How to use JSF versioning for resources in jar

Question

PF 3.5.10, Mojarra 2.1.21, omnifaces 1.5

I have a JSF library (with css files only). This library is in a .jar file. The css will be included in xhtml with <h:outputStylesheet library="mylib" name="css/mycss.css">.

In html it is rendered to the following: localhost:8080/cms/javax.faces.resource/css/mycss.css.jsf?ln=mylib

CSS file of primefaces is rendered to: localhost:8080/cms/javax.faces.resource/primefaces.js.jsf?ln=primefaces&v=3.5.10

Notice the library version (&3.5.10) at the end. How can I do the same thing ? Should I write version in Manifest.mf. Or how can I use jsf-versioning in jar file?

Answer 1

That's unfortunately not possible. Library versioning is not supported for resources in JAR.

You've basically 2 options:

1. Do it the easy and ugly way, include server's startup time as query string. Given that you're using OmniFaces, you could use its builtin #{startup} managed bean referring a java.util.Date instance in application scope:

   <h:outputStylesheet ... name="some.css?#{startup.time}" />
   <h:outputScript ... name="some.js?#{startup.time}" />
   

   Or perhaps you've the version already as some application variable.

   <h:outputStylesheet ... name="some.css?v=#{app.version}" />
   <h:outputScript ... name="some.js?v=#{app.version}" />
   

   Update: Notwithstanding, this doesn't work for <h:outputStylesheet>. See also: https://github.com/javaserverfaces/mojarra/issues/3945 or https://github.com/javaee/javaserverfaces-spec/issues/1395

   It works for <h:outputScript> though, which had a very simliar bug report which was implemented pretty soon https://github.com/javaserverfaces/mojarra/issues/1216

2. Do the same as PrimeFaces, create a custom ResourceHandler.

   public class MyVersionResourceHandler extends ResourceHandlerWrapper {
   
       private ResourceHandler wrapped;
   
       public MyVersionResourceHandler(ResourceHandler wrapped) {
           this.wrapped = wrapped;
       }
   
       @Override
       public Resource createResource(String resourceName) {
           return createResource(resourceName, null, null);
       }
   
       @Override
       public Resource createResource(String resourceName, String libraryName) {
           return createResource(resourceName, libraryName, null);
       }
   
       @Override
       public Resource createResource(String resourceName, String libraryName, String contentType) {
           final Resource resource = super.createResource(resourceName, libraryName, contentType);
   
           if (resource == null) {
               return null;
           }
   
           return new ResourceWrapper() {
   
               @Override
               public String getRequestPath() {
                   return super.getRequestPath() + "&v=1.0";
               }
   
               @Override // Necessary because this is missing in ResourceWrapper (will be fixed in JSF 2.2).
               public String getResourceName() {
                   return resource.getResourceName();
               }
   
               @Override // Necessary because this is missing in ResourceWrapper (will be fixed in JSF 2.2).
               public String getLibraryName() {
                   return resource.getLibraryName();
               }
   
               @Override // Necessary because this is missing in ResourceWrapper (will be fixed in JSF 2.2).
               public String getContentType() {
                   return resource.getContentType();
               }
   
               @Override
               public Resource getWrapped() {
                   return resource;
               }
           };
       }
   
       @Override
       public ResourceHandler getWrapped() {
           return wrapped;
       }
   
   }
   

   Or if you happen to already use OmniFaces, it could be done simpler:

   public class YourVersionResourceHandler extends DefaultResourceHandler {
   
       public YourVersionResourceHandler(ResourceHandler wrapped) {
           super(wrapped);
       }
   
       @Override
       public Resource decorateResource(Resource resource) {
           if (resource == null || !"mylib".equals(resource.getLibraryName())) {
               return resource;
           }
   
           return new RemappedResource(resource, resource.getRequestPath() + "&v=1.0");
       }
   
   }
   

   Either way, to get it to run, register it as <resource-handler> in /META-INF/faces-config.xml of the JAR.

   <application>
       <resource-handler>com.example.MyVersionResourceHandler</resource-handler>
   </application>
   

Answer 2

You can also use your project version and append it as a version number for your resource files. This can be done using the maven-war-plugin. The maven-war-plugin will look at your pages during the build time and replace the defined properties.

The following example shows you how to configure the maven-war-plugin to filter your webapp resources in order to inject the custom property asset.version:

pom.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" ...>
  ...

  <properties>
    <asset.version>${project.version}</asset.version>    
  </properties>

  ...

  <build>
    <plugins>
      ...

      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>2.3</version>
        <configuration>

          <nonFilteredFileExtensions>
            <nonFilteredFileExtension>gif</nonFilteredFileExtension>
            <nonFilteredFileExtension>ico</nonFilteredFileExtension>
            <nonFilteredFileExtension>jpg</nonFilteredFileExtension>
            <nonFilteredFileExtension>png</nonFilteredFileExtension>
            <nonFilteredFileExtension>pdf</nonFilteredFileExtension>
          </nonFilteredFileExtensions>

          <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>

          <webResources> 
            <webResource>
              <directory>${basedir}/src/main/webapp</directory> 
              <filtering>true</filtering> 
            </webResource>
          </webResources> 

        </configuration>
      </plugin>

      ...
    </plugins>
  </build>

</project>

The asset.version property can then be used in your JSF file.

Here is an example tested with JSF 2.2:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html ...
      xmlns:jsf="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf">

...
<script jsf:name="js/libs/pure/pure-min.css?v=${project.version}" />

The result (in my case) will be the following:

<script type="text/javascript" src="/context-path/javax.faces.resource/js/libs/pure/pure-min.css.xhtml?v=1.0.15-SNAPSHOT"></script>

Answer 3

@Balusc response said "well, not a bug, but oversight and spec fail". It seems like css resources deployed in libraries cannot be versioned with mojarra 2.2.14. Is it right? I tried to implement your solution with a custom ResourceHandler, but resource returned by getWrapped().createResource(resourceName, libraryName) always returns null. It seems like createResource() try to find the library's resources (like css/layout.css) with path /META-INF/resources/ but it lacks the version.

To workaround the problem i have overrided createResource method on a custom ResourceHandler which extends Omnifaces DefaultResourceHandler to add version prefix to the resourceName

@Override
public Resource createResource(String resourceName, String libraryName) {
    if (libraryName != null && libraryName.equals(LIBRARY_NAME)) {
        if (!resourceName.startsWith(version)) {
            resourceName = version + "/"+resourceName;
        }
    }
    return super.createResource(resourceName, libraryName);
}

With this workaround the generated link looks like

<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="/javax.faces.resource/1_0_3/css/layout.css?ln=common&amp;v=1_0_3"/>

for the outputStylesheet declaration

<h:outputStylesheet library="common" name="css/layout.css" />

I'm not sure this is the best workaround.