Test if ui:insert has been defined in the template client

Question

I am wondering if it is possible to know if ui:insert was defined in the ui:composition. I know that I can do it using separate ui:param

Answer 1

ui:param is for me the best way to go. It's just a matter of using it the right way. As a simple example, I define a param here to specify wether there's a sidebar or not. Keep in mind you can define a default insertion definition in the template, so just declare it inside:

template.xhtml

Then couple of views here, one using the sidebar and the other with no sidebar. You can test it and see how the style changes in the browser. You'll notice there's no value for #{noSideBar} in the second one, which will evaluate to false in any EL conditional statement.

page1.xhtml

    
        No sidebar defined? #{noSideBar}
    

page2.xhtml

    
    
        No sidebar defined? #{noSideBar}
    

This way you only need to worry about including the sidebar or not in the client view.