpa-
FlowExecutionListener.

<webflow:flow-executor id="flowExecutor" flow-registry="flowRegistry">

<webflow:flow-execution-listeners>
<webflow:listener ref="jpaFlowExecutionListener" />
</webflow:flow-execution-listeners>
</webflow:flow-executor>
<bean id="jpaFlowExecutionListener"
class="org.springframework.webflow.persistence.JpaFlowExecutionListener">
<constructor-arg ref="entityManagerFactory" />
<constructor-arg ref="transactionManager" />

45
Flow Managed Persistence

</bean>

To trigger a commit at the end, annotate your end-state with the commit attribute:

<end-state id="bookingConfirmed" commit="true" />

That is it. When your flow starts, the listener will handle allocating a new EntityManager in flow-
Scope. Reference this EntityManager at anytime from within your flow by using the special per-
sistenceContext variable. In addition, any data access that occurs using a Spring managed data ac-
cess object will use this EntityManager automatically. Such data access operations should always ex-
ecute non transactionally or in read-only transactions to maintain isolation of intermediate edits.

Flow Managed Persistence And Sub-Flows

A flow managed PersistenceContext is automatically extended (propagated) to subflows assum-
ing the subflow also has the <perstistence-context/> variable. When a subflow re-uses the
PersistenceContext started by its parent it ignores commit flags when an end state is reached
thereby deferring the final decision (to commit or not) to its parent.

46
Chapter 8. Securing Flows
Introduction
Security is an important concept for any application. End users should not be able to access any portion
of a site simply by guessing the URL. Areas of a site that are sensitive must ensure that only authorized
requests are processed. Spring Security is a proven security platform that can integrate with your applic-
ation at multiple levels. This section will focus on securing flow execution.

How do I secure a flow?

Securing flow execution is a three step process:

• Configure Spring Security with authentication and authorization rules

• Annotate the flow definition with the secured element to define the security rules

• Add the SecurityFlowExecutionListener to process the security rules.

Each of these steps must be completed or else flow security rules will not be applied.

The secured element

The secured element designates that its containing element should apply the authorization check before
fully entering. This may not occur more then once per stage of the flow execution that is secured.

Three phases of flow execution can be secured: flows, states and transitions. In each case the syntax for
the secured element is identical. The secured element is located inside the element it is securing. For ex-
ample, to secure a state the secured element occurs directly inside that state:

<view-state id="secured-view">
<secured attributes="ROLE_USER" />
...
</view-state>

Security attributes
The attributes attribute is a comma separated list of Spring Security authorization attributes. Often,
these are specific security roles. The attributes are compared against the user's granted attributes by a
Spring Security access decision manager.

<secured attributes="ROLE_USER" />

By default, a role based access decision manager is used to determine if the user is allowed access. This
will need to be overridden if your application is not using authorization roles.

47
Securing Flows

Matching type
There are two types of matching available: any and all. Any, allows access if at least one of the re-
quired security attributes is granted to the user. All, allows access only if each of the required security
attributes are granted to the user.

<secured attributes="ROLE_USER, ROLE_ANONYMOUS" match="any" />

This attribute is optional. If not defined, the default value is any.

The match attribute will only be respected if the default access decision manager is used.

The SecurityFlowExecutionListener
Defining security rules in the flow by themselves will not protect the flow execution. A Security-
FlowExecutionListener must also be defined in the webflow configuration and applied to the
flow executor.

<webflow:flow-executor id="flowExecutor" flow-registry="flowRegistry">

<webflow:flow-execution-listeners>
<webflow:listener ref="securityFlowExecutionListener" />
</webflow:flow-execution-listeners>
</webflow:flow-executor>
<bean id="securityFlowExecutionListener"
class="org.springframework.webflow.security.SecurityFlowExecutionListener" />

If access is denied to a portion of the application an AccessDeniedException will be thrown. This

exception will later be caught by Spring Security and used to prompt the user to authenticate. It is im-
portant that this exception be allowed to travel up the execution stack uninhibited, otherwise the end
user may not be prompted to authenticate.

Custom Access Decision Managers

If your application is using authorities that are not role based, you will need to configure a custom Ac-
cessDecisionManager. You can override the default decision manager by setting the accessDe-
cisionManager property on the security listener. Please consult the Spring Security reference docu-
mentation [http://static.springframework.org/spring-security/site/reference.html] to learn more about de-
cision managers.

Configuring Spring Security

Spring Security has robust configuration options available. As every application and environment has its
own security requirements, the Spring Security reference documentation [ht-

48
Securing Flows

tp://static.springframework.org/spring-security/site/reference.html] is the best place to learn the avail-

able options.

Both the booking-faces and booking-mvc sample applications are configured to use Spring Se-
curity. Configuration is needed at both the Spring and web.xml levels.

Spring configuration
The Spring configuration defines http specifics (such as protected URLs and login/logout mechanics)
and the authentication-provider. For the sample applications, a local authentication provider
is configured.

<security:http auto-config="true">
<security:form-login login-page="/spring/login"
login-processing-url="/spring/loginProcess"
default-target-url="/spring/main"
authentication-failure-url="/spring/login?login_error=1" /
<security:logout logout-url="/spring/logout" logout-success-url="/spring/logout
</security:http>
<security:authentication-provider>
<security:password-encoder hash="md5" />
<security:user-service>
<security:user name="keith" password="417c7382b16c395bc25b5da1398cf076"
authorities="ROLE_USER,ROLE_SUPERVISOR" />
<security:user name="erwin" password="12430911a8af075c6f41c6976af22b09"
authorities="ROLE_USER,ROLE_SUPERVISOR" />
<security:user name="jeremy" password="57c6cbff0d421449be820763f03139eb"
authorities="ROLE_USER" />
<security:user name="scott" password="942f2339bf50796de535a384f0d1af3e"
authorities="ROLE_USER" />
</security:user-service>
</security:authentication-provider>

web.xml Configuration
In the web.xml file, a filter is defined to intercept all requests. This filter will listen for login/
logout requests and process them accordingly. It will also catch AccesDeniedExceptions and re-
direct the user to the login page.

<filter>
<filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
<filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.DelegatingFilterProxy</filter-clas
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>springSecurityFilterChain</filter-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>

49
Chapter 9. Flow Inheritance
Introduction
Flow inheritance allows one flow to inherit the configuration of another flow. Inheritance can occur at
both the flow and state levels. A common use case is for a parent flow to define global transitions and
exception handlers, then each child flow can inherit those settings.

In order for a parent flow to be found, it must be added to the flow-registry just like any other
flow.

Is flow inheritance like Java inheritance?

Flow inheritance is similar to Java inheritance in that elements defined in a parent are exposed via the
child, however, there are key differences.

A child flow cannot override an element from a parent flow. Similar elements between the parent and
child flows will be merged. Unique elements in the parent flow will be added to the child.

A child flow can inherit from multiple parent flows. Java inheritance is limited to a single class.

Types of Flow Inheritance

Flow level inheritance
Flow level inheritance is defined by the parent attribute on the flow element. The attribute contains a
comma separated list of flow identifiers to inherit from. The child flow will inherit from each parent in
the order it is listed adding elements and content to the resulting flow. The resulting flow from the first
merge will be considered the child in the second merge, and so on.

<flow parent="common-transitions, common-states">

State level inheritance

State level inheritance is similar to flow level inheritance, except only one state inherits from the parent,
instead of the entire flow.

Unlike flow inheritance, only a single parent is allowed. Additionally, the identifier of the flow state to
inherit from must also be defined. The identifiers for the flow and the state within that flow are separ-
ated by a #.

The parent and child states must be of the same type. For instance a view-state cannot inherit from an
end-state, only another view-state.

<view-state id="child-state" parent="parent-flow#parent-view-state">

50
Flow Inheritance

Abstract flows
Often parent flows are not designed to be executed directly. In order to protect these flows from running,
they can be marked as abstract. If an abstract flow attempts to run, a FlowBuilderException
will be thrown.

Inheritance Algorithm
When a child flow inherits from it's parent, essentially what happens is that the parent and child are
merged together to create a new flow. There are rules for every element in the Web Flow definition lan-
guage that govern how that particular element is merged.

There are two types of elements: mergeable and non-mergeable. Mergeable elements will always at-
tempt to merge together if the elements are similar. Non-mergeable elements in a parent or child flow
will always be contained in the resulting flow intact. They will not be modified as part of the merge pro-
cess.

Note
Paths to external resources in the parent flow should be absolute. Relative paths will break when the two
flows are merged unless the parent and child flow are in the same directory. Once merged, all relative paths
in the parent flow will become relative to the child flow.

Mergeable Elements
If the elements are of the same type and their keyed attribute are identical, the content of the parent ele-
ment will be merged with the child element. The merge algorithm will continue to merge each sub-
element of the merging parent and child. Otherwise the parent element is added as a new element to the
child.

In most cases, elements from a parent flow that are added will be added after elements in the child flow.
Exceptions to this rule include action elements (evaluate, render and set) which will be added at the be-
ginning. This allows for the results of parent actions to be used by child actions.

Mergeable elements are:

• action-state: id

• attribute: name

• decision-state: id

• end-state: id

• flow: always merges

• if: test

• on-end: always merges

• on-entry: always merges

51
Flow Inheritance

• on-exit: always merges

• on-render: always merges

• on-start: always merges

• input: name

• output: name

• secured: attributes

• subflow-state: id

• transition: on and on-exception

• view-state: id

Non-mergeable Elements
Non-mergeable elements are:

• bean-import

• evaluate

• exception-handler

• persistence-context

• render

• set

• var

52
Chapter 10. System Setup
Introduction
This chapter shows you how to setup the Web Flow system for use in any web environment.

webflow-config.xsd
Web Flow provides a Spring schema that allows you to configure the system. To use this schema, in-
clude it in one of your infrastructure-layer beans files:

Basic system configuration

The next section shows the minimal configuration required to set up the Web Flow system in your ap-
plication.

FlowRegistry
Register your flows in a FlowRegistry:

<webflow:flow-registry id="flowRegistry">
<webflow:flow-location path="/WEB-INF/flows/booking/booking.xml" />
</webflow:flow-registry>

FlowExecutor
Deploy a FlowExecutor, the central service for executing flows:

<webflow:flow-executor id="flowExecutor" />

See the Spring MVC and Spring Faces sections of this guide on how to integrate the Web Flow system
with the MVC and JSF environment, respectively.

53
System Setup

flow-registry options
This section explores flow-registry configuration options.

Specifying flow locations

Use the location element to specify paths to flow definitions to register. By default, flows will be as-
signed registry identifiers equal to their filenames minus the file extension, unless a registry bath path is
defined.

<webflow:flow-location path="/WEB-INF/flows/booking/booking.xml" />

Assigning custom flow identifiers

Specify an id to assign a custom registry identifier to a flow:

<webflow:flow-location path="/WEB-INF/flows/booking/booking.xml" id="bookHotel" />

Assigning flow meta-attributes

Use the flow-definition-attributes element to assign custom meta-attributes to a registered
flow:

<webflow:flow-location path="/WEB-INF/flows/booking/booking.xml">
<webflow:flow-definition-attributes>
<webflow:attribute name="caption" value="Books a hotel" />
</webflow:flow-definition-attributes>
</webflow:flow-location>

Registering flows using a location pattern

Use the flow-location-patterns element to register flows that match a specific resource loca-
tion pattern:

<webflow:flow-location-pattern value="/WEB-INF/flows/**/*-flow.xml" />

Flow location base path

Use the base-path attribute to define a base location for all flows in the application. All flow loca-
tions are then relative to the base path. The base path can be a resource path such as '/WEB-INF' or a
location on the classpath like 'classpath:org/springframework/webflow/samples'.

