Which XML namespace to use with JSF 2.2 and up

I made a brief summary of all the new official oracle namespaces:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
    xmlns:h="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/html"
    xmlns:f="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/core"
    xmlns:ui="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/facelets"
    xmlns:c="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsp/jstl/core"
    xmlns:p="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/passthrough"
    xmlns:cc="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/composite"
    xmlns:fn="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsp/jstl/functions"      
    xmlns:jsf="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf">

    <!-- Content here -->
</html>

I use this as template for all of my .xhtml files. Details can be found in the official facelet tag library: JavaServer Faces 2.2 Facelets Tag Library Documentation

Hope this helps :)


Which one is recommended?

Go ahead with XML namespaces on xmlns.jcp.org domain. This was newly introduced since Java EE 7 in 2013 (which covers a.o. JSF 2.2, Servlet 3.1, CDI 1.1, etc). Do note that this not only affects Facelets files, but also XML configuration files such as faces-config.xml, web.xml, beans.xml, etc.

The old XML namespaces on java.sun.com are still there for backwards compatibility, but the support will eventually disappear in a future Java EE version. You should migrate your code base as soon as you can. It should be a trivial task using "find and replace in all files" facility offered by the average IDE.

Only older Mojarra 2.2.0 / 2.2.1 versions have had bugs related to the XML namespace changes, but those should not manifest in newer versions. See also a.o.

  • Using new xmlns.jcp.org namespace on composites causes java.lang.NullPointerException at java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap.putIfAbsent
  • f:viewParam doesn't pass required parameter when new xmlns.jcp.org namespace is used
  • The metadata component needs to be nested within a f:metadata tag. Suggestion: enclose the necessary components within <f:metadata>

and why was this changed?

Because Java is not from Sun anymore since 2010. Note that they were smart to not make it java.oracle.com or something tight coupled to the currently owning company. It's now nicely and independently tied to the JCP (Java Community Process), the one really responsible for managing the Java (EE) specifications.


For future visitors having namespace confusion/issue:

I would like to highlight the general way to find out which namespace to use:

  • If you want to use tags from JSF HTML tag library or JSF core tag library then open the JSF implementation JAR (like Oracle Mojarra, Apache MyFaces- myfaces-impl-2.3.1.jar) and find the tag library's .tld or .xml file (you can find it under META-INF directory) and use the namespace mentioned over there.
  • If you want to use the RichFaces or PrimeFaces then open their implementation JAR (like richfaces-components-ui-4.0.0.Final.jar, or primefaces-6.2.jar) and do same thing as above.

If implementation has .tld (like rich.tld) then you can use the value of <uri> element for example <uri>http://richfaces.org/rich</uri>. And if implementation has .xml (like rich.taglib.xml) then you can use the value of <namespace> element for example <namespace>http://richfaces.org/rich</namespace>

What I have mentioned above is strictly related to JSF but holds good in general as well. Key thing is that if you use the namespace from the implementation JAR then you will never run into issues.

Tags:

Jsf

Xml Namespaces

Facelets

Java Ee 7

Jsf 2.2

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