I have created a small JSF application (Employer Management) with MySQL as database on JBoss 4.2.2 GA in Netbeans 6.8.

These are the steps that need to be followed

1) Copy the mysql driver class (mysql-connector-java-5.1.6-bin.jar) which comes with Netbeans and located under {INSTALL DIR}/NetBeans 6.8/ide12/modules/ext to {INSTALL DIR}/server/default/lib. You don’t need to have the driver in your classpath.

2) Go to  {INSTALL DIR}/docs/examples, copy the mysql-ds.xml and copy it to {INSTALL DIR}/server/default/deploy. Change the database settings as per your configuration

3) Go to the services and (re)start the Application Server

4) Come back to netbeans, create a new project under category “Java Web”

5) Create a Managed Bean called “Employer” with member variables (id, firstname, lastname,phone and email) and corresponding getter and setter methods

6) Create a Backing Bean called EmployerFormBean with two variables

a) Employer

b) EmployerList

7) Create the getter setter for the above two variables and initialize the employerList by calling the getEmployerList function in EmployerDAO which is discussed later

Add method called addEmployer with its code as follows

EmployerDAO empDAO = new EmployerDAO();
empDAO.insertData(this.getEmployer());
return “go_insert_data”;

9) The configuration for Managed Bean, Backing Bean and “go_insert_data” should be made in faces-config.xml

<managed-bean>
<managed-bean-name>employerBean</managed-bean-name>
<managed-bean-class>com.testjsf.EmployerFormBean</managed-bean-class>
<managed-bean-scope>request</managed-bean-scope>
<managed-property>
<property-name>employer</property-name>
<property-class>com.domain.Employer</property-class>
<value>#{employer}</value>
</managed-property>
</managed-bean>
<managed-bean>
<managed-bean-name>employer</managed-bean-name>
<managed-bean-class>com.domain.Employer</managed-bean-class>
<managed-bean-scope>none</managed-bean-scope>
</managed-bean>

<from-view-id>/employer.jsp</from-view-id>
<navigation-case>
<from-outcome>go_insert_data</from-outcome>
<to-view-id>/employerlist.jsp</to-view-id>
</navigation-case>

10) As you see, the database operations are performed inside DAO. The method insertData would be as follows

InitialContext ctx = new InitialContext();
//DataSource ds = (DataSource) ctx.lookup(”jdbc/jsfperson”);
DataSource ds = (DataSource) ctx.lookup(”java:/MySqlDS”);
conn = ds.getConnection();
String query = “insert into employer(firstname,lastname,email,phone) values (?,?,?,?)”;
//String query = “insert into employer(firstname,lastname,email,phone) values (’Mayank’,'Singhai’,'123456′,’abc@yahoo.com’)”;
stmt = conn.prepareStatement(query);
stmt.setString(1, emp.getFirstname());
stmt.setString(2, emp.getLastname());
stmt.setString(3, emp.getEmail());
stmt.setString(4, emp.getPhone());
stmt.executeUpdate();

11) While doing the JNDI lookup in JBoss call it as “java:/{dsname}” as defined in mysql-ds.xml

12) After insert, populate the employerList again in the backing bean before redirecting

12) Similarly create the getEmployerList function to get the list of employers

13) Now create two jsp

a) employer.jsp where form to insert data for the employer. The fields here are bind to the employer object in employerbean. The structure is as

<h:form id=”EmployerForm”>
<h:outputLabel value=”#{msg.firstname}”/> <h:inputText value=”#{employerBean.employer.firstname}”/>
<h:outputLabel value=”#{msg.lastname}”/> <h:inputText value=”#{employerBean.employer.lastname}”/>
<h:outputLabel value=”#{msg.phone}”/> <h:inputText value=”#{employerBean.employer.phone}”/>
<h:outputLabel value=”#{msg.email}”/> <h:inputText value=”#{employerBean.employer.email}”/>
<h:commandButton action=”#{employerBean.addEmployer}” value=”Submit”/>
<h:commandLink action=”show_emp_data” value=”Show all employers”/>
</h:form>

b) employerlist.jsp To display the list of employers. In this use the dataTable concept of JSF which is as follows

<h:form>
<h:dataTable value=”#{employerBean.empList}” var=”item”>
<h:column>
<f:facet name=”header”>
<h:outputText value=”Employee No.”/>
</f:facet>
<h:outputText value=”#{item.id}”/>
</h:column>
<h:column>
<f:facet name=”header” >
<h:outputText value=”First Name”/>
</f:facet>
<h:outputText value=”#{item.firstname}”/>
</h:column>
<h:column>
<f:facet name=”header” >
<h:outputText value=”Last Name”/>
</f:facet>
<h:outputText value=”#{item.lastname}”/>
</h:column>
<h:column>
<f:facet name=”header” >
<h:outputText value=”Email”/>
</f:facet>
<h:outputText value=”#{item.email}”/>
</h:column>
<h:column>
<f:facet name=”header” >
<h:outputText value=”Phone”/>
</f:facet>
<h:outputText value=”#{item.phone}”/>
</h:column>

</h:dataTable>
</h:form>

16) Compile the code and run employer.jsp. On successful insertion, employerlist with newly inserted record would be displayed.