<webflow:flow-registry id="flowRegistry" base-path="/WEB-INF">

<webflow:flow-location path="/hotels/booking/booking.xml" />

54
System Setup

</webflow:flow-registry>

With a base path defined, the algorithm that assigns flow identifiers changes slightly. Flows will now be
assigned registry identifiers equal to the the path segment between their base path and file name. For ex-
ample, if a flow definition is located at '/WEB-INF/hotels/booking/booking-flow.xml' and the base path
is '/WEB-INF' the remaining path to this flow is 'hotels/booking' which becomes the flow id.

Directory per flow definition

Recall it is a best practice to package each flow definition in a unique directory. This improves modularity,
allowing dependent resources to be packaged with the flow definition. It also prevents two flows from hav-
ing the same identifiers when using the convention.

If no base path is not specified or if the flow definition is directly on the base path, flow id assignment
from the filename (minus the extension) is used. For example, if a flow definition file is 'booking.xml',
the flow identifier is simply 'booking'.

Location patterns are particularly powerful when combined with a registry base path. Instead of the flow
identifiers becoming '*-flow', they will be based on the directory path. For example:

<webflow:flow-registry id="flowRegistry" base-path="/WEB-INF">

<webflow:flow-location-pattern value="/**/*-flow.xml" />
</webflow:flow-registry>

In the above example, suppose you had flows located in /user/login, /user/registration, /
hotels/booking, and /flights/booking directories within WEB-INF, you'd end up with flow
ids of user/login, user/registration, hotels/booking, and flights/booking, re-
spectively.

Configuring FlowRegistry hierarchies

Use the parent attribute to link two flow registries together in a hierarchy. When the child registry is
queried, if it cannot find the requested flow it will delegate to its parent.

<webflow:flow-registry id="flowRegistry" parent="sharedFlowRegistry">
<webflow:flow-location path="/WEB-INF/flows/booking/booking.xml" />
</webflow:flow-registry>

<webflow:flow-registry id="sharedFlowRegistry">

</webflow:flow-registry>

Configuring custom FlowBuilder services

Use the flow-builder-services attribute to customize the services and settings used to build
flows in a flow-registry. If no flow-builder-services tag is specified, the default service implementations
are used. When the tag is defined, you only need to reference the services you want to customize.

55
System Setup

<webflow:flow-registry id="flowRegistry" flow-builder-services="flowBuilderServices

<webflow:flow-location path="/WEB-INF/flows/booking/booking.xml" />
</webflow:flow-registry>
<webflow:flow-builder-services id="flowBuilderServices" />

The configurable services are the conversion-service, expression-parser, and view-

factory-creator. These services are configured by referencing custom beans you define. For ex-
ample:

<webflow:flow-builder-services id="flowBuilderServices"
conversion-service="conversionService"
expression-parser="expressionParser"
view-factory-creator="viewFactoryCreator" />
<bean id="conversionService" class="..." />
<bean id="expressionParser" class="..." />
<bean id="viewFactoryCreator" class="..." />

conversion-service
Use the conversion-service attribute to customize the ConversionService used by the Web
Flow system. Type conversion is used to convert from one type to another when required during flow
execution such as when processing request parameters, invoking actions, and so on. Many common ob-
ject types such as numbers, classes, and enums are supported. However you'll probably need to provide
your own type conversion and formatting logic for custom data types. Please read the section called
“Performing type conversion” for important information on how to provide custom type conversion lo-
gic.

expression-parser
Use the expression-parser attribute to customize the ExpressionParser used by the Web
Flow system. The default ExpressionParser uses the Unified EL if available on the classpath, otherwise
OGNL is used.

view-factory-creator
Use the view-factory-creator attribute to customize the ViewFactoryCreator used by the
Web Flow system. The default ViewFactoryCreator produces Spring MVC ViewFactories capable of
rendering JSP, Velocity, and Freemarker views.

The configurable settings are development. These settings are global configuration attributes that can
be applied during the flow construction process.

development
Set this to true to switch on flow development mode. Development mode switches on hot-reloading of
flow definition changes, including changes to dependent flow resources such as message bundles.

flow-executor options
This section explores flow-executor configuration options.

56
System Setup

Attaching flow execution listeners

Use the flow-execution-listeners element to register listeners that observe the lifecycle of
flow executions:

<webflow:flow-execution-listeners>
<webflow:listener ref="securityListener"/>
<webflow:listener ref="persistenceListener"/>
</webflow:flow-execution-listeners>

You may also configure a listener to observe only certain flows:

<webflow:listener ref="securityListener" criteria="securedFlow1,securedFlow2"/>

Tuning FlowExecution persistence

Use the flow-execution-repository element to tune flow execution persistence settings:

<webflow:flow-executor id="flowExecutor" flow-registry="flowRegistry">

<webflow:flow-execution-repository max-executions="5" max-execution-snapshots="
</webflow:flow-executor>

max-executions
Tune the max-executions attribute to place a cap on the number of flow executions that can be cre-
ated per user session. When the maximum number of executions is exceeded, the oldest execution is re-
moved.

Note
The max-executions attribute is per user session, i.e. it works across instances of any flow definition.

max-execution-snapshots
Tune the max-execution-snapshots attribute to place a cap on the number of history snapshots
that can be taken per flow execution. To disable snapshotting, set this value to 0. To enable an unlimited
number of snapshots, set this value to -1.

Note
History snapshots enable browser back button support. When snapshotting is disabled pressing the browser
back button will not work. It will result in using an execution key that points to a snapshot that has not be
recorded.

57
Chapter 11. Spring MVC Integration
Introduction
This chapter shows how to integrate Web Flow into a Spring MVC web application. The booking-
mvc sample application is a good reference for Spring MVC with Web Flow. This application is a sim-
plified travel site that allows users to search for and book hotel rooms.

Configuring web.xml
The first step to using Spring MVC is to configure the DispatcherServlet in web.xml. You typ-
ically do this once per web application.

The example below maps all requests that begin with /spring/ to the DispatcherServlet. An init-
param is used to provide the contextConfigLocation. This is the configuration file for the web
application.

<servlet>
<servlet-name>Spring MVC Dispatcher Servlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class
<init-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/web-application-config.xml</param-value>
</init-param>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Spring MVC Dispatcher Servlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/spring/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Dispatching to flows
The DispatcherServlet maps requests for application resources to handlers. A flow is one type of
handler.

Registering the FlowHandlerAdapter

The first step to dispatching requests to flows is to enable flow handling within Spring MVC. To this, in-
stall the FlowHandlerAdapter:

Defining flow mappings

Once flow handling is enabled, the next step is to map specific application resources to your flows. The

58
Spring MVC Integration

simplest way to do this is to define a FlowHandlerMapping:

<!-- Maps request paths to flows in the flowRegistry;

e.g. a path of /hotels/booking looks for a flow with id "hotels/booking" -->
<bean class="org.springframework.webflow.mvc.servlet.FlowHandlerMapping">
<property name="flowRegistry" ref="flowRegistry"/>
<property name="order" value="0"/>
</bean>

Configuring this mapping allows the Dispatcher to map application resource paths to flows in a flow re-
gistry. For example, accessing the resource path /hotels/booking would result in a registry query
for the flow with id hotels/booking. If a flow is found with that id, that flow will handle the re-
quest. If no flow is found, the next handler mapping in the Dispatcher's ordered chain will be queried or
a "noHandlerFound" response will be returned.

Flow handling workflow

When a valid flow mapping is found, the FlowHandlerAdapter figures out whether to start a new
execution of that flow or resume an existing execution based on information present the HTTP request.
There are a number of defaults related to starting and resuming flow executions the adapter employs:

• HTTP request parameters are made available in the input map of all starting flow executions.

• When a flow execution ends without sending a final response, the default handler will attempt to start
a new execution in the same request.

• Unhandled exceptions are propagated to the Dispatcher unless the exception is a NoSuchFlowExecu-
tionException. The default handler will attempt to recover from a NoSuchFlowExecutionException
by starting over a new execution.

Consult the API documentation for FlowHandlerAdapter for more information. You may override
these defaults by subclassing or by implementing your own FlowHandler, discussed in the next section.

Implementing custom FlowHandlers

FlowHandler is the extension point that can be used to customize how flows are executed in a HTTP
servlet environment. A FlowHandler is used by the FlowHandlerAdapter and is responsible for:

• Returning the id of a flow definition to execute

• Creating the input to pass new executions of that flow as they are started

• Handling outcomes returned by executions of that flow as they end

• Handling any exceptions thrown by executions of that flow as they occur

These responsibilities are illustrated in the definition of the

org.springframework.mvc.servlet.FlowHandler interface:

public interface FlowHandler {

59
Spring MVC Integration

public String getFlowId();

public MutableAttributeMap createExecutionInputMap(HttpServletRequest request);
public String handleExecutionOutcome(FlowExecutionOutcome outcome,
HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response);
public String handleException(FlowException e,
HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response);
}

To implement a FlowHandler, subclass AbstractFlowHandler. All these operations are optional,

and if not implemented the defaults will apply. You only need to override the methods that you need.
Specifically:

• Override getFlowId(HttpServletRequest) when the id of your flow cannot be directly de-

rived from the HTTP request. By default, the id of the flow to execute is derived from the pathInfo
portion of the request URI. For example, ht-
tp://localhost/app/hotels/booking?hotelId=1 results in a flow id of hotels/
booking by default.

• Override createExecutionInputMap(HttpServletRequest) when you need fine-

grained control over extracting flow input parameters from the HttpServletRequest. By default, all re-
quest parameters are treated as flow input parameters.

• Override handleExecutionOutcome when you need to handle specific flow execution outcomes
in a custom manner. The default behavior sends a redirect to the ended flow's URL to restart a new
execution of the flow.

• Override handleException when you need fine-grained control over unhandled flow exceptions.
The default behavior attempts to restart the flow when a client attempts to access an ended or expired
flow execution. Any other exception is rethrown to the Spring MVC ExceptionResolver infrastructure
by default.

Example FlowHandler
A common interaction pattern between Spring MVC And Web Flow is for a Flow to redirect to a
@Controller when it ends. FlowHandlers allow this to be done without coupling the flow definition it-
self with a specific controller URL. An example FlowHandler that redirects to a Spring MVC Controller
is shown below:

public class BookingFlowHandler extends AbstractFlowHandler {

public String handleExecutionOutcome(FlowExecutionOutcome outcome,
HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletRes
if (outcome.getId().equals("bookingConfirmed")) {
return "/booking/show?bookingId=" + outcome.getOutput().get("bookingId"
} else {
return "/hotels/index";
}
}
}

60
Spring MVC Integration

Since this handler only needs to handle flow execution outcomes in a custom manner, nothing else is
overridden. The bookingConfirmed outcome will result in a redirect to show the new booking. Any
other outcome will redirect back to the hotels index page.

Deploying a custom FlowHandler

To install a custom FlowHandler, simply deploy it as a bean. The bean name must match the id of the
flow the handler should apply to.

