Question

I would like to make a button which navigates to a different URL and pass some request parameters through in the URL. The outputLink works but I would like a button, the commandButton looks good but I can pass parameters.

Is there a solution?

Answer 1

The h:commandButton doesn’t fire a GET request, but a POST request, so you can’t use it. If you’re already on JSF 2.0 and the target page is in the same context, then you can use the h:button for this:

<h:button value="press here" outcome="otherViewId">
    <f:param name="param1" value="value1" />
    <f:param name="param2" value="value2" />
</h:button>

(no h:form is required here as in h:outputLink). This will create a button which goes to otherViewId.jsf?param1=value1&param2=value2.

But if you’re not on JSF 2.0 yet, then your best is just to grab CSS to style the link like a button.

<h:outputLink styleClass="button">

with something like

a.button {
    display: inline-block;
    background: lightgray;
    border: 2px outset lightgray;
    cursor: default;
}
a.button:active {
    border-style: inset;
}