[jsf] Get JSF managed bean by name in any Servlet related class

I'm trying to write a custom servlet (for AJAX/JSON) in which I would like to reference my @ManagedBeans by name. I'm hoping to map:

http://host/app/myBean/myProperty

to:

@ManagedBean(name="myBean")
public class MyBean {
    public String getMyProperty();
}

Is it possible to load a bean by name from a regular servlet? Is there a JSF servlet or helper I could use for it?

I seem to be spoilt by Spring in which all this is too obvious.

Have you tried an approach like on this link? I'm not sure if createValueBinding() is still available but code like this should be accessible from a plain old Servlet. This does require to bean to already exist.

http://www.coderanch.com/t/211706/JSF/java/access-managed-bean-JSF-from

 FacesContext context = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();  
 Application app = context.getApplication();
 // May be deprecated
 ValueBinding binding = app.createValueBinding("#{" + expr + "}"); 
 Object value = binding.getValue(context);

I had same requirement.

I have used the below way to get it.

I had session scoped bean.

@ManagedBean(name="mb")
@SessionScopedpublic 
class ManagedBean {
     --------
}

I have used the below code in my servlet doPost() method.

ManagedBean mb = (ManagedBean) request.getSession().getAttribute("mb");

it solved my problem.

I use the following method:

public static <T> T getBean(final String beanName, final Class<T> clazz) {
    ELContext elContext = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getELContext();
    return (T) FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getApplication().getELResolver().getValue(elContext, null, beanName);
}

This allows me to get the returned object in a typed manner.

You can get the managed bean by passing the name:

public static Object getBean(String beanName){
    Object bean = null;
    FacesContext fc = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
    if(fc!=null){
         ELContext elContext = fc.getELContext();
         bean = elContext.getELResolver().getValue(elContext, null, beanName);
    }

    return bean;
}

I use this:

public static <T> T getBean(Class<T> clazz) {
    try {
        String beanName = getBeanName(clazz);
        FacesContext facesContext = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
        return facesContext.getApplication().evaluateExpressionGet(facesContext, "#{" + beanName + "}", clazz);
    //return facesContext.getApplication().getELResolver().getValue(facesContext.getELContext(), null, nomeBean);
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        return null;
    }
}

public static <T> String getBeanName(Class<T> clazz) {
    ManagedBean managedBean = clazz.getAnnotation(ManagedBean.class);
    String beanName = managedBean.name();

    if (StringHelper.isNullOrEmpty(beanName)) {
        beanName = clazz.getSimpleName();
        beanName = Character.toLowerCase(beanName.charAt(0)) + beanName.substring(1);
    }

    return beanName;
}

And then call:

MyManageBean bean = getBean(MyManageBean.class);

This way you can refactor your code and track usages without problems.