<bean name="hotels/booking" class="org.springframework.webflow.samples.booking.Book

With this configuration, accessing the resource /hotels/booking will launch the hotels/
booking flow using the custom BookingFlowHandler. When the booking flow ends, the FlowHandler
will process the flow execution outcome and redirect to the appropriate controller.

FlowHandler Redirects
A FlowHandler handling a FlowExecutionOutcome or FlowException returns a String to indicate the
resource to redirect to after handling. In the previous example, the BookingFlowHandler redirects
to the booking/show resource URI for bookingConfirmed outcomes, and the hotels/index
resource URI for all other outcomes.

By default, returned resource locations are relative to the current servlet mapping. This allows for a flow
handler to redirect to other Controllers in the application using relative paths. In addition, explicit redir-
ect prefixes are supported for cases where more control is needed.

The explicit redirect prefixes supported are:

• servletRelative: - redirect to a resource relative to the current servlet

• contextRelative: - redirect to a resource relative to the current web application context path

• serverRelative: - redirect to a resource relative to the server root

• http:// or https:// - redirect to a fully-qualified resource URI

These same redirect prefixes are also supported within a flow definition when using the externalRe-
direct: directive in conjunction with a view-state or end-state; for example,
view="externalRedirect:http://springframework.org"

View Resolution
Web Flow 2 maps selected view identifiers to files located within the flow's working directory unless
otherwise specified. For existing Spring MVC + Web Flow applications, an external ViewResolver
is likely already handling this mapping for you. Therefore, to continue using that resolver and to avoid
having to change how your existing flow views are packaged, configure Web Flow as follows:

<webflow:flow-registry id="flowRegistry" flow-builder-services="flowBuilderServices

<webflow:location path="/WEB-INF/hotels/booking/booking.xml" />
</webflow:flow-registry>

61
Spring MVC Integration

<webflow:flow-builder-services id="flowBuilderServices" view-factory-creator="mvcVi

The MvcViewFactoryCreator is the factory that allows you to configure how the Spring MVC view sys-
tem is used inside Spring Web Flow. Use it to configure existing ViewResolvers, as well as other ser-
vices such as a custom MessageCodesResolver. You may also enable data binding use Spring MVC's
native BeanWrapper by setting the useSpringBinding flag to true. This is an alternative to using
OGNL or the Unified EL for view-to-model data binding. See the JavaDoc API of this class for more in-
formation.

Signaling an event from a View

When a flow enters a view-state it pauses, redirects the user to its execution URL, and waits for a user
event to resume. Events are generally signaled by activating buttons, links, or other user interface com-
mands. How events are decoded server-side is specific to the view technology in use. This section shows
how to trigger events from HTML-based views generated by templating engines such as JSP, Velocity,
or Freemarker.

Using a named HTML button to signal an event

The example below shows two buttons on the same form that signal proceed and cancel events
when clicked, respectively.

<input type="submit" name="_eventId_proceed" value="Proceed" />

When a button is pressed Web Flow finds a request parameter name beginning with _eventId_ and
treats the remaining substring as the event id. So in this example, submitting _eventId_proceed be-
comes proceed. This style should be considered when there are several different events that can be
signaled from the same form.

Using a hidden HTML form parameter to signal an event

The example below shows a form that signals the proceed event when submitted:

<input type="submit" value="Proceed" />

Here, Web Flow simply detects the special _eventId parameter and uses its value as the event id. This
style should only be considered when there is one event that can be signaled on the form.

Using a HTML link to signal an event

The example below shows a link that signals the cancel event when activated:

62
Spring MVC Integration

<a href="${flowExecutionUrl}&_eventId=cancel">Cancel</a>

Firing an event results in a HTTP request being sent back to the server. On the server-side, the flow
handles decoding the event from within its current view-state. How this decoding process works is spe-
cific to the view implementation. Recall a Spring MVC view implementation simply looks for a request
parameter named _eventId. If no _eventId parameter is found, the view will look for a parameter
that starts with _eventId_ and will use the remaining substring as the event id. If neither cases exist,
no flow event is triggered.

Embedding A Flow On A Page

By default when a flow enters a view state, it executes a client-side redirect before rendering the view.
This approach is known as POST-REDIRECT-GET. It has the advantage of separating the form pro-
cessing for one view from the rendering of the next view. As a result the browser Back and Refresh but-
tons work seamlessly without causing any browser warnings.

Normally the client-side redirect is transparent from a user's perspective. However, there are situations
where POST-REDIRECT-GET may not bring the same benefits. For example a flow may be embedded
on a page and driven via Ajax requests refreshing only the area of the page that belongs to the flow. Not
only is it unnecessary to use client-side redirects in this case, it is also not the desired behavior with re-
gards to keeping the surrounding content of the page intact.

The the section called “Handling Ajax Requests” explains how to do partial rendering during Ajax re-
quests. The focus of this section is to explain how to control flow execution redirect behavior during
Ajax requests. To indicate a flow should execute in "page embedded" mode all you need to do is append
an extra parameter when launching the flow:

/hotels/booking?mode=embedded

When launched in "page embedded" mode a flow will not issue flow execution redirects during Ajax re-
quests. The mode=embedded parameter only needs to be passed when launching the flow. Your only
other concern is to use Ajax requests and to render only the content required to update the portion of the
page displaying the flow.

Embedded Mode Vs Default Redirect Behavior

By default Web Flow does a client-side redirect upon entering every view state. However if you remain
in the same view state -- for example a transition without a "to" attribute -- during an Ajax request there
will not be a client-side redirect. This behavior should be quite familiar to Spring Web Flow 2 users. It is
appropriate for a top-level flow that supports the browser back button while still taking advantage of
Ajax and partial rendering for use cases where you remain in the same view such as form validation, pa-
ging trough search results, and others. However transitions to a new view state are always followed with
a client-side redirect. That makes it impossible to embed a flow on a page or within a modal dialog and
execute more than one view state without causing a full-page refresh. Hence if your use case requires
embedding a flow you can launch it in "embedded" mode.

Embedded Flow Examples

If you'd like to see examples of a flow embedded on a page and within a modal dialog please refer to the
webflow-showcase project. You can check out the source code locally, build it as you would a Maven
project, and import it into Eclipse:

63
Spring MVC Integration

cd some-directory
svn co https://src.springframework.org/svn/spring-samples/webflow-showcase
cd webflow-showcase
mvn package
# import into Eclipse

64
Chapter 12. Spring JavaScript Quick
Reference
Introduction
Spring Javascript (spring-js) is a lightweight abstraction over common JavaScript toolkits such as Dojo.
It aims to provide a common client-side programming model for progressively enhancing a web page
with rich widget behavior and Ajax remoting.

Use of the Spring JS API is demonstrated in the the Spring MVC + Web Flow version of the Spring
Travel reference application. In addition, the JSF components provided as part of the Spring Faces lib-
rary build on Spring.js.

Serving Javascript Resources

Spring JS provides a generic ResourceServlet to serve web resources such as JavaScript and CSS
files from jar files, as well as the webapp root directory. This servlet provides a convenient way to serve
Spring.js files to your pages. To deploy this servlet, declare the following in web.xml:

<servlet>
<servlet-name>Resource Servlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.js.resource.ResourceServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Resource Servlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/resources/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Note that starting with version 3.0.4, the Spring Framework includes a replacement for the Re-
sourceServlet (see the Spring Framework documentation [ht-
tp://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/spring-framework-reference/html/mvc.html#mvc-static-res
ources]). With the new <mvc:resources> element resource requests (.js, .css) are handled by the Dis-
patcherSevlet without the need for a separate ResourceServlet. Here is the relevant portion
of the Spring MVC configuration in the mvc-booking sample:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

65
Spring JavaScript Quick Reference

This incoming maps requests for /resources to resources found under /

META-INF/web-resources on the classpath. That's where Spring JavaScript resources are bundled.
However, you can modify the location attribute in the above configuration in order to serve resources
from any classpath or web application relative location.

Note that the full resource URL depends on how your DispatcherServlet is mapped. In the mvc-booking
sample we've chosen to map it with the default servlet mapping '/':

<servlet>
<servlet-name>Spring MVC Dispatcher Servlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-c
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Spring MVC Dispatcher Servlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

That means the full URL to load Spring.js is /myapp/resources/spring/Spring.js. If

your DispatcherServlet was instead mapped to /main/* then the full URL would be /
myapp/main/resources/spring/Spring.js.

When using of the default servlet mapping it is also recommended to add this to your Spring MVC con-
figuration, which ensures that any resource requests not handled by your Spring MVC mappings will be
delegated back to the Servlet container.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

Including Spring Javascript in a Page

Spring JS is designed such that an implementation of its API can be built for any of the popular Javas-
cript toolkits. The initial implementation of Spring.js builds on the Dojo toolkit.

Using Spring Javascript in a page requires including the underlying toolkit as normal, the Spring.js
base interface file, and the Spring-(library implementation).js file for the underlying
toolkit. As an example, the following includes obtain the Dojo implementation of Spring.js using the
ResourceServlet:

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Spring JavaScript Quick Reference

<script type="text/javascript" src="<c:url value="/resources/dojo/dojo.js" />"> </s

When using the widget system of an underlying library, typically you must also include some CSS re-
sources to obtain the desired look and feel. For the booking-mvc reference application, Dojo's tun-
dra.css is included:

<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="<c:url value="/resources/dijit/themes/

Spring Javascript Decorations

A central concept in Spring Javascript is the notion of applying decorations to existing DOM nodes.
This technique is used to progressively enhance a web page such that the page will still be functional in
a less capable browser. The addDecoration method is used to apply decorations.

The following example illustrates enhancing a Spring MVC <form:input> tag with rich suggestion
behavior:

<form:input id="searchString" path="searchString"/>

The ElementDecoration is used to apply rich widget behavior to an existing DOM node. This dec-
oration type does not aim to completely hide the underlying toolkit, so the toolkit's native widget type
and attributes are used directly. This approach allows you to use a common decoration model to integ-
rate any widget from the underlying toolkit in a consistent manner. See the booking-mvc reference
application for more examples of applying decorations to do things from suggestions to client-side valid-
ation.

When using the ElementDecoration to apply widgets that have rich validation behavior, a common
need is to prevent the form from being submitted to the server until validation passes. This can be done
with the ValidateAllDecoration:

<input type="submit" id="proceed" name="_eventId_proceed" value="Proceed" />

This decorates the "Proceed" button with a special onclick event handler that fires the client side validat-
ors and does not allow the form to submit until they pass successfully.

An AjaxEventDecoration applies a client-side event listener that fires a remote Ajax request to
the server. It also auto-registers a callback function to link in the response:

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Spring JavaScript Quick Reference

<a id="prevLink" href="search?searchString=${criteria.searchString}&page=${criteria

This decorates the onclick event of the "Previous Results" link with an Ajax call, passing along a special
parameter that specifies the fragment to be re-rendered in the response. Note that this link would still be
fully functional if Javascript was unavailable in the client. (See the section called “Handling Ajax Re-
quests” for details on how this request is handled on the server.)

