Question

In JSF 2, what is the difference between h:button and h:commandButton ?

Answer 1

<h:button>

The <h:button> generates a HTML <input type="button">. The generated element uses JavaScript to navigate to the page given by the attribute outcome, using a HTTP GET request.

E.g.

<h:button value="GET button" outcome="otherpage" />

will generate

<input type="button" onclick="window.location.href='/contextpath/otherpage.xhtml'; return false;" value="GET button" />

Even though this ends up in a (bookmarkable) URL change in the browser address bar, this is not SEO-friendly. Searchbots won’t follow the URL in the onclick. You’d better use a <h:outputLink> or <h:link> if SEO is important on the given URL. You could if necessary throw in some CSS on the generated HTML <a> element to make it to look like a button.

Do note that while you can put an EL expression referring a method in outcome attribute as below,

<h:button value="GET button" outcome="#{bean.getOutcome()}" />

it will not be invoked when you click the button. Instead, it is already invoked when the page containing the button is rendered for the sole purpose to obtain the navigation outcome to be embedded in the generated onclick code. If you ever attempted to use the action method syntax as in outcome="#{bean.action}", you would already be hinted by this mistake/misconception by facing a javax.el.ELException: Could not find property actionMethod in class com.example.Bean.

If you intend to invoke a method as result of a POST request, use <h:commandButton> instead, see below. Or if you intend to invoke a method as result of a GET request, head to Invoke JSF managed bean action on page load or if you also have GET request parameters via <f:param>, How do I process GET query string URL parameters in backing bean on page load?

---

<h:commandButton>

The <h:commandButton> generates a HTML <input type="submit"> button which submits by default the parent <h:form> using HTTP POST method and invokes the actions attached to action, actionListener and/or <f:ajax listener>, if any. The <h:form> is required.

E.g.

<h:form id="form">
    <h:commandButton id="button" value="POST button" action="otherpage" />
</h:form>

will generate

<form id="form" name="form" method="post" action="/contextpath/currentpage.xhtml" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
    <input type="hidden" name="form" value="form" />
    <input type="submit" name="form:button" value="POST button" />
    <input type="hidden" name="javax.faces.ViewState" id="javax.faces.ViewState" value="...." autocomplete="off" />
</form>

Note that it thus submits to the current page (the form action URL will show up in the browser address bar). It will afterwards forward to the target page, without any change in the URL in the browser address bar. You could add ?faces-redirect=true parameter to the outcome value to trigger a redirect after POST (as per the Post-Redirect-Get pattern) so that the target URL becomes bookmarkable.

The <h:commandButton> is usually exclusively used to submit a POST form, not to perform page-to-page navigation. Normally, the action points to some business action, such as saving the form data in DB, which returns a String outcome.

<h:commandButton ... action="#{bean.save}" />

with

public String save() {
    // ...
    return "otherpage";
}

Returning null or void will bring you back to the same view. Returning an empty string also, but it would recreate any view scoped bean. These days, with modern JSF2 and <f:ajax>, more than often actions just return to the same view (thus, null or void) wherein the results are conditionally rendered by ajax.

public void save() {
    // ...
}

---

See also:

• How to navigate in JSF? How to make URL reflect current page (and not previous one)
• When should I use h:outputLink instead of h:commandLink?
• Differences between action and actionListener