JSF: Cannot catch ViewExpiredException
- by ifischer
I'm developing a JSF 2.0 application on Glassfish v3 and i'm trying to handle the ViewExpiredException. But whatever i do, i always get a Glassfish error report instead of my own error page.
To simulate the occurrence of the VEE, i inserted the following function into my backing bean, which fires the VEE. I'm triggering this function from my JSF page through a commandLink.
The Code:
@Named
public class PersonHome {
  (...)
  public void throwVEE() {
    throw new ViewExpiredException();
  }
}
At first i tried it by simply adding an error-page to my web.xml:
<error-page>
  <exception-type>javax.faces.application.ViewExpiredException</exception-type>
  <location>/error.xhtml</location>
</error-page>  
But this doesn't work, i'm not redirected to error but i'm shown the Glassfish errorpage, which shows a HTTP Status 500 page with the following content:
description:The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.
exception: javax.servlet.ServletException: javax.faces.application.ViewExpiredException
root cause: javax.faces.el.EvaluationException:javax.faces.application.ViewExpiredException
root cause:javax.faces.application.ViewExpiredException
Next thing i tried was to write ExceptionHandlerFactory and a CustomExceptionHandler, as described in JavaServerFaces 2.0 - The Complete Reference. So i inserted the following tag into faces-config.xml:
<factory>
  <exception-handler-factory>
    exceptions.ExceptionHandlerFactory
  </exception-handler-factory>
</factory>
And added these classes:
The factory:
package exceptions;
import javax.faces.context.ExceptionHandler;
public class ExceptionHandlerFactory extends javax.faces.context.ExceptionHandlerFactory {
    private javax.faces.context.ExceptionHandlerFactory parent;
    public ExceptionHandlerFactory(javax.faces.context.ExceptionHandlerFactory parent) {
        this.parent = parent;
    }
    @Override
    public ExceptionHandler getExceptionHandler() {
        ExceptionHandler result = parent.getExceptionHandler();
        result = new CustomExceptionHandler(result);
        return result;
    }
}
The custom exception handler:
package exceptions;
import java.util.Iterator;
import javax.faces.FacesException;
import javax.faces.application.NavigationHandler;
import javax.faces.application.ViewExpiredException;
import javax.faces.context.ExceptionHandler;
import javax.faces.context.ExceptionHandlerWrapper;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.faces.event.ExceptionQueuedEvent;
import javax.faces.event.ExceptionQueuedEventContext;
class CustomExceptionHandler extends ExceptionHandlerWrapper {
    private ExceptionHandler parent;
    public CustomExceptionHandler(ExceptionHandler parent) {
        this.parent = parent;
    }
    @Override
    public ExceptionHandler getWrapped() {
        return this.parent;
    }
    @Override
    public void handle() throws FacesException {
        for (Iterator<ExceptionQueuedEvent> i = getUnhandledExceptionQueuedEvents().iterator(); i.hasNext();) {
            ExceptionQueuedEvent event = i.next();
            System.out.println("Iterating over ExceptionQueuedEvents. Current:" + event.toString());
            ExceptionQueuedEventContext context = (ExceptionQueuedEventContext) event.getSource();
            Throwable t = context.getException();
            if (t instanceof ViewExpiredException) {
                ViewExpiredException vee = (ViewExpiredException) t;
                FacesContext fc = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
                NavigationHandler nav =
                        fc.getApplication().getNavigationHandler();
                try {
                    // Push some useful stuff to the flash scope for
                    // use in the page
                    fc.getExternalContext().getFlash().put("expiredViewId", vee.getViewId());
                    nav.handleNavigation(fc, null, "/login?faces-redirect=true");
                    fc.renderResponse();
                } finally {
                    i.remove();
                }
            }
        }
        // At this point, the queue will not contain any ViewExpiredEvents.
        // Therefore, let the parent handle them.
        getWrapped().handle();
    }
}
But STILL i'm NOT redirected to my error page - i'm getting the same HTTP 500 error like above.
What am i doing wrong, what could be missing in my implementation so that the exception is handled correctly?