To understand the essence of this entry, one must first understand the fact that named objects are declared in behavior-define descriptor. Their names are then referred to in bindings all through the page specifications.

However, there are objects used on the page that are anonymous. The first of those kinds are objects reached through path to handler associations. There are also anonymous event listeners. It is the classes associated with these anonymous objects that are declared here.

The handler entry provides means of entry method bindings for the handler methods, on objects exposed to the bean, or backing bean, as they called on the platform.

In the alternate, an anonymous handler could be specified, in the Swing style. Whenever there is a handler-class entry, it is the latter that is assumed.

This is reflected in the implementation code using nested components as shown below:

<h:commandButton value="Next">
            <f:actionListener type="com.myapp.NextPageListener"/>
</h:commandButton>

Any class specified must subscribe to a listener interface, which would determine which nested tag to use.

The two standard listeners f:actionListener and f:valueChangeListener.