org.apache.el.parser.ParseException: Encountered “(” at line X, column Y. Was expecting one of […]

Question

The below JSF snippet:

Throws this exception:

Encountered \         


        

Answer 1

That can happen if your environment doesn't support EL 2.2. Invoking direct methods with parentheses/arguments like this

value="#{userbean.getAll()}" 

is only supported since EL 2.2, which goes hand in hand with Servlet 3.0. If you're getting this exception, then that can only mean that you're not deploying to a Servlet 3.0 compatible container, or that your webapp's web.xml is not declared conform Servlet 3.0, or that your webapp's /WEB-INF/lib is littered with arbitrarily downloaded servletcontainer-specific JAR files originating from a completely different servletcontainer make/version which doesn't comply EL 2.2.

There are basically 2 solutions:

1. Use EL 2.1 compatible syntax, this works on Servlet 2.5 compatible containers:

    value="#{userbean.all}" 
   

2. Upgrade to a Servlet 3.0 compatible container (Tomcat 7, Glassfish 3, JBoss AS 6, etc), or fix your web.xml to comply Servlet 3.0.

You should also make absolutely sure that your webapp's /WEB-INF/lib does not contain any servletcontainer-specific libraries such as el-api.jar and friends (see also this related question).

Please note that this is not a JSF problem at all. You got an exception from javax.el/org.apache.el package, not from javax.faces/com.sun.faces package. This means that it's an EL problem. It's basically saying that your EL syntax is wrong. It encountered an ( where it didn't expect that. The expected characters/operators are clearly listed thereafter.

See also:

• Invoke direct methods or methods with arguments / variables / parameters in EL
• How to call a method with a parameter in JSF
• Our EL wiki page