Cool! I didn't even know that a "preRenderView" event was available. It's not listed here:
http://java.sun.com/javaee/javaserverfaces/2.0/docs/pdldocs/facelets/index.html
So, in general, it's really better to listen to this event.
However, the problem that had to be solved explicitly stated that there had to be "one-time executed code", so I think the solution has to involve either checking whether the current request is a postback, or not posting back at all (that is, a direct GET link to another view).
The concrete problem can be solved with @PostConstruct too, but it might be cleaner to listen to the event.
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