Why is the getter called so many times by the rendered attribute?

Related to a previous example, i tried to monitor my get/set methods on the server (when they are called, and how often). So, my actual been look such :

@ManagedBean(name="selector")
@RequestScoped
public class Selector {
    @ManagedProperty(value="#{param.profilePage}")
    private String profilePage;

    public String getProfilePage() {
        if(profilePage==null || profilePage.trim().isEmpty()) {
            this.profilePage="main";
        }

        System.out.println("GET "+profilePage);

        return profilePage;
    }
    public void setProfilePage(String profilePage) { 
        this.profilePage=profilePage; 
        System.out.println("SET "+profilePage); 
    }
}

and the only page who can call this method (it only calls the get method on rendered) is :

<!DOCTYPE html>
<ui:composition
    xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
    xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
    xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets">

    <h:panelGroup layout="block" id="profileContent">
        <h:panelGroup rendered="#{selector.profilePage=='main'}">
            // nothing at the moment
        </h:panelGroup>
    </h:panelGroup>
</ui:composition>

my stupor when i see the server log, and i see :

SET null
GET main
GET main
GET main
GET main
GET main
GET main
GET main

What? It call seven times the getProfilePage() method? (and also 1 time setProfilePage()) I would like to know why this behaviour :)

Thanks

ADDED AN EXAMPLE

Bean

@ManagedBean(name="selector")
@RequestScoped
public class Selector {
    @ManagedProperty(value="#{param.profilePage}")
    private String profilePage;

    @PostConstruct
    public void init() {
        if(profilePage==null || profilePage.trim().isEmpty()) {
            this.profilePage="main";
        }
    }

    public String getProfilePage() { return profilePage; }
    public void setProfilePage(String profilePage) { this.profilePage=profilePage; }
}

profile.xhtml

<h:panelGroup layout="block" id="profileContent">
    <h:panelGroup layout="block" styleClass="content_title">
        Profilo Utente
    </h:panelGroup>

    <h:panelGroup rendered="#{selector.profilePage=='main'}">
        <ui:include src="/profile/profile_main.xhtml" />
    </h:panelGroup>

    <h:panelGroup rendered="#{selector.profilePage=='edit'}">
        <ui:include src="/profile/profile_edit.xhtml" />
    </h:panelGroup>
</h:panelGroup>

// profile_main.xhtml
<h:form id="formProfileMain" prependId="false">
    <h:panelGroup layout="block" styleClass="content_span">
        <h:outputScript name="jsf.js" library="javax.faces" target="head" />

        <h:panelGroup layout="block" styleClass="profilo_3">
            <h:commandButton value="EDIT">
                <f:setPropertyActionListener target="#{selector.profilePage}" value="edit" />
                <f:ajax event="action" render=":profileContent"/>
            </h:commandButton>
        </h:panelGroup>
    </h:panelGroup>
</h:form>

// profile_edit.xhtml
<h:form id="formProfileEdit" prependId="false">
    <h:panelGroup layout="block" styleClass="content_span">
        <h:outputScript name="jsf.js" library="javax.faces" target="head" />

        <h:panelGroup layout="block" styleClass="profilo_3">
            <h:commandButton value="Edit">
                <f:setPropertyActionListener target="#{selector.profilePage}" value="editProfile" />
                <f:ajax event="action" render=":profileContent"/>
            </h:commandButton>

            <h:commandButton value="Back">
                <f:setPropertyActionListener target="#{selector.profilePage}" value="main" />
                <f:ajax event="action" render=":profileContent"/>
            </h:commandButton>
        </h:panelGroup>
    </h:panelGroup>
</h:form>

In this example, i call the profile_main (as default); After (for example) I call profile_edit (by clicking on EDIT); After, I return to profile_main by clicking Back. Now, if i want to reload profile_edit (EDIT), i need to click many times on that command button. Why?

BalusC

EL (Expression Language, those #{} things) won't cache the result of the calls or so. It just accesses the data straight in the bean. This does normally not harm if the getter just returns the data.

The setter call is done by @ManagedProperty. It basically does the following:

selector.setProfilePage(request.getParameter("profilePage"));

The getter calls are all done by rendered="#{selector.profilePage == 'some'}" during the render response phase. When it evaluates false the first time, in UIComponent#encodeAll(), then no more calls will be done. When it evaluates true, then it will be re-evaluated six more times in the following sequence:

UIComponent#encodeBegin() - Locates renderer for the begin of component.
Renderer#encodeBegin() - Renders begin of component.
UIComponent#encodeChildren() - Locates renderer for children of component.
Renderer#encodeChildren() - Renders children of component.
UIComponent#encodeEnd() - Locates renderer for end of component.
Renderer#encodeEnd() - Renders end of component.

The component and its renderer verifies during every step if it is allowed to render. During a form submit, if an input or command component or any of its parents has a rendered attribute, then it will also be evaluated during apply request values phase as part of safeguard against tampered/hacked requests.

True, this look like clumsy and inefficient. It was considered the achilles heal of JSF as per spec issue 941. It's been suggested to remove all those repeated checks and stick to the one done in UIComponent#encodeAll(), or to evaluate isRendered() on a per-phase basis. During EG discussion, it became clear the root of the problem is in EL, not in JSF, and that performance could be greatly improved with CDI. So there was no necessity to solve it from JSF spec side on.

If your concern is that the managed property should be checked only once after its setting if it's null or empty, then consider to move it into a method which is annotated with @PostConstruct. Such a method will be called directly after bean's construction and all dependency injection.

@PostConstruct
public void init() {
    if (profilePage == null || profilePage.trim().isEmpty()) {
        profilePage = "main";
    }
}

Why is the getter called so many times by the rendered attribute?

See also: