Migration guide – go from Myfaces 1.1.X to Myfaces 1.2.3

If you are currently using Myfaces 1.1.X and want to start to use Myfaces core 1.2.3, there are certain steps you need to do and to be aware of to be able to make your existing 1.1.X-version application run. JSF 1.2 requires java 1.5 or later, JSP 2.1, JSTL 1.2 and a Java Servlet 2.5 implementation. If you use Jboss, this means that you have to go for jboss version 4.2.2 or higher (supports java5).

1. First of all you need to download the new Myfaces-1.2 Core libraries, you can do it from here: Myfaces Project
   
2. If you have been using Myfaces 1.1.X, you have probably also been using javax.servlet.jar and javax.servlet.jsp.jar. But the 1.2.3 version requires JSP 2.1, JSTL 1.2 and Java Servlet 2.5, so you need to update those libraries. The libraries you want to get are jsp-api-2.1.jar, jstl-1.2.jar and servlet-api-2.5.jar. You can get them from here: Jboss repository.
3. The libraries are now in place. But you will find out that several classes and methods that existed in Myfaces-1.1.5 are now deprecated. For example, ValueBinding is now ValueExpression, and MethodBinding is MethodExpression. I will give you the different way in creating these programmatically, the way it is with 1.1.5, and the way it should be done in 1.2.3. Note that for ValueExpressions it is necessary to pass the “expected” class as parameter – meaning that if your ValueExpression would be used in the “value” property, the class would probably be java.lang.String. If it was to be used in a “rendered” property, the class should be java.lang.Boolean. If you don’t do this properly you would normally get a class cast exception, or at least some strange results: ValueBinding – 1.1.5

   ValueBinding vb = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getApplication().createValueBinding(
                       "#{myBean.myProperty}");
   myComponent.setValueBinding("value", vb);
   

   ValueExpression- 1.2.3
   

   FacesContext context = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
   ValueExpression vex = context.getApplication().getExpressionFactory().createValueExpression(context.getELContext(), "#{myBean.myProperty}", String.class);
   myComponent.setValueExpression("value", vex);
   ValueExpression rex = context.getApplication().getExpressionFactory().createValueExpression(context.getELContext(), "#{myBean.myProperty}", Boolean.class);
   myComponent.setValueExpression("rendered", rex);
   

   MethodBinding – 1.1.5

   MethodBinding methodBinding = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getApplication().createMethodBinding(
   			"#{myHandler.action}",null);
   myComponent.setAction( methodBinding );
   

   MethodExpression – 1.2.3
   

   FacesContext context = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
   MethodExpression methodEx = context.getApplication().getExpressionFactory().createMethodExpression(context.getELContext(),
   			"#{myHandler.action}", String.class, new Class[] {});
   myComponent.setActionExpression(methodEx );
   

   ActionListener – 1.1.5

   try
           {    Class[] parameterList = { Class.forName("javax.faces.event.ActionEvent") };
               MethodBinding actionListenerBinding = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getApplication().createMethodBinding(
                   "#{myHandler.myListener}",parameterList);
               myComponent.setActionListener(actionListenerBinding );
           }
           catch (Exception e)
          {
               log.error("error setting ActionListener");
           }
   

   ActionListener – 1.2.3
   

   FacesContext context = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
   ELContext elContext = context .getELContext();
   MethodExpression actionListenerExpression = context.getApplication().getExpressionFactory().createMethodExpression(
   elContext,"#{myHandler.myActionListenerMethod}",null,new Class[] {ActionEvent.class});
   
    MethodExpressionActionListener methodExpressionActionListener = new MethodExpressionActionListener(actionListenerExpression);
   

4. Also rememeber that the tld respects the html 4 specification, so old attribiutes like align, alt, background and color are deprecated. You need to update these and set proper css instead.

Good luck!