How to Reference Jsf Image Resource as CSS Background Image Url

How to reference JSF image resource as CSS background image url

When importing CSS stylesheets by <h:outputStylesheet>, the stylesheet is imported and processed by the FacesServlet through /javax.faces.resource/*. Look at the generated <link> element pointing to the stylesheet in question and you'll understand.

You have to change all url() dependencies to use #{resource['library:location']} instead. JSF will then auto-substitute it with the right path. Given your folder structure, you need to replace

.c2 {
    background: url("/resources/images/smiley.jpg");  
}

.c2 {
    background: url("#{resource['images/smiley.jpg']}");  
}

Assuming that your webapp context name is playground and that your FacesServlet is mapped on *.xhtml, then the above should end up in the returned CSS file as follows

.c2 {
    background: url("/playground/javax.faces.resource/images/smiley.jpg.xhtml");
}

Noted should be that the JSF implementation will for determine only during the first request on the CSS file if it contains EL expressions. If it doesn't then it will for efficiency not anymore attempt to EL-evaluate the CSS file content. So if you add an EL expression to a CSS file for the first time, then you'd need to restart the whole application in order to get JSF to re-check the CSS file.

In case you wanted to reference a resource from a component library such as PrimeFaces, then prefix the library name, separated with :. E.g. when you're using PrimeFaces "Start" theme which is identified by primefaces-start

.c2 {
    background: url("#{resource['primefaces-start:images/ui-bg_gloss-wave_50_6eac2c_500x100.png']}");  
}

This will be generated as

.c2 {
    background: url("/playground/javax.faces.resource/images/ui-bg_gloss-wave_50_6eac2c_500x100.png.xhtml?ln=primefaces-start");
}

Reference a PrimeFaces image resource as CSS background image url

You're using the library the wrong way. The library can never be like images, css, js, etc in a sensible way. See also the bottom part of the answer on the question you found, which in turn references further to a must-read Q&A for JSF starters What is the JSF resource library for and how should it be used?

Given an image URL of /resources/primefaces-start/images/ui-bg_gloss-wave_50_6eac2c_500x100.png, the library part is clearly primefaces-start.

So, this should do:

.greenButton {
    background: url(#{resource['primefaces-start:images/ui-bg_gloss-wave_50_6eac2c_500x100.png']});  
}

Reference a image resource as CSS background image url

You used the wrong library name. The part before : in the resource identifier represents the library name. You specified images, while it should be primefaces-excite-bike as indicated by the ln request parameter in the URL.

So, this should do:

#{resource['primefaces-excite-bike:images/ui-bg_diagonals-thick_22_1484e6_40x40.png']}

background-image: url() in CSS h:outputStylesheet is not loading

You should be using the EL variable #{resource} in CSS to specify image resources.

background-image: url("#{resource['img/glyphicons-halflings.png']}");

Load Background image in css by JSF

h:outputStylesheet is for loading CSS files, to include an image file inside your JSF page you should use the h:graphicImage Tag like this:

<h:graphicImage name="blue.jpg" library="images"/>

Update:

In order to load a background Image, the best solution is to follow Tiny's suggestion (within comments) and use:

body{
    background-image: url("#{resource['images/blue.jpg']}");
}

See also:

Tag graphicImage
What is the JSF resource library for and how should it be used?

How to reference CSS / JS / image resource in Facelets template?

Introduction

The proper JSF 2.x way is using <h:outputStylesheet>, <h:outputScript> and <h:graphicImage> with a name referring the path relative to webapp's /resources folder. This way you don't need to worry about the context path as you would do in JSF 1.x. See also How to include CSS relative to context path in JSF 1.x?

Folder structure

Drop the CSS/JS/image files in /resources folder of the public webcontent as below (just create one if not already exist at the same level as /WEB-INF and /META-INF).

WebContent
 |-- resources
 |    |-- css
 |    |    |-- other.css
 |    |    `-- style.css
 |    |-- js
 |    |    `-- script.js
 |    `-- images
 |         |-- background.png
 |         |-- favicon.ico
 |         `-- logo.png
 |-- META-INF
 |    `-- MANIFEST.MF
 |-- WEB-INF
 |    |-- faces-config.xml
 |    `-- web.xml
 |-- page.xhtml
 :

In case of Maven, it should be in /main/webapp/resources and thus not /main/resources (those are for Java resources (properties/xml/text/config files) which must end up in runtime classpath, not in webcontent). See also Maven and JSF webapp structure, where exactly to put JSF resources.

