h:html instead of f:view and/or f:metadata

[pizzi80]

As stated many times during the last 10+ years JSF is a framework generating HTML, and should not be used to generate json/xml reponse....

JSF is a MVC framework generating HTML, not some kind of a REST web service framework. You're essentially abusing JSF as a web service. Your concrete problem is simply caused by placing tags and so on > in the view file yourself.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10982762/how-to-generate-json-response-from-jsf

Is this still true?

If it's true why not simply create an h:html tag which should be like f:view and remove the f:metadata tag ?

In this way it would be possible to create a template or a page in a simpler and more linear way, for example:

<h:html xmlns:c="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsp/jstl/core"
        xmlns:j="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf"
        xmlns:f="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/core"
        xmlns:h="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/html"
        xmlns:ui="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/facelets"
        xmlns:pt="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/passthrough"     
        xmlns:o="http://omnifaces.org/ui"
        lang="en" 
        locale="en" 
        transient="#{stateless}" >

  <f:importConstants type="org.omnifaces.util.Faces" />
  <c:set var="prod" value="#{conf.production}" scope="application" />

  <!-- page meta -->
  <ui:insert name="meta" /> 

  <h:head>
    <!-- template css ... -->
    <!-- template analytics js... -->
    <!-- template font preload... -->
    <!-- page head -->
    <ui:insert name="head" />
  </h:head>
  <h:body>
    <div class="maincontent">
      <!-- page body -->
      <ui:insert name="body" />
   </div>
   <!-- template js ... -->   
  </h:body>
</h:html>

<ui:composition xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
                  xmlns:c="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsp/jstl/core"
                  xmlns:f="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/core"
                  xmlns:h="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/html"
                  xmlns:ui="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/facelets"
                  xmlns:o="http://omnifaces.org/ui"
                  xmlns:pt="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/passthrough"
                  template="/layout/template.xhtml">

<!-- Stateless View -->
<ui:param name="stateless" value="#{true}" /> 

<!-- page meta -->
<ui:define name="meta">
  <f:viewParam name="id" value="#{bean.id}" />
  <f:viewAction action="#{bean.init}" onPostback="false" />         
</ui:define>

<!-- head -->
<ui:define name="head">
  <title>Hello templating</title>
</ui:define>

<!-- body -->
<ui:define name="body">
  <h1>Hello templating</h1>
</ui:define>

</ui:composition>

[arjantijms]

and remove the f:metadata tag ?

f:metadata is a kind of special tag that we can read without parsing or processing the entire page. In a way it's like a class annotation for xml.

[melloware]

OK that makes sense so its sort of a performance optimization as well

[pizzi80]

It could be parsed only the first time, usually the xhtml files never changes in Production...

The specs could say that f:importConstant / f:viewAction / f:viewParam should be on the first level children of h:html to optimize the performance ...

[tandraschko]

im sure this will not improve performance ;) its just another markup style / cosmetics for the user

[pizzi80]

it's not pure "cosmetic", the final intent is to improve the api to have a less hackish templating system which will be for sure easier to understand, specially for the beginners, and to avoid that people at Omnifaces have to implement alternative solutions like o:importConstant...

[BalusC]

Hmm, it makes indeed sense to let h:html extend from f:view/UIViewRoot. But this will be a breaking change. Wondering why this was not done from the beginning on.