jsf - Primefaces FileUpload not working in Spring Boot

Question

I'm running my JSF project launching it with Spring Boot and taking advantage of the whole Spring environment. The configuration is: Mojarra 2.2.8 + Primefaces 5.1 + Spring Boot 1.1.9. That's how my POM.xml file looks like:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.mycompany</groupId>
    <artifactId>project</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>war</packaging>

    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>1.1.9.RELEASE</version>
        <relativePath /> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
    </parent>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>mysql</groupId>
            <artifactId>mysql-connector-java</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId>
            <scope>provided</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsf-api</artifactId>
            <version>${jsf.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.sun.faces</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsf-impl</artifactId>
            <version>${jsf.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.primefaces</groupId>
            <artifactId>primefaces</artifactId>
            <version>5.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.primefaces.themes</groupId>
            <artifactId>all-themes</artifactId>
            <version>1.0.10</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet.jsp</groupId>
            <artifactId>jsp-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.inject</groupId>
            <artifactId>javax.inject</artifactId>
            <version>1</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.servlet</groupId>
            <artifactId>jstl</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>javax.el</groupId>
            <artifactId>el-api</artifactId>
            <version>2.2</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.glassfish.web</groupId>
            <artifactId>el-impl</artifactId>
            <version>2.2</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <properties>
        <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
        <start-class>com.tesicnor.workplace.monitor.Application</start-class>
        <java.version>1.7</java.version>
        <tomcat.version>7.0.57</tomcat.version>
        <jsf.version>2.2.8</jsf.version>
    </properties>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

As it's specified above, I'm configuring the project to run in a tomcat 7.0.57 (Servlet 3.0 compatible) launcher. All the JSF functions are properly working, but the problem is I can't get the Primefaces p:fileUpload component work, neither the basic or the advanced versions. The file upload listener doesn't get invoked and no error thrown.

That's my bean's code:

@ManagedBean
@javax.faces.bean.ViewScoped
public class Bean {

    public void handleFileUpload(FileUploadEvent event) {
        FacesMessage message = new FacesMessage("Succesful", event.getFile()
                .getFileName() + " is uploaded.");
        FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage(null, message);
        System.out.println("Uploaded!");
    }

}

And that's how my xhtml file looks like, under a template:

<ui:composition template="/WEB-INF/template.xhtml"
    xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
    xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
    xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
    xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
    xmlns:p="http://primefaces.org/ui">

    <ui:define name="content">
        <h:form>
            <p:fileUpload fileUploadListener="#{bean.handleFileUpload}" />
        </h:form>
    </ui:define>
</ui:composition>

Nothing special about the code at all, it must be a server configuration issue. When I drop the file and click on upload, the FacesServlet gets hit. So the request is performed and no javascript errors shown. But when I perform a debugging into the InvokeApplicationPhase class, where my method should be invoked, I find no events to be processed. So the FileUploadEvent is not being attached to the cycle.

Furthermore, that's the debugging stack of another project that properly performs the file upload with Tomcat 7 and that JSF version:

Here the NativeFileUploadDecoder is being called. However that's not happening in my Spring boot project and no method below FileUpload#visitTree is invoked.

I tried other choices and found out that when I use some <h:form enctype="multipart/form-data"> none of the action methods for components inside are invoked, even when I place a plain h:commandButton.

Answer 1

Finally, I got it working using the Apache Commons library. Similarly that what we might do in a standard web.xml file, that's my context initializer:

@Bean
public ServletContextInitializer initializer() {
    return new ServletContextInitializer() {
        @Override
        public void onStartup(ServletContext servletContext)
                throws ServletException {
            servletContext.setInitParameter("primefaces.THEME", "bluesky");
            servletContext.setInitParameter(
                    "javax.faces.FACELETS_SKIP_COMMENTS", "true");
            servletContext.setInitParameter(
                    "com.sun.faces.expressionFactory",
                    "com.sun.el.ExpressionFactoryImpl");
            servletContext.setInitParameter("primefaces.UPLOADER",
                    "commons");
        }
    };
}

I explicitly tell Primefaces to use the commons uploader, like said in docs (the other choice is to use native, which is not working).

Then, just adding this two dependencies to the project, we're ready to go:

<dependency>
    <groupId>commons-fileupload</groupId>
    <artifactId>commons-fileupload</artifactId>
    <version>1.3</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>commons-io</groupId>
    <artifactId>commons-io</artifactId>
    <version>2.2</version>
</dependency>

I keep the thread opened for some response based in the native mode.

See also:

• How to use PrimeFaces p:fileUpload? Listener method is never invoked or UploadedFile is null