It is also possible to apply more than one decoration to an element. The following example shows a but-
ton being decorated with Ajax and validate-all submit suppression:

<input type="submit" id="proceed" name="_eventId_proceed" value="Proceed" />

It is also possible to apply a decoration to multiple elements in a single statement using Dojo's query
API. The following example decorates a set of checkbox elements as Dojo Checkbox widgets:

<div id="amenities">
<form:checkbox path="amenities" value="OCEAN_VIEW" label="Ocean View" /></li>
<form:checkbox path="amenities" value="LATE_CHECKOUT" label="Late Checkout" /></li>
<form:checkbox path="amenities" value="MINIBAR" label="Minibar" /></li>
<script type="text/javascript">
dojo.query("#amenities input[type='checkbox']").forEach(function(element) {
Spring.addDecoration(new Spring.ElementDecoration({
elementId: element.id,
widgetType : "dijit.form.CheckBox",
widgetAttrs : { checked : element.checked }
}));
});
</script>
</div>

Handling Ajax Requests

Spring Javascript's client-side Ajax response handling is built upon the notion of receiving "fragments"
back from the server. These fragments are just standard HTML that is meant to replace portions of the
existing page. The key piece needed on the server is a way to determine which pieces of a full response
need to be pulled out for partial rendering.

In order to be able to render partial fragments of a full response, the full response must be built using a
templating technology that allows the use of composition for constructing the response, and for the
member parts of the composition to be referenced and rendered individually. Spring Javascript provides
some simple Spring MVC extensions that make use of Tiles to achieve this. The same technique could

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Spring JavaScript Quick Reference

theoretically be used with any templating system supporting composition.

Spring Javascript's Ajax remoting functionality is built upon the notion that the core handling code for
an Ajax request should not differ from a standard browser request, thus no special knowledge of an Ajax
request is needed directly in the code and the same hanlder can be used for both styles of request.

Providing a Library-Specific AjaxHandler

The key interface for integrating various Ajax libraries with the Ajax-aware behavior of Web Flow
(such as not redirecting for a partial page update) is org.springframework.js.AjaxHandler.
A SpringJavascriptAjaxHandler is configured by default that is able to detect an Ajax request
submitted via the Spring JS client-side API and can respond appropriately in the case where a redirect is
required. In order to integrate a different Ajax library (be it a pure JavaScript library, or a higher-level
abstraction such as an Ajax-capable JSF component library), a custom AjaxHandler can be injected
into the FlowHandlerAdapter or FlowController.

Handling Ajax Requests with Spring MVC Controllers

In order to handle Ajax requests with Spring MVC controllers, all that is needed is the configuration of
the provided Spring MVC extensions in your Spring application context for rendering the partial re-
sponse (note that these extensions require the use of Tiles for templating):

<bean id="tilesViewResolver" class="org.springframework.js.ajax.AjaxUrlBasedViewRes

This configures the AjaxUrlBasedViewResolver which in turn interprets Ajax requests and cre-
ates FlowAjaxTilesView objects to handle rendering of the appropriate fragments. Note that
FlowAjaxTilesView is capable of handling the rendering for both Web Flow and pure Spring MVC
requests. The fragments correspond to individual attributes of a Tiles view definition. For example, take
the following Tiles view definition:

<definition name="hotels/index" extends="standardLayout">

<put-attribute name="body" value="index.body" />
</definition>
<definition name="index.body" template="/WEB-INF/hotels/index.jsp">
<put-attribute name="hotelSearchForm" value="/WEB-INF/hotels/hotelSearchForm.js
<put-attribute name="bookingsTable" value="/WEB-INF/hotels/bookingsTable.jsp" /
</definition>

An Ajax request could specify the "body", "hotelSearchForm" or "bookingsTable" to be rendered as

fragments in the request.

Handling Ajax Requests with Spring MVC + Spring Web

Flow
Spring Web Flow handles the optional rendering of fragments directly in the flow definition language
through use of the render element. The benefit of this approach is that the selection of fragments is
completely decoupled from client-side code, such that no special parameters need to be passed with the
request the way they currently must be with the pure Spring MVC controller approach. For example, if

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Spring JavaScript Quick Reference

you wanted to render the "hotelSearchForm" fragment from the previous example Tiles view into a rich
Javascript popup:

<view-state id="changeSearchCriteria" view="enterSearchCriteria.xhtml" popup="true"

<on-entry>
<render fragments="hotelSearchForm" />
</on-entry>
<transition on="search" to="reviewHotels">
<evaluate expression="searchCriteria.resetPage()"/>
</transition>
</view-state>

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Chapter 13. JSF Integration
Introduction
Spring Web Flow provides a JSF integration that simplifies using JSF with Spring. It lets you use the
JSF UI Component Model with Spring MVC and Spring Web Flow controllers. Along with the JSF in-
tegration Spring Web Flow provides a small Facelets component library (called Spring Faces) for use in
JSF 1.2 environments and a Spring Security tag library for use in both JSF 1.2 and JSF 2.0 environments
(see the section called “Using the Spring Security Facelets Tag Library” for more details).

Starting with version 2.2 the JSF integration in Web Flow supports JSF 2.0 including Sun Mojarra and
Apache MyFaces runtime environments. Please, note however that JSF 2 partial state saving is not yet
supported with Apache MyFaces and needs to be disabled with the
javax.faces.PARTIAL_STATE_SAVING context parameter in web.xml.

Also note that the Spring Faces component library, which provides Ajax and client-side validation cap-
abilities is for JSF 1.2 environments only and will not be upgraded to JSF 2.0. Applications are encour-
aged to use 3rd party JSF 2 component libraries such as PrimeFaces and RichFaces. The swf-
booking-faces sample in the Spring Web Flow distribution for example is built with JSF 2 and
PrimeFaces components.

Spring Web Flow also supports using JSF in a portlet environment. Spring Web Flow's portlet integra-
tion supports Portlets API 2.0 and JSF 1.2 only. Currently JSF 2 is not supported in combination with
portlets. See Chapter 14, Portlet Integration for more on Spring Web Flow's portlet integration.

JSF Integration For Spring Developers

Spring Web Flow complements the strengths of JSF, its component model, and provides more sophistic-
ated state management and navigation. In addition you have the ability to use Spring MVC @Controller
or flow definitions as controllers in the web layer.

JSF applications using Spring Web Flow applications gain benefits in the following areas:

1. Managed bean facility

2. Scope management

3. Event handling

4. Navigation

5. Modularization and packaging of views

6. Cleaner URLs

7. Model-level validation

8. Progressivy-enhancement sytle client-side validation

9. Progressive-enhancement style Ajax requests with partial page updates

Using these features significantly reduce the amount of configuration required in faces-config.xml. They
provide a cleaner separation between the view and controller layers along with better modularization of
application functionals. These features are detailed in the sections to follow. The majority of these fea-

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JSF Integration

tures build on the flow definition language of Spring Web Flow. Therefore it is assumed that you have
an understanding of the foundations presented in Chapter 3, Defining Flows.

Configuring web.xml
The first step is to route requests to the DispatcherServlet in the web.xml file. In this example,
we map all URLs that begin with /spring/ to the servlet. The servlet needs to be configured. An
init-param is used in the servlet to pass the contextConfigLocation. This is the location of
the Spring configuration for your web application.

<servlet>
<servlet-name>Spring MVC Dispatcher Servlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class
<init-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/web-application-config.xml</param-value>
</init-param>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Spring MVC Dispatcher Servlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/spring/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

In order for JSF to bootstrap correctly, the FacesServlet must be configured in web.xml as it nor-
mally would even though you generally will not need to route requests through it at all when using JSF
with Spring Web Flow.

<servlet>
<servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*.faces</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

The use of Facelets instead of JSP typically requires this in web.xml:

!-- Use JSF view templates saved as *.xhtml, for use with Facelets -->
<context-param>
<param-name>javax.faces.DEFAULT_SUFFIX</param-name>
<param-value>.xhtml</param-value>
</context-param>

Configuring web.xml in JSF 1.2

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JSF Integration

When using the JSF 1.2 Spring Faces component library, you also need to configure a servlet for serving
CSS and JavaScript resources. This servlet must be mapped to /resources/* in order for the URL's
rendered by the components to function correctly.

<servlet>
<servlet-name>Resource Servlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.js.resource.ResourceServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>0</load-on-startup>
</servlet>

<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Resource Servlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/resources/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

For optimal page-loading performance use the Spring Faces components includeStyles and in-
cludeScripts. These components will eagerly load the necessary CSS stylesheets and JavaScript
files at the position they are placed in your JSF view template. In accordance with the recommendations
of the Yahoo Performance Guildlines, these two tags should be placed in the head section of any page
that uses the Spring Faces components. For example:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/T

<f:view xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:c="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core"
xmlns:sf="http://www.springframework.org/tags/faces"
contentType="text/html" encoding="UTF-8">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
<title>Hotel Booking Sample Application</title>
<sf:includeStyles />
<sf:includeScripts />
<ui:insert name="headIncludes"/>
</head>
...
</html>
</f:view>

This shows the opening of a typical Facelets XHTML layout template that uses these components to
force the loading of the needed CSS and JavaScript resources at the ideal position.

The includeStyles component includes the necessary resources for the Dojo widget theme. By de-
fault, it includes the resources for the "tundra" theme. An alternate theme may be selected by setting the
optional "theme" and "themePath" attributes on the includeStyles component. For example:

<sf:includeStyles themePath="/styles/" theme="foobar"/>

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JSF Integration

will try to load a CSS stylesheet at "/styles/foobar/foobar.css" using the Spring JavaScript ResourceSer-
vlet.

Configuring Web Flow for use with JSF

This section explains how to configure Web Flow with JSF. The next section provides more details spe-
cific to using Web Flow with JSF 2. The following is sample configuration for Web Flow and JSF:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

The main points are the installation of a FlowFacesContextLifecycleListener that manages

a single FacesContext for the duration of Web Flow request and the use of the flow-build-
er-services element from the faces custom namespace to configure rendering for a JSF environ-
ment.

See the swf-booking-faces reference application in the distribution for a complete working example.

Configuring Spring MVC for JSF 2

In a JSF 2 environment you'll also need this Spring MVC related configuration:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

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JSF Integration

xmlns:faces="http://www.springframework.org/schema/faces"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/faces
http://www.springframework.org/schema/faces/spring-faces-2.2.xsd">
<faces:resources />
<bean class="org.springframework.faces.webflow.JsfFlowHandlerAdapter">
<property name="flowExecutor" ref="flowExecutor" />
</bean>
</beans>

The resources custom namespace element delegates JSF 2 resource requests to the JSF 2 resource
API. The JsfFlowHandlerAdapter is a replacement for the FlowHandlerAdapter normally
used with Web Flow. This adapter initializes itself with a JsfAjaxHandler instead of the Spring-
JavaSciprtAjaxHandler previously used with Spring Faces components.

Configuring faces-config.xml
In JSF 1.2 you need to provide the below configuration in faces-config.xml in order to use Face-
lets. If you are using JSP and not using the Spring Faces components, you do not need to add anything to
your faces-config.xml

<faces-config>
<application>

<view-handler>com.sun.facelets.FaceletViewHandler</view-handler>
</application>
</faces-config>

In JSF 2.0 your faces-config.xml should use the faces-config schema version 2.0. Also you should re-
move the FaceletViewHandler shown above (if it is present) as Facelets are now the default rendering
technology in JSF 2.

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>

<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/x
version="2.0">
</faces-config>

Replacing the JSF Managed Bean Facility

When using JSF with Spring Web Flow you can completely replace the JSF managed bean facility with
a combination of Web Flow managed variables and Spring managed beans. It gives you a good deal
more control over the lifecycle of your managed objects with well-defined hooks for initialization and
execution of your domain model. Additionally, since you are presumably already using Spring for your

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JSF Integration

business layer, it reduces the conceptual overhead of having to maintain two different managed bean
models.

