Pure Java/JSF implementation for double submit prevention

Question

We're using JSF 2.0 on WebSphere v8.5 with several component libraries PrimeFaces 4.0, Tomahawk 2.0, RichFaces, etc.

I am looking for generic mechanism to avoid form re-submission when the page is refreshed, or when the submit button is clicked once again. I have many applications with different scenarios.

For now I have considered disabling the button with a piece of JavaScript in onclick attribute, but this is not satisfying. I'm looking for a pure Java implementation for this purpose, something like the Struts2 <s:token>.

Answer 1

I am looking for generic mechanism to avoid form re-submission when the page is refreshed

For that there are at least 2 solutions which can not be combined:

1. Perform a redirect after synchronous post. This way the refresh would only re-execute the redirected GET request instead of the initial request. Disadvantage: you can't make use of the request scope anymore to provide any feedback to the enduser. JSF 2.0 has solved this by offering the new flash scope. See also How to show faces message in the redirected page.

2. Perform the POST asynchronously in the background (using ajax). This way the refresh would only re-execute the initial GET request which opened the form. You only need to make sure that those forms are initially opened by a GET request only, i.e. you should never perform page-to-page navigation by POST (which is at its own already a bad design anyway). See also When should I use h:outputLink instead of h:commandLink?

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or when the submit button is clicked once again

For that there are basically also at least 2 solutions, which could if necessary be combined:

1. Just block the enduser from being able to press the submit button during the submit and/or after successful submit. There are various ways for this, all depending on the concrete functional and design requirements. You can use JavaScript to disable the button during submit. You can use JSF's disabled or rendered attributes to disable or hide the button after submit. See also How to do double-click prevention in JSF 2. You can also use an overlay window during processing ajax requests to block any enduser interaction. PrimeFaces has <p:blockUI> for the purpose.

2. Validate uniqueness of the newly added entity in the server side. This is way much more robust if you absolutely want to avoid duplication for technical reasons rather than for functional reasons. It's fairly simple: put a UNIQUE constraint on the DB column in question. If this constraint is violated, then the DB (and DB interaction framework like JPA) will throw a constraint violation exception. This is best to be done in combination with a custom JSF validator which validates the input beforehand by performing a SELECT on exactly that column and checking if no record is returned. A JSF validator allows you to display the problem in flavor of a friendly faces message. See also among others Validate email format and uniqueness against DB.