Mixing JSF EL in a JavaScript file

Five ways:

1. Declare it as global variable in the parent JSF page.

   <script type="text/javascript" src="script.js"></script><script type="text/javascript">    var messages = [];    <ui:repeat value="#{bean.messages}" var="message">        messages['#{message.key}'] = '#{message.value}';    </ui:repeat></script>

   Or, if it's in JSON format already.

   <script type="text/javascript" src="script.js"></script><script type="text/javascript">var messages = #{bean.messagesAsJson};</script>

2. Put the whole <script> in a XHTML file and use ui:include to include it.

   <script type="text/javascript" src="script.js"></script><ui:include src="script-variables.xhtml" />

3. Pass *.js through the JspServlet (only if it's enough to evaluate only the ${} expressions). E.g. in web.xml (the <servlet-name> of JspServlet can be found in web.xml of the servletcontainer in question, it's usually jsp).

   <servlet-mapping>    <servlet-name>jsp</servlet-name>    <url-pattern>*.js</url-pattern></servlet-mapping>

4. Make use of "good old" JSP with a modified content type. Rename script.js to script.jsp and add the following line to top of JSP (only if it's enough to evaluate only the ${} expressions):

   <%@page contentType="text/javascript" %>

5. Let JS obtain the data ajaxically during load. Here's a jQuery targeted example.

   $.getJSON('json/messages', function(messages) {    $.each(messages, function(key, value) {        $.messages[key] = value;    });});

Since I don't like techniques that won't let the browser cache the localized Strings, I used the following technique to localize JavaScript alerts, etc. It seems a good fit if the Strings that you need in your JavaScript code are different from the ones needed by the Web server:

<h:head>    <h:outputScript library="javascript" name="#{fw.JsFwStrings}" />    ...

I then assign the resource string JsFwStrings to the filename of the JavaScript file defining the localized strings for the given language.

For example, the fw_en.properties file contains the entry JsFwStrings=JsFwStrings_en.js

And the JsFwStrings_en.js file contains

var TosFramework = TosFramework || {};TosFramework.Strings = {    UnSavedChangesWarning : 'You have unsaved changes.',    CancelConfirmQuestion : 'Are you sure you want to cancel?'}