In doing pure JSF development, you will quickly find that request scope is not long-lived enough for
storing conversational model objects that drive complex event-driven views. In JSF 1.2 the only avail-
able option is to begin putting things into session scope, with the extra burden of needing to clean the
objects up before progressing to another view or functional area of the application. What is really
needed is a managed scope that is somewhere between request and session scope. JSF 2 provides flash
and view scopes that can be accessed programmatically via UIViewRoot.getViewMap(). Spring Web
Flow provides access to flash, view, flow, and conversation scopes. These scopes are seamlessly integ-
rated through JSF variable resolvers and work the same in JSF 1.2 and in JSF 2.0 applications.

Using Flow Variables

The easiest and most natural way to declare and manage the model is through the use of flow variables.
You can declare these variables at the beginning of the flow:

<var name="searchCriteria" class="com.mycompany.myapp.hotels.search.SearchCriteria"

and then reference this variable in one of the flow's JSF view templates through EL:

<h:inputText id="searchString" value="#{searchCriteria.searchString}"/>

Note that you do not need to prefix the variable with its scope when referencing it from the template
(though you can do so if you need to be more specific). As with standard JSF beans, all available scopes
will be searched for a matching variable, so you could change the scope of the variable in your flow
definition without having to modify the EL expressions that reference it.

You can also define view instance variables that are scoped to the current view and get cleaned up auto-
matically upon transitioning to another view. This is quite useful with JSF as views are often constructed
to handle multiple in-page events across many requests before transitioning to another view.

To define a view instance variable, you can use the var element inside a view-state definition:

<view-state id="enterSearchCriteria">
<var name="searchCriteria" class="com.mycompany.myapp.hotels.search.SearchCrite
</view-state>

Using Scoped Spring Beans

Though defining autowired flow instance variables provides nice modularization and readability, occa-
sions may arise where you want to utilize the other capabilities of the Spring container such as AOP. In
these cases, you can define a bean in your Spring ApplicationContext and give it a specific web flow
scope:

<bean id="searchCriteria" class="com.mycompany.myapp.hotels.search.SearchCriteria"

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JSF Integration

The major difference with this approach is that the bean will not be fully initialized until it is first ac-
cessed via an EL expression. This sort of lazy instantiation via EL is quite similar to how JSF managed
beans are typically allocated.

Manipulating The Model

The need to initialize the model before view rendering (such as by loading persistent entities from a
database) is quite common, but JSF by itself does not provide any convenient hooks for such initializa-
tion. The flow definition language provides a natural facility for this through its Actions . Spring Web
Flow provides some extra conveniences for converting the outcome of an action into a JSF-specific data
structure. For example:

<on-render>
<evaluate expression="bookingService.findBookings(currentUser.name)"
result="viewScope.bookings" result-type="dataModel" />
</on-render>

This will take the result of the bookingService.findBookings method an wrap it in a custom
JSF DataModel so that the list can be used in a standard JSF DataTable component:

<h:dataTable id="bookings" styleClass="summary" value="#{bookings}" var="booking"

rendered="#{bookings.rowCount > 0}">
<h:column>
<f:facet name="header">Name</f:facet>
#{booking.hotel.name}
</h:column>
<h:column>
<f:facet name="header">Confirmation number</f:facet>
#{booking.id}
</h:column>
<h:column>
<f:facet name="header">Action</f:facet>
<h:commandLink id="cancel" value="Cancel" action="cancelBooking" />
</h:column>
</h:dataTable>

Data Model Implementations

In the example above result-type="dataModel" results in the wrapping of List<Booking> with custom
DataModel type. The custom DataModel provides extra conveniences such as being serializable for
storage beyond request scope as well as access to the currently selected row in EL expressions. For ex-
ample, on postback from a view where the action event was fired by a component within a DataTable,
you can take action on the selected row's model instance:

Spring Web Flow provides two custom DataModel types: OneSelectionTracking-

ListDataModel and ManySelectionTrackingListDataModel. As the names indicate they
keep track of one or multiple selected rows. This is done with the help of a Selection-

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JSF Integration

TrackingActionListener listener, which responds to JSF action events and invokes the appopri-
ate methods on the SelectinAware data models to record the currently clicked row.

To understand how this is configured, keep in mind the FacesConversionService registers a

DataModelConverter against the alias "dataModel" on startup. When result-type="dataModel" is
used in a flow definition it causes the DataModelConverter to be used. The converter then wraps
the given List with an instance of OneSelectionTrackingListDataModel. To use the
ManySelectionTrackingListDataModel you will need to register your own custom converter.

Handling JSF Events With Spring Web Flow

Spring Web Flow allows you to handle JSF action events in a decoupled way, requiring no direct de-
pendencies in your Java code on JSF API's. In fact, these events can often be handled completely in the
flow definiton language without requiring any custom Java action code at all. This allows for a more
agile development process since the artifacts being manipulated in wiring up events (JSF view templates
and SWF flow definitions) are instantly refreshable without requiring a build and re-deploy of the whole
application.

Handling JSF In-page Action Events

A simple but common case in JSF is the need to signal an event that causes manipulation of the model in
some way and then redisplays the same view to reflect the changed state of the model. The flow defini-
tion language has special support for this in the transition element.

A good example of this is a table of paged list results. Suppose you want to be able to load and display
only a portion of a large result list, and allow the user to page through the results. The initial view-
state definition to load and display the list would be:

<view-state id="reviewHotels">
<on-render>
<evaluate expression="bookingService.findHotels(searchCriteria)"
result="viewScope.hotels" result-type="dataModel" />
</on-render>
</view-state>

You construct a JSF DataTable that displays the current hotels list, and then place a "More Results"
link below the table:

<h:commandLink id="nextPageLink" value="More Results" action="next"/>

This commandLink signals a "next" event from its action attribute. You can then handle the event by
adding to the view-state definition:

<view-state id="reviewHotels">
<on-render>
<evaluate expression="bookingService.findHotels(searchCriteria)"
result="viewScope.hotels" result-type="dataModel" />
</on-render>
<transition on="next">
<evaluate expression="searchCriteria.nextPage()" />
</transition>
</view-state>

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JSF Integration

Here you handle the "next" event by incrementing the page count on the searchCriteria instance. The
on-render action is then called again with the updated criteria, which causes the next page of results
to be loaded into the DataModel. The same view is re-rendered since there was no to attribute on the
transition element, and the changes in the model are reflected in the view.

Handling JSF Action Events

The next logical level beyond in-page events are events that require navigation to another view, with
some manipulation of the model along the way. Achieving this with pure JSF would require adding a
navigation rule to faces-config.xml and likely some intermediary Java code in a JSF managed bean (both
tasks requiring a re-deploy). With the flow defintion language, you can handle such a case concisely in
one place in a quite similar way to how in-page events are handled.

Continuing on with our use case of manipulating a paged list of results, suppose we want each row in the
displayed DataTable to contain a link to a detail page for that row instance. You can add a column to the
table containing the following commandLink component:

<h:commandLink id="viewHotelLink" value="View Hotel" action="select"/>

This raises the "select" event which you can then handle by adding another transition element to
the existing view-state :

<view-state id="reviewHotels">
<on-render>
<evaluate expression="bookingService.findHotels(searchCriteria)"
result="viewScope.hotels" result-type="dataModel" />
</on-render>
<transition on="next">
<evaluate expression="searchCriteria.nextPage()" />
</transition>
<transition on="select" to="reviewHotel">
<set name="flowScope.hotel" value="hotels.selectedRow" />
</transition>
</view-state>

Here the "select" event is handled by pushing the currently selected hotel instance from the DataTable
into flow scope, so that it may be referenced by the "reviewHotel" view-state .

Performing Model Validation

JSF provides useful facilities for validating input at field-level before changes are applied to the model,
but when you need to then perform more complex validation at the model-level after the updates have
been applied, you are generally left with having to add more custom code to your JSF action methods in
the managed bean. Validation of this sort is something that is generally a responsibility of the domain
model itself, but it is difficult to get any error messages propagated back to the view without introducing
an undesirable dependency on the JSF API in your domain layer.

With Web Flow, you can utilize the generic and low-level MessageContext in your business code
and any messages added there will then be available to the FacesContext at render time.

For example, suppose you have a view where the user enters the necessary details to complete a hotel
booking, and you need to ensure the Check In and Check Out dates adhere to a given set of business
rules. You can invoke such model-level validation from a transition element:

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JSF Integration

<view-state id="enterBookingDetails">
<transition on="proceed" to="reviewBooking">
<evaluate expression="booking.validateEnterBookingDetails(messageContext)"
</transition>
</view-state>

Here the "proceed" event is handled by invoking a model-level validation method on the booking in-
stance, passing the generic MessageContext instance so that messages may be recorded. The mes-
sages can then be displayed along with any other JSF messages with the h:messages component,

Handling Ajax Events In JSF 2.0

JSF 2 provides built-in support for sending Ajax requests and performing partial processing and render-
ing on the server-side. You can specify a list of id's for partial rendering through the <f:ajax> facelets
tag.

In Spring Web Flow you also have the option to specify the ids to use for partial rendering on the server
side with the render action:

<view-state id="reviewHotels">
<on-render>
<evaluate expression="bookingService.findHotels(searchCriteria)"
result="viewScope.hotels" result-type="dataModel" />
</on-render>
<transition on="next">
<evaluate expression="searchCriteria.nextPage()" />
<render fragments="hotels:searchResultsFragment" />
</transition>
</view-state>

Handling File Uploads with JSF

Most JSF component providers include some form of 'file upload' component. Generally when working
with these components JSF must take complete control of parsing multi-part requests and Spring MVC's
MultipartResolver cannot be used.

Spring Web Flow has been tested with file upload components from PrimeFaces and RichFaces. Check
the documentation of your JSF component library for other providers to see how to configure file up-
load.

File Uploads with PrimeFaces

PrimeFaces provides a <p:fileUpload> component for uploading files. In order to use the compon-
ent you need to configure the org.primefaces.webapp.filter.FileUploadFilter servlet
filter. The filter needs to be configured against Spring MVC's DispatcherServlet in your
web.xml:

<filter>
<filter-name>PrimeFaces FileUpload Filter</filter-name>
<filter-class>org.primefaces.webapp.filter.FileUploadFilter</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>

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JSF Integration

<filter-name>PrimeFaces FileUpload Filter</filter-name>

<servlet-name>Spring MVC Dispatcher Servlet</servlet-name>
</filter-mapping>

For more details refer to the PrimeFaces documentation [http://primefaces.org/documentation.html].

File Uploads with RichFaces

RichFaces provides a <rich:fileUpload> component for uploading files. No special configuration
is required to use the component, however, you will need to perform some additional steps in your
fileUploadListener.

Here is some typical XHTML markup. In this example the fileUploadBean refers to Spring
singleton bean.

<rich:fileUpload id="upload"
fileUploadListener="#{fileUploadBean.listener}"
acceptedTypes="jpg, gif, png, bmp">
</rich:fileUpload>

Within your fileUploadBean you need to tell Web Flow that the response has been handled and that
it should not attempt any redirects. The
org.springframework.webflow.context.ExternalContext interface provides a re-
cordResponseComplete() for just such purposes.

