JSF hot-reload plugin — monitors file changes and automatically refreshes the browser via SSE.

Documentation: https://basteez.github.io/jsf-autoreload/

Features

• XHTML page reload — detects changes to .xhtml Facelets pages and triggers a browser refresh
• CSS/JS static resource reload — watches static resources under JSF resource directories
• Class file reload — monitors .class file changes with configurable debounce to avoid partial reloads
• Auto-compile on Java source changes — optionally runs a compile command when .java files change
• SSE-based browser refresh — pushes reload events to the browser via Server-Sent Events (no polling)

Compatibility

Module Structure

Quick Start

1. Add dependencies to your pom.xml:

<dependency>
    <groupId>it.bstz</groupId>
    <artifactId>jsf-autoreload-core</artifactId>
    <version>0.1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>it.bstz</groupId>
    <artifactId>jsf-autoreload-tomcat</artifactId>
    <version>0.1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>

2. Add the Maven plugin to your <build><plugins> section:

<plugin>
    <groupId>it.bstz</groupId>
    <artifactId>jsf-autoreload-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>0.1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <goals>
                <goal>watch</goal>
            </goals>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

3. Run the watch goal:

The plugin will monitor your source directory for changes and automatically recompile and refresh the browser.

javax vs jakarta

The plugin supports both the legacy javax.faces and the modern jakarta.faces namespaces:

• javax.faces 2.3+ — use javax.faces-api and javax.servlet-api dependencies
• Jakarta Faces 3.0+ — use jakarta.faces-api and jakarta.servlet-api dependencies

The core library auto-detects the active namespace at runtime via BridgeDetector — no manual configuration is required.

Configuration Reference

web.xml Context Parameters

All context parameters use the prefix it.bstz.jsfautoreload. in web.xml and the prefix jsfautoreload. as system properties. System properties take precedence over web.xml values.

Example web.xml configuration:

<context-param>
    <param-name>it.bstz.jsfautoreload.debounceMs</param-name>
    <param-value>300</param-value>
</context-param>

Or via system property:

-Djsfautoreload.debounceMs=300

Maven Plugin Parameters

Building from Source

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/basteez/jsf-autoreload.git

2. Build all modules:
3. Run unit and integration tests:

Development Workflow

This project uses Speckit for feature planning. The full workflow for new features is:

1. Specify — define the feature spec (/speckit-specify)
2. Plan — create the implementation plan (/speckit-plan)
3. Tasks — generate the task breakdown (/speckit-tasks)
4. Implement — execute the tasks (/speckit-implement)

The full workflow is expected for new features. For smaller contributions like bug fixes and documentation improvements, you can skip the planning steps and contribute directly.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.