"This link is deactivated, because it is not embedded in a JSF form."

Question

When I use the following command link:

<h:commandLink action="student" value="students" />

And the following navigation rule in faces-config.xml:

<navigation-rule>
  <from-view-id>/home.xhtml</from-view-id>
  <navigation-case>
    <from-outcome>student</from-outcome>
    <to-view-id>/student.xhtml</to-view-id>
  </navigation-case>
</navigation-rule>

Then I get the following development stage faces message:

This link is deactivated, because it is not embedded in a JSF form.

How is this caused and how can I solve it?

score 10 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

10

The <h:commandLink> fires a POST request. You need to embed it in a <h:form>.

<h:form>
    <h:commandLink action="student" value="students" />
</h:form>

Since you're already on JSF 2.0, you can also just use <h:link> instead which fires a GET request which doesn't require a form and is thus way much better for bookmarkability and SEO. Also you can get rid of the whole <navigation-rule> since JSF 2.0 utilizes implicit navigation.

<h:link value="students" outcome="student" />

It will implicitly go to student.xhtml.

Ensure that you're reading JSF 2.0 tutorials, not the ones targeted on JSF 1.x. In JSF 2.0 a lot of new tags and features have been added.

? – Aram Gevorgyan May 14 '11 at 15:43
@BalusC I write it in but also get the same – Aram Gevorgyan May 14 '11 at 15:52
Save the file and republish. Or if your IDE/server doesn't support hotpublishing, restart the server as well. – BalusC May 14 '11 at 15:52
Open the page in browser, rightclick and *View Source* and check if you see a HTML `
` around the ``.
– BalusC May 14 '11 at 15:55
@BalusC : I restart eclipse and everything is ok. Thank you for help. – Aram Gevorgyan May 14 '11 at 15:57
You're welcome. Please keep in mind that using commandlinks for page-to-page navigation is a bad practice. You should be using `` or just ``. See also the remnant of my answer and the links. – BalusC May 14 '11 at 15:58
@BalusC: I read your answer. But I am new in JSF and JSP, so I don't understand why it is bad that commandlink goes throw post method? – Aram Gevorgyan May 14 '11 at 16:09
1

This is not specific to JSF/JSP, but to web development in general. POST requests are not bookmarkable. The URL change is by default not reflected in browser address bar. The browser back/forward buttons will jerk if you want to resend the data. The searchbots (Google!) won't index POST requests, etc. POST requests should be used for input forms only (e.g. register user, edit data, etc), not for simple page-to-page navigation by menu links and like. – BalusC May 14 '11 at 16:11

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered May 14 '11 at 15:43

1

You need to have <h:form> wrapping the link.

answered May 14 '11 at 15:43

Bozho

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you mean: ? – Aram Gevorgyan May 14 '11 at 15:44

"This link is deactivated, because it is not embedded in a JSF form."

2 Answers2

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