In addition, it is imperative that some partial response data is returned to the client. If your
<rich:fileUpload> component does not specify a render attribute you may need to call pro-
cessPartial(PhaseId.RENDER_RESPONSE) on the JSF PartialViewContext.

public class FileUploadBean {

public void listener(FileUploadEvent event) throws Exception{
FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getPartialViewContext().processPa
ExternalContextHolder.getExternalContext().recordResponseComplete()
UploadedFile file = event.getUploadedFile();
// Do something with the file
}
}

For more details refer to the RichFaces documentation [http://www.jboss.org/richfaces/docs].

Handling Ajax Events In JSF 1.2

For JSF 1.2 the Spring Faces UICommand components have the ability to do Ajax-based partial view
updates. These components degrade gracefully so that the flow will still be fully functional by falling
back to full page refreshes if a user with a less capable browser views the page.

Revisiting the earlier example with the paged table, you can change the "More Results" link to use an
Ajax request by replacing the standard commandButton with the Spring Faces component version
(note that the Spring Faces command components use Ajax by default, but they can alternately be forced
to use a normal form submit by setting ajaxEnabled="false" on the component):

<sf:commandLink id="nextPageLink" value="More Results" action="next" />

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JSF Integration

This event is handled just as in the non-Ajax case with the transition element, but now you will add
a special render action that specifies which portions of the component tree need to be re-rendered:

<view-state id="reviewHotels">
<on-render>
<evaluate expression="bookingService.findHotels(searchCriteria)"
result="viewScope.hotels" result-type="dataModel" />
</on-render>
<transition on="next">
<evaluate expression="searchCriteria.nextPage()" />
<render fragments="hotels:searchResultsFragment" />
</transition>
</view-state>

The fragments="hotels:searchResultsFragment" is an instruction that will be interpreted

at render time, such that only the component with the JSF clientId "hotels:searchResultsFragment" will
be rendered and returned to the client. This fragment will then be automatically replaced in the page.
The fragments attribute can be a comma-delimited list of ids, with each id representing the root node
of a subtree (meaning the root node and all of its children) to be rendered. If the "next" event is fired in a
non-Ajax request (i.e., if JavaScript is disabled on the client), the render action will be ignored and
the full page will be rendered as normal.

In addition to the Spring Faces commandLink component, there is a corresponding commandButton

component with the same functionality. There is also a special ajaxEvent component that will raise a
JSF action even in response to any client-side DOM event. See the Spring Faces tag library docs for full
details.

An additional built-in feature when using the Spring Faces Ajax-enabled components is the ability to
have the response rendered inside a rich modal popup widget by setting popup="true" on a view-
state .

<view-state id="changeSearchCriteria" view="enterSearchCriteria.xhtml" popup="true"

<on-entry>
<render fragments="hotelSearchFragment" />
</on-entry>
<transition on="search" to="reviewHotels">
<evaluate expression="searchCriteria.resetPage()"/>
</transition>
</view-state>

If the "changeSearchCriteria" view-state is reached as the result of an Ajax-request, the result will
be rendered into a rich popup. If JavaScript is unavailable, the request will be processed with a full
browser refresh, and the "changeSearchCriteria" view will be rendered as normal.

Embedding a Flow On a Page

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JSF Integration

the flow is rendered. Not only is it unnecessary to use client-side redirects in this case, it is also not the
desired behavior with regards to keeping the surrounding content of the page intact.

To indicate a flow should execute in "page embedded" mode all you need to do is pass an extra flow in-
put attribute called "mode" with a value of "embedded". Below is an example of a top-level container
flow invoking a sub-flow in an embedded mode:

<subflow-state id="bookHotel" subflow="booking">

When launched in "page embedded" mode the sub-flow will not issue flow execution redirects during
Ajax requests.

If you'd like to see examples of an embedded flow please refer to the webflow-primefaces-showcase
project. You can check out the source code locally, build it as you would a Maven project, and import it
into Eclipse:

cd some-directory
svn co https://src.springframework.org/svn/spring-samples/webflow-primefaces-showca
cd webflow-primefaces-showcase
mvn package
# import into Eclipse

The specific example you need to look at is under the "Advanced Ajax" tab and is called "Top Flow
with Embedded Sub-Flow".

Redirect In Same State

By default Web Flow does a client-side redirect even it it remains in the same view state as long as the
current request is not an Ajax request. This is quite useful after form validation failures for example. If
the user hits Refresh or Back they won't see any browser warnings. They would if the Web Flow didn't
do a redirect.

This can lead to a problem specific to JSF 2 environments where a specific Sun Mojarra listener com-
ponent caches the FacesContext assuming the same instance is available throughout the JSF lifecycle. In
Web Flow however the render phase is temporarily put on hold and a client-side redirect executed.

The default behavior of Web Flow is desirable and it is unlikely JSF 2 applications will experience the
issue. This is because Ajax is often enabled the default in JSF 2 component libraries and Web Flow does
not redirect during Ajax requests. However if you experience this issue you can disable client-side redir-
ects within the same view as follows:

<webflow:flow-executor id="flowExecutor">
<webflow:flow-execution-attributes>
<webflow:redirect-in-same-state value="false"/>
</webflow:flow-execution-attributes>
</webflow:flow-executor>

Using the Spring Security Facelets Tag Library

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JSF Integration

To use the library you'll need to create a .taglib.xml file and register it in web.xml.

For JSF 2 create the file /WEB-INF/springsecurity.taglib.xml with the following content:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE facelet-taglib PUBLIC
"-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Facelet Taglib 1.0//EN"
"http://java.sun.com/dtd/facelet-taglib_1_0.dtd">
<facelet-taglib>
<namespace>http://www.springframework.org/security/tags</namespace>
<tag>
<tag-name>authorize</tag-name>
<handler-class>org.springframework.faces.security.FaceletsAuthorize
</tag>
<function>
<function-name>areAllGranted</function-name>
<function-class>org.springframework.faces.security.FaceletsAuthoriz
<function-signature>boolean areAllGranted(java.lang.String)</functi
</function>
<function>
<function-name>areAnyGranted</function-name>
<function-class>org.springframework.faces.security.FaceletsAuthoriz
<function-signature>boolean areAnyGranted(java.lang.String)</functi
</function>
<function>
<function-name>areNotGranted</function-name>
<function-class>org.springframework.faces.security.FaceletsAuthoriz
<function-signature>boolean areNotGranted(java.lang.String)</functi
</function>
<function>
<function-name>isAllowed</function-name>
<function-class>org.springframework.faces.security.FaceletsAuthoriz
<function-signature>boolean isAllowed(java.lang.String, java.lang.S
</function>
</facelet-taglib>

For JSF 1.2 also create the file /WEB-INF/springsecurity.taglib.xml but with the follow-
ing content instead:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE facelet-taglib PUBLIC
"-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Facelet Taglib 1.0//EN" "http://java.sun.co
<facelet-taglib>
<namespace>http://www.springframework.org/security/tags</namespace>
<tag>
<tag-name>authorize</tag-name>
<handler-class>org.springframework.faces.security.Jsf12FaceletsAuth
</tag>
<function>
<function-name>areAllGranted</function-name>
<function-class>org.springframework.faces.security.Jsf12FaceletsAut
<function-signature>boolean areAllGranted(java.lang.String)</functi
</function>
<function>
<function-name>areAnyGranted</function-name>
<function-class>org.springframework.faces.security.Jsf12FaceletsAut
<function-signature>boolean areAnyGranted(java.lang.String)</functi
</function>
<function>
<function-name>areNotGranted</function-name>

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JSF Integration

<function-class>org.springframework.faces.security.Jsf12FaceletsAut
<function-signature>boolean areNotGranted(java.lang.String)</functi
</function>
<function>
<function-name>isAllowed</function-name>
<function-class>org.springframework.faces.security.Jsf12FaceletsAut
<function-signature>boolean isAllowed(java.lang.String, java.lang.S
</function>
</facelet-taglib>

Next, register the above file taglib in web.xml:

<context-param>
<param-name>javax.faces.FACELETS_LIBRARIES</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/springsecurity.taglib.xml</param-value>
</context-param>

Now you are ready to use the tag library in your views. You can use the authorize tag to include nested
content conditionally:

<!DOCTYPE composition PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w

You can also use one of several EL functions in the rendered or other attribute of any JSF component:

<!DOCTYPE composition PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w

<ui:composition xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:sec="http://www.springframework.org/security/tags">

<h:outputText value="Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" rendered="#{sec:areAllGran

<h:outputText value="Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" rendered="#{sec:areNotGran

<h:outputText value="Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" rendered="#{sec:areAnyGran
<!-- Rendered only if user has access to given HTTP method/URL as defined i
<h:outputText value="Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet" rendered="#{sec:isAllowed(

85
JSF Integration

</ui:composition>

Enhancing The User Experience With Rich Web

Forms in JSF 1.2
JSF and Web Flow combine to provide an extensive server-side validation model for your web applica-
tion, but excessive roundtrips to the server to execute this validation and return error messages can be a
tedious experience for your users. The Spring Faces component library provides a number of client-side
rich validation controls that can enhance the user experience by applying simple validations that give
immediate feedback. Some simple examples are illustrated below. See the Spring Faces taglib docs for a
complete tag reference.

Validating a Text Field

Simple client-side text validation can be applied with the clientTextValidator component:

<sf:clientTextValidator required="true">
<h:inputText id="creditCardName" value="#{booking.creditCardName}" required="tr
</sf:clientTextValidator>

This will apply client-side required validation to the child inputText component, giving the user a
clear indicator if the field is left blank.

Validating a Numeric Field

Simple client-side numeric validation can be applied with the clientNumberValidator compon-
ent:

<sf:clientTextValidator required="true" regExp="[0-9]{16}"

invalidMessage="A 16-digit credit card number is required."
<h:inputText id="creditCard" value="#{booking.creditCard}" required="true"/>
</sf:clientTextValidator>

This will apply client-side validation to the child inputText component, giving the user a clear indic-
ator if the field is left blank, is not numeric, or does not match the given regular expression.

Validating a Date Field

Simple client-side date validation with a rich calendar popup can be applied with the client-
DateValidator component:

<sf:clientDateValidator required="true" >

<h:inputText id="checkinDate" value="#{booking.checkinDate}" required="true">
<f:convertDateTime pattern="yyyy-MM-dd" timeZone="EST"/>
</h:inputText>
</sf:clientDateValidator>

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JSF Integration

This will apply client-side validation to the child inputText component, giving the user a clear indic-
ator if the field is left blank or is not a valid date.

Preventing an Invalid Form Submission

The validateAllOnClick component can be used to intercept the "onclick" event of a child com-
ponent and suppress the event if all client-side validations do not pass.

<sf:validateAllOnClick>
<sf:commandButton id="proceed" action="proceed" processIds="*" value="Proceed"/
</sf:validateAllOnClick>

This will prevent the form from being submitted when the user clicks the "proceed" button if the form is
invalid. When the validations are executed, the user is given clear and immediate indicators of the prob-
lems that need to be corrected.

Third-Party Component Library Integration

The Spring Web Flow JSF integration strives to be compatible with any third-party JSF component lib-
rary. By honoring all of the standard semantics of the JSF specification within the SWF-driven JSF life-
cycle, third-party libraries in general should "just work". The main thing to remember is that configura-
tion in web.xml will change slightly since Web Flow requests are not routed through the standard Fa-
cesServlet. Typically, anything that is traditionally mapped to the FacesServlet should be mapped to the
Spring DispatcherServlet instead. (You can also map to both if for example you are migrating a legacy
JSF application page-by-page.) In some cases, a deeper level of integration can be achieved by configur-
ing special flow services that are "aware" of a particular component library, and these will be noted in
the examples to follow.

