f:viewAction does not invoke action method - eclipse

Question

I can't get an action method with the f:viewAction tag to work.
Here's the jsf page:
<ui:composition xmlns:ui="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:h="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/html"
xmlns:f="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/core">
<ui:repeat var="genreType" value="#{navigation.genreTypeList}">
<f:metadata>
<f:viewParam name="nameEn" value="#{genreType.name_en}" required="true" />
<f:viewAction action="#{search.searchByGenreType}" />
</f:metadata>
<h:link value="#{genreType.name_de}" outcome="index" includeViewParams="true" /><br />
</ui:repeat>
</ui:composition>
It produces links like this:
[...]/index.jsf;jsessionid=635562E66C7F2FA54504B53D5DAA114C?nameEn=fiction
And here's the bean:
#ManagedBean
#RequestScoped
public class Search implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = -5193732222381183093L;
private String nameEn;
public String getNameEn() {
return this.nameEn;
}
public void setNameEn(String nameEn) {
this.nameEn = nameEn;
}
// action methods
public String searchByGenreType() {
System.out.println("searchByGenreType");
return "index";
}
}
I'm using JSF 2.2.5 with Tomcat 7.0.42, IDE is Eclipse Kepler (4.3.1).
I've tried different variations (#PostConstruct in bean, explicit navigation in faces-config.xml, old and new namespaces).
There should be no problem with namespaces since this is fixed since JSF 2.2.5.

Answer 1

This code isn't making any sense. You seem to be confusing <f:viewParam> with <f:param>. You need <f:param> to add HTTP request parameters to links. The <f:viewParam> is to be used to set incoming HTTP request parameters as bean properties.
Given the concrete functional requirement of having a list of links with parameters which in turn should on the target page set the parameter as a bean property and invoke a bean action, here's how you should be implementing it:
The source page with the list of links:
<ui:repeat var="genreType" value="#{navigation.genreTypeList}">
<h:link value="#{genreType.name_de}" outcome="index">
<f:param name="nameEn" value="#{genreType.name_en}" />
</h:link>
<br />
</ui:repeat>
In the target page, apparently index.xhtml, put this somewhere in top, right before <h:head>:
<f:metadata>
<f:viewParam name="nameEn" value="#{search.nameEn}" required="true" />
<f:viewAction action="#{search.searchByGenreType}" />
</f:metadata>
Inside the searchByGenreType() method you can just access that nameEn property directly.
See also:
What can <f:metadata>, <f:viewParam> and <f:viewAction> be used for?
When using <ui:composition> templating, where should I declare the <f:metadata>?