Question

expression language is not working in tomcat7 with jsf1.2 .#{message.name_prompt} is ouputed as #{message.name_prompt}.

i tried to replace the el-api.jar in the tomcat lib folder with el-api-2.2.jar and put the el-impl-2.2.jar in the WEB-INF/lib folder, adding

<context-param>
    <param-name>org.apache.myfaces.EXPRESSION_FACTORY</param-name>
    <param-value>com.sun.el.ExpressionFactoryImpl</param-value>
</context-param>

to the web.xml. stilll the same.

my tomcat exact version is *7.0.21*this is the web.xml with the default tomcat setting:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app 
    xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_0.xsd"
    id="WebApp_ID" version="3.0">
<display-name>BasicExamples</display-name>

 <context-param>
  <param-name>javax.faces.STATE_SAVING_METHOD</param-name>
  <param-value>server</param-value>
 </context-param>

 <listener>
  <listener-class>org.apache.myfaces.webapp.StartupServletContextListener</listener-class>
 </listener>
 <!-- Faces Servlet -->
 <servlet>
  <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
  <servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
  <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
 </servlet>
 <!-- Faces Servlet Mapping -->
 <servlet-mapping>
  <servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
  <url-pattern>*.jsf</url-pattern>
 </servlet-mapping>
 <login-config>
  <auth-method>BASIC</auth-method>
 </login-config>
</web-app>

update:
now i find that the expression language is not working on the form page but the message expression language is working as #{message.result_text}=>You entered the following information : ,but still managed bean not working.
and El is working fine with jsf2.0

Answer 1

You don’t need to install/add anything to get EL 2.2 to work in Tomcat 7. It already ships with EL 2.2. Remove those JARs and the context param.

Given your symptoms

#{message.name_prompt} is ouputed as #{message.name_prompt}

I have the impression that you’re talking about using EL in template text something like:

<p>This is EL in template text #{message.name_prompt}</p>

This is not an EL 2.2 feature. This is a Facelets feature. Facelets is the successor of JSP. You need to replace JSP by Facelets in order to be able to use EL in template text like that. For JSF 1.2, you can use Facelets 1.1.

Otherwise, when you want to stick to JSP, you really need to use <h:outputText>:

<p>This is EL in template text <h:outputText value="#{message.name_prompt}" /></p>

The only new EL 2.2 feature is the ability to invoke action methods with arguments, e.g.:

<h:dataTable value="#{bean.list}" var="item">
    <h:column>
        <h:commandButton value="Edit" action="#{bean.edit(item)}" />
    </h:column>
</h:dataTable>

See also:

• Difference between JSP EL, JSF EL and Unified EL
• Migrating from JSF 1.2 to JSF 2.0