Rich Faces Integration (JSF 1.2)

To use the Rich Faces component library with Spring Web Flow, the following filter configuration is
needed in web.xml (in addition to the other typical configuration already shown):

<filter>
<display-name>RichFaces Filter</display-name>
<filter-name>richfaces</filter-name>
<filter-class>org.ajax4jsf.Filter</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>richfaces</filter-name>
<servlet-name>Spring Web MVC Dispatcher Servlet</servlet-name>
<dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
<dispatcher>FORWARD</dispatcher>
<dispatcher>INCLUDE</dispatcher>
</filter-mapping>

For deeper integration (including the ability to have a view with combined use of the Spring Faces Ajax
components and Rich Faces Ajax components), configure the RichFacesAjaxHandler on your FlowCon-
troller:

87
JSF Integration

<bean id="flowController" class="org.springframework.webflow.mvc.servlet.FlowContro

RichFaces Ajax components can be used in conjunction with the render tag to render partial frag-
ments on an Ajax request. Instead of embedding the ids of the components to be re-rendered directly in
the view template (as you traditionally do with Rich Faces), you can bind the reRender attribute of a
RichFaces Ajax component to a special flowRenderFragments EL variable. For example, in your
view template you can have a fragment that you would potentially like to re-render in response to a par-
ticular event:

<h:form id="hotels">
<a4j:outputPanel id="searchResultsFragment">
<h:outputText id="noHotelsText" value="No Hotels Found" rendered="#{hotels.
<h:dataTable id="hotels" styleClass="summary" value="#{hotels}" var="hotel"
<h:column>
<f:facet name="header">Name</f:facet>
#{hotel.name}
</h:column>
<h:column>
<f:facet name="header">Address</f:facet>
#{hotel.address}
</h:column>
</h:dataTable>
</a4j:outputPanel>
</h:form>

then a RichFaces Ajax commandLink to fire the event:

<a4j:commandLink id="nextPageLink" value="More Results" action="next" reRender="#{f

and then in your flow definition a transition to handle the event:

Apache MyFaces Trinidad Integration (JSF 1.2)

The Apache MyFaces Trinidad library has been tested with the Spring Web Flow's JSF integration and
proven to fit in nicely. Deeper integration to allow the Trinidad components and Spring Faces compon-
ents to play well together has not yet been attempted, but Trinidad provides a pretty thorough solution
on its own when used in conjunction with the Spring Web Flow JSF integration.

NOTE: An AjaxHandler implementation for Trinidad is not currently provided out-of-the-box. In or-
der to fully integrate with Trinidad's PPR functionality, a custom implementation should be provided.

88
JSF Integration

An community-provided partial example can be found here: SWF-1160 [ht-

tp://jira.springsource.org/browse/SWF-1160]

Typical configuration when using Trinidad with Web Flow is as follows in web.xml (in addition what
has already been shown):

<context-param>
<param-name>javax.faces.STATE_SAVING_METHOD</param-name>
<param-value>server</param-value>
</context-param>
<context-param>
<param-name>
org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.CHANGE_PERSISTENCE
</param-name>
<param-value>session</param-value>
</context-param>
<context-param>
<param-name>
org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.ENABLE_QUIRKS_MODE
</param-name>
<param-value>false</param-value>
</context-param>
<filter>
<filter-name>Trinidad Filter</filter-name>
<filter-class>
org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.webapp.TrinidadFilter
</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>Trinidad Filter</filter-name>
<servlet-name>Spring MVC Dispatcher Servlet</servlet-name>
</filter-mapping>
<servlet>
<servlet-name>Trinidad Resource Servlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>
org.apache.myfaces.trinidad.webapp.ResourceServlet
</servlet-class>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>resources</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/adf/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

89
Chapter 14. Portlet Integration
Introduction
This chapter shows how to use Web Flow in a Portlet environment. Spring Web Flow requires Portlet
API 2.0 to run with. The booking-portlet-mvc sample application is a good reference for using
Web Flow within a portlet. This application is a simplified travel site that allows users to search for and
book hotel rooms.

Configuring web.xml and portlet.xml

The configuration for a portlet depends on the portlet container used. The sample applications, included
with Web Flow, are both configured to use Apache Pluto [http://portals.apache.org/pluto/].

In general, the configuration requires adding a servlet mapping in the web.xml file to dispatch request
to the portlet container.

<servlet>
<servlet-name>swf-booking-mvc</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.apache.pluto.core.PortletServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>portlet-name</param-name>
<param-value>swf-booking-mvc</param-value>
</init-param>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>swf-booking-mvc</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/PlutoInvoker/swf-booking-mvc</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

The portlet.xml configuration is a standard portlet configuration. The portlet-class needs to

be set along with a pair of init-params. Setting the expiration-cache to 0 is recommended to
force Web Flow to always render a fresh view.

<portlet>
...
<portlet-class>org.springframework.web.portlet.DispatcherPortlet</portlet-class
<init-param>
<name>contextConfigLocation</name>
<value>/WEB-INF/web-application-config.xml</value>
</init-param>
<init-param>
<name>viewRendererUrl</name>
<value>/WEB-INF/servlet/view</value>
</init-param>
<expiration-cache>0</expiration-cache>
...
</portlet>

90
Portlet Integration

Configuring Spring
Flow Handlers
The only supported mechanism for bridging a portlet request to Web Flow is a FlowHandler. The
PortletFlowController used in Web Flow 1.0 is no longer supported.

The flow handler, similar to the servlet flow handler, provides hooks that can:

• select the flow to execute

• pass input parameters to the flow on initialization

• handle the flow execution outcome

• handle exceptions

The AbstractFlowHandler class is an implementation of FlowHandler that provides default

implementations for these hooks.

In a portlet environment the targeted flow id can not be inferred from the URL and must be defined ex-
plicitly in the handler.

public class ViewFlowHandler extends AbstractFlowHandler {

public String getFlowId() {
return "view";
}
}

Handler Mappings
Spring Portlet MVC provides a rich set of methods to map portlet requests. Complete documentation is
available in the Spring Reference Documentation [ht-
tp://static.springframework.org/spring/docs/2.5.x/reference/portlet.html#portlet-handlermapping].

The booking-portlet-mvc sample application uses a PortletModeHandlerMapping to map

portlet requests. The sample application only supports view mode, but support for other portlet modes
is available. Other modes can be added and point to the same flow as view mode, or any other flow.

Flow Handler Adapter

91
Portlet Integration

A FlowHandlerAdapter converts the handler mappings to the flow handlers. The flow executor is
required as a constructor argument.

Portlet Views
In order to facilitate view rendering, a ViewRendererServlet must be added to the web.xml file.
This servlet is not invoked directly, but it used by Web Flow to render views in a portlet environment.

<servlet>
<servlet-name>ViewRendererServlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.ViewRendererServlet</servlet-cla
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>ViewRendererServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/WEB-INF/servlet/view</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Portlet Modes and Window States

Window State
The Portlet API defined three window states: normal, minimized and maximized. The portlet imple-
mentation must decide what to render for each of these window states. Web Flow exposes the string
value of the window state under portletWindowState via the request map on the external context.

requestContext.getExternalContext().getRequestMap().get("portletWindowState");

externalContext.requestMap.portletWindowState

Portlet Mode
The Portlet API defined three portlet modes: view, edit and help. The portlet implementation must de-
cide what to render for each of these modes. Web Flow exposes the string value of the portlet mode un-
der portletMode via the request map on the external context.

requestContext.getExternalContext().getRequestMap().get("portletMode");

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Portlet Integration

externalContext.requestMap.portletMode

Using Portlets with JSF

Prior to version 2.1 of Spring Web Flow, support for JSF Portlets was considered experimental and re-
lied 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 caus-
ing 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 Port-
lets 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 addi-
tion 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.PortletFaceletVie
</view-handler>
</application>
</faces-config>

Issues in a Portlet Environment

Redirects
The Portlet API only allows redirects to be requested from an action request. Because views are
rendered on the render request, views and view-states cannot trigger a redirect.

The externalRedirect: view prefix is a convenience for Servlet based flows. An Illegal-
StateException is thrown if a redirect is requested from a render request.

end-state redirects can be achieved by implementing FlowHand-

ler.handleExecutionOutcome. This callback provides the ActionResponse object which
supports redirects.

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Portlet Integration

Switching Portlet Modes

The portlet container passes the execution key from the previous flow when switching to a new mode.
Even if the mode is mapped to a different FlowHandler the flow execution will resume the previous
execution. You may switch the mode programatically in your FlowHandler after ending a flow in an Ac-
tionRequest.

One way to start a new flow is to create a URL targeting the mode without the execution key.

94
Chapter 15. Testing flows
Introduction
This chapter shows you how to test flows.

Extending AbstractXmlFlowExecutionTests
To test the execution of a XML-based flow definition, extend AbstractXmlFlowExecu-
tionTests:

public class BookingFlowExecutionTests extends AbstractXmlFlowExecutionTests {

}

Specifying the path to the flow to test

At a minimum, you must override getResource(FlowDefinitionResourceFactory) to re-
turn the path to the flow you wish to test:

@Override
protected FlowDefinitionResource getResource(FlowDefinitionResourceFactory resource
return resourceFactory.createFileResource("src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/hotels/booki
}

Registering flow dependencies

If your flow has dependencies on externally managed services, also override configureFlow-
BuilderContext(MockFlowBuilderContext) to register stubs or mocks of those services:

@Override
protected void configureFlowBuilderContext(MockFlowBuilderContext builderContext) {
builderContext.registerBean("bookingService", new StubBookingService());
}

If your flow extends from another flow, or has states that extend other states, also override getMod-
elResources(FlowDefinitionResourceFactory) to return the path to the parent flows.

@Override
protected FlowDefinitionResource[] getModelResources(FlowDefinitionResourceFactory
return new FlowDefinitionResource[] {
resourceFactory.createFileResource("src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/common/common.xm
};
}

95
Testing flows

Testing flow startup

Have your first test exercise the startup of your flow:

public void testStartBookingFlow() {

Booking booking = createTestBooking();
MutableAttributeMap input = new LocalAttributeMap();
input.put("hotelId", "1");
MockExternalContext context = new MockExternalContext();
context.setCurrentUser("keith");
startFlow(input, context);
assertCurrentStateEquals("enterBookingDetails");
assertTrue(getRequiredFlowAttribute("booking") instanceof Booking);
}

Assertions generally verify the flow is in the correct state you expect.

