How to create a custom FacesContext

Although I am not happy with several issues in JSF spec, I like its customizability. A couple of days ago, I needed to introduce the Mediator pattern in my case studies. FacesContext instance seemed to be a good candidate as Mediator object. You need to execute three easy steps to introduce a custom FacesContext implementation into your JSF lifecycle.

First, create your custom FacesContext class implementation. It is better to extend the FacesContext class available in the API. Your FacesContext implementation must be able to accept a FacesContext instance as a delegate via its constructor. You need to redirect calls to the delegate except for calls you will provide custom behavior. For example;

public class MediatorFacesContext extends FacesContext { 
    private FacesContext delegate; 
    public MediatorFacesContext(FacesContext delegate) { 
        this.delegate = delegate; 
    } 
    //... 
}

After that, you need to create a custom FacesContextFactory implementation. It should return an instance of your custom FacesContext implementation.

public class MediatorFacesFontextFacory extends FacesContextFactoryImpl { 
    public FacesContext getFacesContext(Object context, Object request, Object response, Lifecycle lifecycle) throws FacesException { 
        FacesContext defaultFacesContext = super.getFacesContext(context, request, response, lifecycle);
        MediatorFacesContext mediatorFacesContext = new MediatorFacesContext(defaultFacesContext); return mediatorFacesContext; 
    } 
}

Finally, in order for JSF implementation to use your custom factory, you need to specify it in your faces-config.xml.

<factory> 
    <faces-context-factory>org.speedyframework.web.jsf.handlers.MediatorFacesFontextFacory</faces-context-factory> 
</factory>

That’s all to have a custom FacesContext instance in your application.