WLS8.1 & JSF 1.0 Final: "Faces Servlet" failed to preload

Question

Ok, this i what I've done. Modified the samples proprties file so everythings gets build without problems with the 1.0.x taglib.
<copy todir="${build}/${example}/WEB-INF/lib" file="${jstl.jar}"/>
<copy todir="${build}/${example}/WEB-INF/lib" file="${standard.jar}"/>
<copy todir="${build}/${example}/WEB-INF/lib" file="/jakarta-taglibs-standard-1.0.5/lib/jaxen-full.jar"/>
<copy todir="${build}/${example}/WEB-INF/lib" file="/jakarta-taglibs-standard-1.0.5/lib/saxpath.jar"/>
The jst.jar, standard.jar also point to /jakarta-taglibs-standard-1.0.5/lib
I updated the web.xml for the listener
<listener>
     <listener-class>com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener</listener-class>
</listener>     
ant the web.cml validated against http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd
If I deploy the cardemo I see:
<5/03/2004 10:28:30 PM CET> <Error> <HTTP> <BEA-101216> <Servlet: "Faces Servlet" failed to preload on startup in Web application: "jsf-cardemo".
javax.servlet.ServletException
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.createServlet(ServletStubImpl.java:884)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.createInstances(ServletStubImpl.java:848)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.prepareServlet(ServletStubImpl.java:787)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.preloadServlet(WebAppServletContext.java:3252)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.preloadServlets(WebAppServletContext.java:3197)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.preloadResources(WebAppServletContext.java:3174)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.HttpServer.preloadResources(HttpServer.java:688)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebService.preloadResources(WebService.java:483)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletInitService.resume(ServletInitService.java:30)
at weblogic.t3.srvr.SubsystemManager.resume(SubsystemManager.java:131)
at weblogic.t3.srvr.T3Srvr.resume(T3Srvr.java:964)
at weblogic.t3.srvr.T3Srvr.run(T3Srvr.java:359)
at weblogic.Server.main(Server.java:32)
>
5/03/2004 22:28:32 com.sun.faces.config.rules.NavigationRuleRule end
WARNING: [NavigationRuleRule]{faces-config/navigation-rule} Merge(/confirmChoices.jsp)
What am I still missing here? I really want to start using JSF!
Regards,
Peter

Answer 1

I believe I have found the issue to the problem. The issue seems to be Weblogic is not respecting part of the Servlet 2.3 spec. It states that all ServletContextListener implementations should be called before the Servlet's init method is called. Tomcat respects this and that's why JSF works when deployed in Tomcat. Weblogic 8.1 calls this instance AFTER the Servlet's init's methods are called. This results in a NullPointerException being thrown.
     You can see how the ordering changes between Weblogic and Tomcat for yourself by editing the log4j.properties file and add the following:
log4j.category.com.sun.faces.config = DEBUG, config log4j.additivity.com.sun.faces.config=false
log4j.appender.config = org.apache.log4j.ConsoleAppender log4j.appender.config.layout = org.apache.log4j.PatternLayout log4j.appender.config.layout.ConversionPattern = ...
     Deploy the example application to both Weblogic and Tomcat and observe the order.
     I've developed a work around for this issue. Weblogic seems to respect the <load-on-startup> element in the web.xml file. I have written a Servlet which manually loads the ServletContextListener for JSF. The code below:
import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
import javax.faces.FactoryFinder;
import javax.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleFactory;
import javax.servlet.ServletConfig;
import javax.servlet.ServletContextEvent;
import javax.servlet.ServletContextListener;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet;
public class WeblogicHackServlet extends HttpServlet {
public static final String CONFIGURE_LISTENER_KEY = "CONFIGURE_LISTENER"; public static final transient Log logger = LogFactory.getLog(WeblogicHackServlet.class);
public void init(ServletConfig servletConfig) throws ServletException {
LifecycleFactory factory =(LifecycleFactory)      
FactoryFinder.getFactory(FactoryFinder.LIFECYCLE_FACTORY);
if (factory != null)
return;
String className = servletConfig.getInitParameter(CONFIGURE_LISTENER_KEY);
if (className == null) {
logger.fatal("Did not find the init parameter " + CONFIGURE_LISTENER_KEY);
return;
try {
Class aClass = Class.forName(className);
ServletContextListener listener = (ServletContextListener)
               aClass.newInstance();
listener.contextInitialized(
     new ServletContextEvent(servletConfig.getServletContext()));
} catch (Exception e) {
logger.fatal("The ConfigureListener could not be triggered", e);
     The web.xml file also needs to be changed to the following:
<servlet>
<servlet-name>WeblogicHackServlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>WeblogicHackServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>CONFIGURE_LISTENER</param-name>
<param-value>com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener</param-value>
</init-param>
<load-on-startup> 1 </load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet>
<servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup> 2 </load-on-startup>
</servlet>
This causes JSF to load properly. Hopefully, BEA can resolve this issue so my hack can be removed.
Thanks,
Louis Calisi
Applications Architect