Testing flow event handling

Define additional tests to exercise flow event handling behavior. You goal should be to exercise all
paths through the flow. You can use the convenient setCurrentState(String) method to jump
to the flow state where you wish to begin your test.

public void testEnterBookingDetails_Proceed() {

setCurrentState("enterBookingDetails");
getFlowScope().put("booking", createTestBooking());
MockExternalContext context = new MockExternalContext();
context.setEventId("proceed");
resumeFlow(context);
assertCurrentStateEquals("reviewBooking");
}

Mocking a subflow
To test calling a subflow, register a mock implementation of the subflow that asserts input was passed in
correctly and returns the correct outcome for your test scenario.

public void testBookHotel() {

setCurrentState("reviewHotel");
Hotel hotel = new Hotel();
hotel.setId(1L);
hotel.setName("Jameson Inn");
getFlowScope().put("hotel", hotel);

96
Testing flows

getFlowDefinitionRegistry().registerFlowDefinition(createMockBookingSubflow());
MockExternalContext context = new MockExternalContext();
context.setEventId("book");
resumeFlow(context);
// verify flow ends on 'bookingConfirmed'
assertFlowExecutionEnded();
assertFlowExecutionOutcomeEquals("finish");
}
public Flow createMockBookingSubflow() {
Flow mockBookingFlow = new Flow("booking");
mockBookingFlow.setInputMapper(new Mapper() {
public MappingResults map(Object source, Object target) {
// assert that 1L was passed in as input
assertEquals(1L, ((AttributeMap) source).get("hotelId"));
return null;
}
});
// immediately return the bookingConfirmed outcome so the caller can respond
new EndState(mockBookingFlow, "bookingConfirmed");
return mockBookingFlow;
}

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Chapter 16. Upgrading from 1.0
Introduction
This chapter shows you how to upgrade existing Web Flow 1 application to Web Flow 2.

Flow Definition Language

The core concepts behind the flow definition language have not changed between Web Flow 1 and 2.
However, some of the element and attribute names have changed. These changes allow for the language
to be both more concise and expressive. A complete list of mapping changes is available as an appendix.

Flow Definition Updater Tool

An automated tool is available to aid in the conversion of existing 1.x flows to the new 2.x style. The
tool will convert all the old tag names to their new equivalents, if needed. While the tool will make a
best effort attempt at conversion, there is not a one-to-one mapping for all version 1 concepts. If the tool
was unable to convert a portion of the flow, it will be marked with a WARNING comment in the resulting
flow.

The conversion tool requires spring-webflow.jar, spring-core.jar and an XSLT 1.0 engine. Saxon 6.5.5
[http://saxon.sourceforge.net/] is recommended.

The tool can be run from the command line with the following command. Required libraries must be
available on the classpath. The source must be a single flow to convert. The resulting converted flow
will be sent to standard output.

java org.springframework.webflow.upgrade.WebFlowUpgrader flow-to-upgrade.xml

Flow Definition Updater Tool Warnings

argument parameter-type no longer supported
Bean actions have been deprecated in favor of EL based evaluate expressions. The EL expression is able
to accept method parameters directly, so there is no longer a need for the argument tag. A side effect of
this change is that method arguments must be of the correct type before invoking the action.

inline-flow is no longer supported

Inline flows are no longer supported. The contents of the inline flow must be moved into a new top-level
flow. The inline flow's content has been converted for your convenience.

mapping target-collection is no longer supported

Output mappings can no longer add an item to a collection. Only assignment is supported.

var bean is no longer supported

The var bean attribute is no longer needed. All spring beans can be resolved via EL.

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Upgrading from 1.0

var scope is no longer supported

The var element will place all variable into flow scope. Conversation scope was previously allowed.

EL Expressions
EL expressions are used heavily throughout the flow definition language. Many of the attributes that ap-
pear to be plain text are actually interpreted as EL. The standard EL delimiters (either ${} or #{} in Web
Flow 2.0 or just #{} in Web Flow 2.1) are not necessary and will often cause an exception if they are in-
cluded.

EL delimiters should be removed where necessary by the updater tool.

Web Flow Configuration

In Web Flow 1 there were two options available for configuring Web Flow, one using standard spring
bean XML and the other using the webflow-config-1.0 schema. The schema configuration option
simplifies the configuration process by keeping long internal class names hidden and enabling contextu-
al auto-complete. The schema configuration option is the only way to configure Web Flow 2.

Web Flow Bean Configuration

The FactoryBean bean XML configuration method used in Web Flow 1 is no longer supported. The
schema configuration method should be used instead. In particular beans defining FlowExecutor-
FactoryBean and XmlFlowRegistryFactoryBean should be updated. Continue reading Web
Flow Schema Configuration for details.

Web Flow Schema Configuration

The webflow-config configuration schema has also changed slightly from version 1 to 2. The
simplest way to update your application is modify the version of the schema to 2.0 then fix any errors in
a schema aware XML editor. The most common change is add 'flow-' to the beginning of the elements
defined by the schema.

flow-executor
The flow executor is the core Web Flow configuration element. This element replaces previous
FlowExecutorFactoryBean bean definitions.

<webflow:flow-executor id="flowExecutor" />

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Upgrading from 1.0

flow-execution-listeners
Flow execution listeners are also defined in the flow executor. Listeners are defined using standard bean
definitions and added by reference.

<webflow:flow-executor id="flowExecutor" flow-registry="flowRegistry">

<webflow:flow-execution-listeners>
<webflow:listener ref="securityFlowExecutionListener"/>
</webflow:flow-execution-listeners>
</webflow:flow-executor>
<bean id="securityFlowExecutionListener"
class="org.springframework.webflow.security.SecurityFlowExecutionListener" />

flow-registry
The flow-registry contains a set of flow-locations. Every flow definition used by Web Flow
must be added to the registry. This element replaces previous XmlFlowRegistryFactoryBean
bean definitions.

<webflow:flow-registry id="flowRegistry">
<webflow:flow-location path="/WEB-INF/hotels/booking/booking.xml" />
</webflow:flow-registry>

Flow Controller
The package name for flow controllers has changed from
org.springframework.webflow.executor.mvc.FlowController and is now
org.springframework.webflow.mvc.servlet.FlowController for Servlet MVC re-
quests. The portlet flow controller
org.springframework.webflow.executor.mvc.PortletFlowController has been
replaced by a flow handler adapter available at
org.springframework.webflow.mvc.portlet.FlowHandlerAdapter. They will need
to be updated in the bean definitions.

Flow URL Handler

The default URL handler has changed in Web Flow 2. The flow identifier is now derived from the URL
rather then passed explicitly. In order to maintain comparability with existing views and URL structures
a WebFlow1FlowUrlHandler is available.

<bean name="/pos.htm" class="org.springframework.webflow.mvc.servlet.FlowController

View Resolution
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Upgrading from 1.0

Web Flow 2 by default will both select and render views. View were previously selected by Web Flow 1
and then rendered by an external view resolver.

In order for version 1 flows to work in Web Flow 2 the default view resolver must be overridden. A
common use case is to use Apache Tiles [http://tiles.apache.org/] for view resolution. The following
configuration will replace the default view resolver with a Tiles view resolver. The tilesViewRe-
solver in this example can be replaced with any other view resolver.

<webflow:flow-registry id="flowRegistry" flow-builder-services="flowBuilderServices

<web:flow-location path="..." />
...
</webflow:flow-registry>
<webflow:flow-builder-services id="flowBuilderServices"
view-factory-creator="viewFactoryCreator"/>
<bean id="viewFactoryCreator" class="org.springframework.webflow.mvc.builder.MvcVie
<property name="viewResolvers" ref="tilesViewResolver" />
</bean>
<bean id="tilesViewResolver" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.UrlBasedVi
<property name="viewClass" value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles.Ti
</bean>
<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles.TilesConfigurer">
<property name="definitions" value="/WEB-INF/tiles-def.xml" />
</bean>

New Web Flow Concepts

Automatic Model Binding
Web Flow 1 required Spring MVC based flows to manually call FormAction methods, notably:
setupForm, bindAndValidate to process form views. Web Flow 2 now provides automatic mod-
el setup and binding using the model attribute for view-states. Please see the Binding to a Model
section for details.

OGNL vs Spring EL
Web Flow 1 used OGNL exclusively for expressions within the flow definitions. Web Flow 2 adds sup-
port for Unified EL. Web Flow 2.1 uses Spring EL by default. United EL and OGNL can still be
plugged in. Please see Chapter 4, Expression Language (EL) for details.

Flash Scope
Flash scope in Web Flow 1 lived across the current request and into the next request. This was conceptu-
ally similar to Web Flow 2's view scope concept, but the semantics were not as well defined. In Web
Flow 2, flash scope is cleared after every view render. This makes flashScope semantics in Web Flow
consistent with other web frameworks.

JSF
Web Flow 2 offers significantly improved integration with JSF. Please see Chapter 13, JSF Integration

101
Upgrading from 1.0

for details.

External Redirects
External redirects in Web Flow 1 were always considered context relative. In Web Flow 2, if the redirect
URL begins with a slash, it is considered servlet-relative instead of context-relative. URLs without a
leading slash are still context relative.

102
Appendix A. Flow Definition Language
1.0 to 2.0 Mappings
The flow definition language has changed since the 1.0 release. This is a listing of the language elements
in the 1.0 release, and how they map to elements in the 2.0 release. While most of the changes are se-
mantic, there are a few structural changes. Please see the upgrade guide for more details about changes
between Web Flow 1.0 and 2.0.

Table A.1. Mappings

SWF 1.0 SWF 2.0 Comments
action * use <evaluate />
bean *
name *
method *
action-state action-state
id id
* parent
argument * use <evaluate expression="func(arg1, arg2, ...)"/>
expression
parameter-type
attribute attribute
name name
type type
value value
attribute-mapper * input and output elements can be in flows or sub-
flows directly
bean * now subflow-attribute-mapper attribute on subflow-
state
bean-action * use <evaluate />
bean *
name *
method *
decision-state decision-state
id id
* parent
end-actions on-end
end-state end-state
id id
view view
* parent
* commit

103
Flow Definition Language 1.0 to 2.0
Mappings

SWF 1.0 SWF 2.0 Comments

entry-actions on-entry
evaluate-action evaluate
expression expression
name * use <evaluate ...> <attribute name=”name”
value="..." /> </evaluate>
* result
* result-type
evaluation-result * use <evaluate result="..." />
name *
scope *
exception-handler exception-handler
bean bean
exit-actions on-exit
flow flow
* start-state
* parent
* abstract
global-transitions global-transitions
if if
test test
then then
else else
import bean-import
resource resource
inline-flow * convert to new top-level flow
id *
input-attribute input
name name
scope * prefix name with scope <input
name="flowScope.foo" />
required required
* type
* value
input-mapper * inputs can be in flows and subflows directly
mapping input or output
source name or value name when in flow element, value when in subflow-
state element
target name or value value when in flow element, name when in subflow-
state element
target-collection * no longer supported
from * detected automatically
to type

104
Flow Definition Language 1.0 to 2.0
Mappings

SWF 1.0 SWF 2.0 Comments

required required
method-argument * use <evaluate expression="func(arg1, arg2, ...)"/>
method-result * use <evaluate result="..." />
name *
scope *
output-attribute output
name name
scope * prefix name with scope <output
name="flowScope.foo" />
required required
* type
* value
output-mapper * output can be in flows and subflows directly
render-actions on-render
set set
attribute name
scope * prefix name with scope <set name="flowScope.foo"
/>
value value
name * use <set ...> <attribute name=”name” value="..." />
</set>
* type
start-actions on-start
start-state * now <flow start-state="...">, or defaults to the first
state in the flow
idref *
subflow-state subflow-state
id id
flow subflow
* parent
* subflow-attrib-
ute-mapper
transition transition
on on
on-exception on-exception
to to
* bind
* validate
* history
value value
var var
name name

105
Flow Definition Language 1.0 to 2.0
Mappings

SWF 1.0 SWF 2.0 Comments

class class
scope * always flow scope
bean * all Spring beans can be resolved with EL
view-state view-state
id id
view view
* parent
* redirect
* popup
* model
* history
* persistence-context
* render
* fragments
* secured
* attributes
* match

106