JSF Session Timeout Handling

Here's my solution for session handling. When your session timed out, you will be redirected to the index page which is commonly the login page to login again.

package com.mypackage.web.session;

import javax.faces.FacesException;
import javax.faces.application.Application;
import javax.faces.application.ViewHandler;
import javax.faces.component.UIViewRoot;
import javax.faces.context.ExternalContext;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.faces.event.PhaseEvent;
import javax.faces.event.PhaseId;
import javax.faces.event.PhaseListener;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpSession;

public class SessionPhaseListener implements PhaseListener {

    private static final String homepage = "index.jsp";

    @Override
    public void afterPhase(PhaseEvent event) {
        //Do anything
    }

    @Override
    public void beforePhase(PhaseEvent event) {
        FacesContext context = event.getFacesContext();
        ExternalContext ext = context.getExternalContext();
        HttpSession session = (HttpSession) ext.getSession(false);
        boolean newSession = (session == null) || (session.isNew());
        boolean postback = !ext.getRequestParameterMap().isEmpty();
        boolean timedout = postback && newSession;
        if (timedout) {
            Application app = context.getApplication();
            ViewHandler viewHandler = app.getViewHandler();
            UIViewRoot view = viewHandler.createView(context, "/" + homepage);
            context.setViewRoot(view);
            context.renderResponse();
            try {
                viewHandler.renderView(context, view);
                context.responseComplete();
            } catch (Throwable t) {
                throw new FacesException("Session timed out", t);
            }
        }
    }

    @Override
    public PhaseId getPhaseId() {
        return PhaseId.RESTORE_VIEW;
    }
}

Once you created the class above that implements the PhaseListener, add this to you faces-config.xml. Note that the package name depends on your own Java packaging.

<lifecycle>
       <phase-listener>com.mypackage.web.session.SessionPhaseListener</phase-listener>
</lifecycle>