The
.jsf extension is where the FacesServlet is often by default mapped on in the web.xml.<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>facesServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*.jsf</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
The
.xhtml extension is of the actual Facelets file as you've physically placed in the webcontent of your webapp, e.g. Webapp/WebContent/page.xhtml.
If you invoke this page with the
.jsf extension, e.g. http://localhost:8080/webapp/page.jsfthen the FacesServlet will be invoked, locate the page.xhtml file and parse/render its JSF components. If the FacesServlet isn't invoked, then the enduser would end up getting the raw XHTML source code (which can be seen by rightclick, View Source).
Sometimes a
*.faces extension or /faces/* foldermapping is been used. But this was from back in the JSF 1.0/1.1 ages. You're free to choose and use whatever mapping you'd like to let FacesServletlisten on, even if it's a nothing-saying *.xyz. The actual page itself should always have the .xhtmlextension, but this is configureable by the following <context-param> in web.xml:<context-param>
<param-name>javax.faces.DEFAULT_SUFFIX</param-name>
<param-value>.xml</param-value>
</context-param>
This will change the
FacesServlet to locate page.xml instad of (default) page.xhtml.
More recently, with JSF/Facelets 2.0 a
*.xhtml mapping is been used. In JSF/Facelets 1.x it was not possible to use the same mapping extension as the physical file. It would result in an infinite loop. But since JSF/Facelets 2.0 it is possible and this allows you to call the page byhttp://localhost:8080/webapp/page.xhtml.<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>facesServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*.xhtml</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
This way you don't need to configure some security restrictions to hide the raw source files away for cases whenever the enduser changes for example
.jsf in URL to .xhtml in browser address bar.