Question

Is there a way to execute a JSF managed bean action when a page is loaded?

If that’s relevant, I’m currently using JSF 1.2.

Answer 1

JSF 1.0 / 1.1

Just put the desired logic in the constructor of the request scoped bean associated with the JSF page.

public Bean() {
    // Do your stuff here.
}

JSF 1.2 / 2.x

Use @PostConstruct annotated method on a request or view scoped bean. It will be executed after construction and initialization/setting of all managed properties and injected dependencies.

@PostConstruct
public void init() {
    // Do your stuff here.
}

This is strongly recommended over constructor in case you’re using a bean management framework which uses proxies, such as CDI, because the constructor may not be called at the times you’d expect it.

JSF 2.0 / 2.1

Alternatively, use <f:event type="preRenderView"> in case you intend to initialize based on <f:viewParam> too, or when the bean is put in a broader scope than the view scope (which in turn indicates a design problem, but that aside). Otherwise, a @PostConstruct is perfectly fine too.

<f:metadata>
    <f:viewParam name="foo" value="#{bean.foo}" />
    <f:event type="preRenderView" listener="#{bean.onload}" />
</f:metadata>

public void onload() { 
    // Do your stuff here.
}

JSF 2.2+

Alternatively, use <f:viewAction> in case you intend to initialize based on <f:viewParam> too, or when the bean is put in a broader scope than the view scope (which in turn indicates a design problem, but that aside). Otherwise, a @PostConstruct is perfectly fine too.

<f:metadata>
    <f:viewParam name="foo" value="#{bean.foo}" />
    <f:viewAction action="#{bean.onload}" />
</f:metadata>

public void onload() { 
    // Do your stuff here.
}

Note that this can return a String navigation case if necessary. It will be interpreted as a redirect (so you do not need a ?faces-redirect=true here).

public String onload() { 
    // Do your stuff here.
    // ...
    return "some.xhtml";
}

See also:

• How do I process GET query string URL parameters in backing bean on page load?
• What can <f:metadata>, <f:viewParam> and <f:viewAction> be used for?
• How to invoke a JSF managed bean on a HTML DOM event using native JavaScript? – in case you’re actually interested in executing a bean action method during HTML DOM load event, not during page load.