Managed-Bean question in JSF

[Gregg Bolinger]

When I create a JavaBean and then create a Managed-Bean entry for this JavaBean in my faces-config.xml file, it might look something like...

<managed-bean>
        <description>Login Bean Holder</description>
        <managed-bean-name>LoginBean</managed-bean-name>
        <managed-bean-class>jsfks.LoginBean</managed-bean-class>
        <managed-bean-scope>session</managed-bean-scope>
        <managed-property>
            <property-name>username</property-name>
            <property-class>java.lang.String</property-class>
            <value></value>
        </managed-property>
        <managed-property>
            <property-name>password</property-name>
            <property-class>java.lang.String</property-class>
            <value></value>
        </managed-property>
    </managed-bean>

What I don't understand is why I have to create a JavaBean and define the managed-property elements. It would seem that JSF should:

Find all the properties in the JavaBean via some form of inspection OR

Dynamically create the JavaBean with the <managed-properties> element eleminating the need for me to hand code the Bean.

Any info regarding this would be appreciated.

[Bill Dudney]

Greg,
I get your point... Much of what you put in the managed beans tags is derivable via reflection. I guess the spec developers wanted you to tell them so they would not have to reflect...
My best guess but I don't know for sure, good question for the expert group though.

[Gregg Bolinger]

Thanks Bill.

[Bill Dudney]

Greg,
I think I misread your question.
On second read (after I posted of course ) I realized what I'd posted was wrong...
JSF will reflect. All you have to do is specify the class name, JSF will create it and look for get/set methods based on the EL expression.
For Example:
here is part of my faces-config.xml file
<managed-bean>
<description>
Manages the registration stuff
</description>
<managed-bean-name> regPage </managed-bean-name>
<managed-bean-class> register.model.RegistrationPage </managed-bean-class>
<managed-bean-scope> session </managed-bean-scope>
</managed-bean>
Here is a part of the JSP that uses it...
<h:inputText value="#{regPage.user.firstName}">
<f:validateLength maximum="20" minimum="0"/>
</h:inputText>
I did not have to specify that 'user' was a property. The only time you have to do that is if you want to specify a default value.
Hope this helps.

[Gregg Bolinger]

Thanks again Bill. I'll change my code and make sure I haven't done something wrong. It seems like I tried that and it didn't work. But I will try again right now....

[Gregg Bolinger]

Ok, it worked just fine. I must have been doing something wrong earlier. It would be nice, however, if I was able to add the managed-properties and rid myself of a hard coded JavaBean. Maybe a feature request for the next release??