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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-06T09:19:21+00:00

I have a few questions on the various options and best practices when using

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I have a few questions on the various options and best practices when using JSF with EJB3.1. The mental model I have, given the daunting amount of choices and combinations available, is far from clear so some questions may not make sense.

JSF/Facelets reference backing beans (I am using the term “backing bean” for beans whose properties are written or read from Facelets pages) through EL code that is agnostic as to the actual annotations used in the bean classes (javax.faces.bean.* or javax.enterprise.context.*).

Is it correct to say that one can toggle between JSF and CDI scope annotations just by changing the imports in the bean classes without any changes to the Facelets xhtml code?

Is it an established pattern that JSF/Facelets should be used only for the xhtml markup code with all scope and lifecycle (plus injection) annotations done using CDI?

In a JBoss AS setting, where is the lifecycle management of the JSF backing beans (using either JSF or CDI annotations) taking place? In the web container or in the EJB3 container?

In a typical web application given that the SessionScoped beans can be provided by CDI, is there any need for using EJB3 beans other than those of type @Entity, e.g. for the last typical step in each “flow” when information is to be persisted in the database?

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  1. Editorial Team

    Is it correct to say that one can toggle between JSF and CDI scope annotations just by changing the imports in the bean classes without any changes to the Facelets xhtml code?

    Yes.

    Is it an established pattern that JSF/Facelets should be used only for the xhtml markup code with all scope and lifecycle (plus injection) annotations done using CDI?

    JSF is moving towards CDI. The new @FlowScoped annotation of the upcoming JSF 2.2 is evidence of this as this extends from the CDI API. The only disadvantage is that CDI doesn’t offer a standard annotation for the tremendously useful JSF @ViewScoped annotation. You’d need @ConversationScoped wherein you manually start and end the conversation, or take a look at a CDI extension like MyFaces CODI.

    In a JBoss AS setting, where is the lifecycle management of the JSF backing beans (using either JSF or CDI annotations) taking place? In the web container or in the EJB3 container?

    The web container (in flavor of a WAR). JSF is built on top of the Servlet API, so it’s definitely the web container.

    In a typical web application given that the SessionScoped beans can be provided by CDI, is there any need for using EJB3 beans other than those of type @Entity, e.g. for the last typical step in each “flow” when information is to be persisted in the database?

    The @Entity is part of JPA, not of EJB. The @Entity is to be used on a model class which is mapped to a database table and usually solely meant to transfer data across the layers. What you’re last describing sounds like candidate for a @Stateful EJB. To understand @Stateless vs @Stateful EJBs better, head to this detailed answer: JSF request scoped bean keeps recreating new Stateful session beans on every request?

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