How to create a JSF Template - hmislk/hmis GitHub Wiki

Creating a Java Server Faces (JSF) template involves setting up a reusable structure for your web application, allowing you to define common elements like headers, footers, and navigation bars in one place and reuse them across multiple pages. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to create a JSF template.

• Set Up Your JSF Project First, ensure you have a JSF project set up using a compatible IDE (e.g., Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA) and a Java EE-compliant server (e.g., Apache Tomcat, Wild Fly). If you haven't created a JSF project yet, do so before proceeding.

• Create a Template File In your JSF project, create a new XHTML (or Facelets) file that will serve as your template. Conventionally, these files are placed in a "templates" or "resources" folder.

• Create Content Pages Now, create individual XHTML pages for your application's content. These pages will use your template.we use ui:composition to specify that this page uses the template.xhtml template. The content for this page is placed inside ui:define with the name "content.

• Create Additional Content Pages Repeat the process for each content page you want to create, ensuring that you define the content within ui:define for the appropriate section (e.g., "content," "header," "footer") in your template.

• Configure Navigation Configure JSF navigation rules in your faces-config.xml file to specify how users can navigate between different content pages.Make sure to link your navigation outcomes in your JSF components (e.g., <h:commandLink>, <h:commandButton>) so that they correspond to the navigation cases.

• Run Your JSF Application Deploy and run your JSF application on your chosen Java EE server to see your template in action.

Your JSF template is now ready, and you can reuse it across multiple pages by using the ui:composition tag and defining content with ui:define within your individual pages. This approach helps maintain consistency in your web application's layout and design.