Referencing in Facelets

Ultimately, those resources are available as below everywhere without the need to fiddle with relative paths:

<h:head>
    ...
    <h:outputStylesheet name="css/style.css" />
    <h:outputScript name="js/script.js" />
</h:head>
<h:body>
    ...
    <h:graphicImage name="images/logo.png" />
    ...
</h:body>

The name attribute must represent the full path relative to the /resources folder. It does not need to start with /. You do not need the library attribute as long as you aren't developing a component library like PrimeFaces or a common module JAR file which is shared by multiple webapps.

You can reference the <h:outputStylesheet> anywhere, also in <ui:define> of template clients without the need for an additional <h:head>. It will via the <h:head> component of master template automatically end up in generated <head>.

<ui:define name="...">
    <h:outputStylesheet name="css/style.css" />
    ...
</ui:define>

You can reference <h:outputScript> also anywhere, but it will by default end up in the HTML exactly there where you declared it. If you want it to end up in <head> via <h:head>, then add target="head" attribute.

<ui:define name="...">
    <h:outputScript name="js/script.js" target="head" />
    ...
</ui:define>

Or, if you want it to end up at the end of <body> (right before </body>, so that e.g. window.onload and $(document).ready() etc isn't necessary) via <h:body>, then add target="body" attribute.

<ui:define name="...">
    <h:outputScript name="js/script.js" target="body" />
    ...
</ui:define>

PrimeFaces `HeadRenderer`

In case you're using PrimeFaces, its HeadRenderer will messup the default <h:head> script ordering as described above. You're basically forced to force the order via PrimeFaces-specific <f:facet name="first|middle|last">, which may end up in messy and "untemplateable" code. You may want to turn off it as described in this answer.

Packaging in JAR

You can even package the resources in a JAR file. See also Structure for multiple JSF projects with shared code.

Referencing in EL

You can in EL use the #{resource} mapping to let JSF basically print a resource URL like /context/javax.faces.resource/folder/file.ext.xhtml?ln=library so that you could use it as e.g. CSS background image or favicon. Only requirement is that the CSS file itself should also be served as a JSF resource, otherwise EL expressions won't evaluate. See also How to reference JSF image resource as CSS background image url.

.some {
    background-image: url("#{resource['images/background.png']}");
}

Here's the @import example.

@import url("#{resource['css/other.css']}");

Here's the favicon example. See also Add favicon to JSF project and reference it in <link>.

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="#{resource['images/favicon.ico']}" />

In case you're using a SCSS compiler (e.g. Sass Compiler Plugin for Maven), keep in mind that the SCSS processor might interpret # as a special character. In that case you would need to escape it with \.

.some {
    background-image: url("\#{resource['images/background.png']}");
}

Referencing third-party CSS files

Third party CSS files loaded via <h:outputStylesheet> which in turn reference fonts and/or images may need to be altered to use #{resource} expressions as described in previous section, otherwise an UnmappedResourceHandler needs to be installed in order to be able to serve those using JSF. See also a.o. Bootsfaces page shows up in browser without any styling and How to use Font Awesome 4.x CSS file with JSF? Browser can't find font files.

Hiding in /WEB-INF

If you intend to hide the resources from public access by moving the whole /resources folder into /WEB-INF, then you can since JSF 2.2 optionally change the webcontent-relative path via a new web.xml context parameter as follows:

<context-param>
    <param-name>javax.faces.WEBAPP_RESOURCES_DIRECTORY</param-name>
    <param-value>/WEB-INF/resources</param-value>
</context-param>

In older JSF versions this is not possible.

How do I add background images in a JSF application using richfaces and CSS?

Assuming the element in question is getting a class="rich-ddmenu-label" applied to it, the problem is likely the path to the background image.

The path is relative to where the CSS is located. If it's in an external file, it should be relative to that, e.g.:

/css/styles.css
/images/the_image.gif

the CSS should be:

background-image: url("../images/the_image.gif");

If the CSS is inline on the HTML page, it will be relative to the current path. So if the page is located at http://server/path/to/page, it will look for the image at http://server/path/to/page/images/the_image.gif, when you probably meant http://server/images/the_image.gif.

If that doesn't answer it, please post the generated HTML.

Load Images from within CSS resources in JSF 2.0

Add css into your XHTML

<link href="#{facesContext.externalContext.requestContextPath}/resources/style/default.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />

and in CSS

background-image: /resources/images/someName.png

How to Reference Jsf Image Resource as CSS Background Image Url