How to create user-friendly and seo-friendly urls in jsf?

Solution 1:

If this is intended as an improvement of an existing application, then you basically need a Filter which detects "dirty" and "friendly" URLs. When it detects a "dirty" URL, then it should redirect the request to a "friendly" URL by HttpServletResponse#sendRedirect(). When it detects a "friendly" URL, then it should forward the request to the "dirty" URL by RequestDispatcher#forward(). An example can be found in this related question: How to use a servlet filter in Java to change an incoming servlet request url?

Further, you also need a custom ViewHandler to produce the desired "friendly" URL for JSF <h:form>, <h:link>, etc. An example can be found here: Dynamic Directory in Java EE Web Application.

If this is a new application or an application which is open to changes, you could consider any of the existing pretty URL libraries instead of reinventing the wheel:

• PrettyFaces, which is a complete URL rewrite solution. It requires an additional XML configuration file pretty-config.xml. This library is useful if you want to completely change URLs and/or want to configure redirects from old to new URLs.
• FacesViews of OmniFaces library, which makes existing URLs just extensionless by a single web.xml context param. It also supports "MultiViews" whereby path parameters can declaratively be injected in managed beans. E.g. /foo/bar/baz can point to /foo.xhtml and the values bar and baz can be injected by @Param(pathIndex).

There's also the experimental PrettyUrlPhaseListener of Mojarra Scales library, but it's an old library and PrettyFaces is largely based on it, so it's not worth the effort.

Solution 2:

Did you tried PrettyFaces?

Simple, effective, bookmark, JSF

SEO and Consistency:

Any business knows how important Search Engine Optimization can be for sales. PrettyFaces allows SEO-friendly URLs, and improved customer experience. Give your site a uniform, well understood feeling, from the address bar to the buy button.