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Available since OmniFaces 1.0

The <o:converter> is a taghandler that extends the standard <f:converter> tag family with support for deferred value expressions in all attributes. In other words, the converter attributes are not evaluated anymore on a per view build time basis, but just on every access like as with UI components and bean properties. This has among others the advantage that they can be evaluated on a per-iteration basis inside an iterating component, and that they can be set on a custom converter without needing to explicitly register it in a tagfile.

Usage

When you specify for example the standard <f:convertDateTime> by converterId="jakarta.faces.DateTime", then you'll be able to use all its attributes such as pattern and locale as per its documentation, but then with the possibility to supply deferred value expressions.

<o:converter converterId="jakarta.faces.DateTime" pattern="#{item.pattern}" locale="#{item.locale}" />

The converter ID of all standard Faces converters can be found in their javadocs. First go to the javadoc of the class of interest, then go to CONVERTER_ID in its field summary and finally click the Constant Field Values link to see the value.

JSF 2.3 compatibility

The <o:converter> is currently not compatible with converters which are managed via the managed=true attribute set on the FacesConverter annotation, at least not when using Mojarra. Internally, the converters are wrapped in another instance which doesn't have the needed setter methods specified. In order to get them to work with <o:converter>, the managed=true attribute needs to be removed, so that OmniFaces ConverterManager will automatically manage them.

Demo

In the below demo, it was the intent to use <f:convertDateTime> as follows:

 <f:convertDateTime type="localDateTime" dateStyle="full" timeStyle="full" locale="#{locale}" />

But this wouldn't even run, it will throw the following exception because the #{locale} isn't available during view build time (for a background explanation, check this Stack Overflow answer).

jakarta.faces.view.facelets.TagAttributeException: /showcase/taghandlers/converter.xhtml @53,101 locale="" Attribute did not evaluate to a String or Locale: null
    at com.sun.jsf-impl@4.0.0.SP01//com.sun.faces.facelets.tag.faces.ComponentSupport.getLocale(ComponentSupport.java:423)
    at com.sun.jsf-impl@4.0.0.SP01//com.sun.faces.facelets.tag.faces.core.ConvertDateTimeHandler.setAttributes(ConvertDateTimeHandler.java:89)
    at com.sun.jsf-impl@4.0.0.SP01//com.sun.faces.facelets.tag.faces.ConverterTagHandlerDelegateImpl.applyAttachedObject(ConverterTagHandlerDelegateImpl.java:117)
		

It works as intuitively expected with the <o:converter> as it allows a render time evaluation of attributes.

For another related use case, checkout the <o:validator> showcase page.

Demo
Language Full date time pattern
English Sunday, May 25, 2025 at 3:07:31 PM Central Daylight Time
Spanish domingo, 25 de mayo de 2025, 15:07:31 (hora de verano central)
French dimanche 25 mai 2025 à 15:07:31 heure d’été du Centre
German Sonntag, 25. Mai 2025 um 15:07:31 Nordamerikanische Inland-Sommerzeit
Dutch zondag 25 mei 2025 om 15:07:31 Central-zomertijd
Arabic الأحد، 25 مايو 2025 في 3:07:31 م التوقيت الصيفي المركزي لأمريكا الشمالية
Hebrew יום ראשון, 25 במאי 2025 בשעה 15:07:31 שעון מרכז ארה״ב (קיץ)
Chinese 2025年5月25日星期日 北美中部夏令时间 下午3:07:31
Demo source code
<h:dataTable value="#{converterBean.locales}" var="locale">
    <h:column>
        <f:facet name="header">Language</f:facet>
        #{locale.displayLanguage}
    </h:column>
    <h:column>
        <f:facet name="header">Full date time pattern</f:facet>
        <h:outputText value="#{now.zonedDateTime}">
            <o:converter converterId="jakarta.faces.DateTime" type="localDateTime" dateStyle="full" timeStyle="full" locale="#{locale}" />
        </h:outputText>
    </h:column>
</h:dataTable>
Documentation & Sources