jsf 2 - Styling one JSF external link to make it look like a button

Question

Primefaces 3.5, Omnifaces 1.6

I have a group of buttons with icons. The buttons have an action to do on the page (such as delete or add new row in datatable). I want to add new "something" that looks exactly as buttons do, but with an external link. If I click on this new button, new tab/window have to be opened. For that purpose I am using p:commandButton and h:outputLink.

<p:commandButton action="#{bean.do1}" icon= ...>
<p:commandButton action="#{bean.do2}" icon= ...>

<h:outputLink value="#{bean.url}" target="_blank"> 
  <i class="icon-external-link"></i> 
</h:outputLink>

How can I achieve this ?

Answer 1

• Use a p:button, which acts like a link:

  <p:button href="http://www.stackoverflow.com" value="Go to SO" />
  

• If you want a blank target and starting from Primefaces 3.5.5, there's the chance to use the target attribute directly:

  <p:button target="_blank" href="http://www.stackoverflow.com" value="Go to SO" />
  

• When being below PF 3.5.5, you could do some javascript to open it in a blank target:

  <p:button value="Go to SO" onclick="window.open('http://www.stackoverflow.com')" />
  

• All of the choices above use javascript to change the browser's window location. In order to generate a bot-harvestable HTML link element, make use of a h:outputLink (or just a plain HTML a element), and style it using Primefaces' classes:

  <h:outputLink value="http://www.stackoverflow.com"
      styleClass="ui-button ui-widget ui-state-default ui-corner-all ui-button-text-only">
      <span class="ui-button-text">Go to SO</span>
  </h:outputLink>
  

See also:

• window.location.href vs clicking on an Anchor