Committed fix at revision 37771. Added fallback approach to access the source code contents directly from the servlet object, without having to create a new http connection, when the request was made using SSL.

The way that the source code functionality works is this: the SourceCodeLoaderConnection application-scoped bean makes a request to the SourceCodeLoaderServlet servlet to retrieve a specific resource. SourceCodeLoaderConnection obtains the host name, port number, etc. from the very first request to the app to build a URL to make a request to the SourceCodeLoaderServlet servlet. Originally, it wasn't setting the 'https' protocol, so that was the reason why the connection to the servlet couldn't be made, and an exception was thrown. After this was fixed, a different exception kept occurring (javax.net.ssl.SSLHandshakeException: sun.security.validator.ValidatorException:
PKIX path building failed: sun.security.provider.certpath.SunCertPathBuilderException: unable to find valid certification path to requested target), which could only be fixed by configuring the machine on which the server runs. So, the only possible solution was to access the SourceCodeLoaderServlet functionality directly, by invoking its methods, without making a new connection.

Tested with ICEfaces EE-3.3.0 maintenance branch trunk r44519 using Tomcat 7 SSL accessing https://localhost:8443/showcase.
Still able to reproduce issue as described in description.
In order to reproduce the issue you must use the SSL https://localhost:8443/showcase URL as your first launch of the showcase application. If you access the demo using non-SSL means first, the error will not appear.
Apr 20, 2015 2:28:54 PM org.icefaces.samples.showcase.util.SourceCodeLoaderConne
ction get
SEVERE: Broken URL for the source code loader (http://localhost:8443/showcase/so
urcecodeStream.html?path=), check your web.xml.
java.net.SocketException: Unexpected end of file from server
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.parseHTTPHeader(HttpClient.java:782)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.parseHTTP(HttpClient.java:641)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.parseHTTPHeader(HttpClient.java:779)
at sun.net.www.http.HttpClient.parseHTTP(HttpClient.java:641)
at sun.net.www.protocol.http.HttpURLConnection.getInputStream(HttpURLCon
nection.java:1218)
at java.net.URLConnection.getContent(URLConnection.java:688)
at java.net.URL.getContent(URL.java:1024)
at org.icefaces.samples.showcase.util.SourceCodeLoaderConnection.get(Sou
rceCodeLoaderConnection.java:179)
at org.icefaces.samples.showcase.util.SourceCodeLoaderConnection.get(Sou
rceCodeLoaderConnection.java:41)
at javax.el.MapELResolver.getValue(MapELResolver.java:52)
at com.sun.faces.el.DemuxCompositeELResolver._getValue(DemuxCompositeELR
esolver.java:176)
at com.sun.faces.el.DemuxCompositeELResolver.getValue(DemuxCompositeELRe
solver.java:203)
at org.apache.el.parser.AstValue.getValue(AstValue.java:169)
at org.apache.el.ValueExpressionImpl.getValue(ValueExpressionImpl.java:1
89)
at com.sun.faces.facelets.el.TagValueExpression.getValue(TagValueExpress
ion.java:109)
at javax.faces.component.ComponentStateHelper.eval(ComponentStateHelper.
java:194)
at javax.faces.component.ComponentStateHelper.eval(ComponentStateHelper.
java:182)
at javax.faces.component.UIOutput.getValue(UIOutput.java:170)
at com.sun.faces.renderkit.html_basic.HtmlBasicInputRenderer.getValue(Ht
mlBasicInputRenderer.java:205)
at com.sun.faces.renderkit.html_basic.HtmlBasicRenderer.getCurrentValue(
HtmlBasicRenderer.java:355)
at com.sun.faces.renderkit.html_basic.HtmlBasicRenderer.encodeEnd(HtmlBa
sicRenderer.java:164)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.encodeEnd(UIComponentBase.java:
877)
at org.icefaces.ace.util.Utils.renderChild(Utils.java:61)
at org.icefaces.ace.util.Utils.renderChildren(Utils.java:43)
at org.icefaces.ace.util.Utils.renderChild(Utils.java:59)
at org.icefaces.ace.component.tabset.TabSetRenderer.renderTabBody(TabSet
Renderer.java:445)
at org.icefaces.ace.component.tabset.TabSetRenderer.doTab(TabSetRenderer
.java:526)
at org.icefaces.ace.component.tabset.TabSetRenderer.doTabs(TabSetRendere
r.java:466)
at org.icefaces.ace.component.tabset.TabSetRenderer.recursivelyRenderSaf
e(TabSetRenderer.java:343)
at org.icefaces.ace.component.tabset.TabSetRenderer.recursivelyRenderSaf
e(TabSetRenderer.java:351)
at org.icefaces.ace.component.tabset.TabSetRenderer.encodeEnd(TabSetRend
erer.java:280)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.encodeEnd(UIComponentBase.java:
877)
at org.icefaces.ace.renderkit.CoreRenderer.renderChild(CoreRenderer.java
:86)
at org.icefaces.ace.renderkit.CoreRenderer.renderChildren(CoreRenderer.j
ava:70)
at org.icefaces.ace.component.panel.PanelRenderer.encodeContent(PanelRen
derer.java:257)
at org.icefaces.ace.component.panel.PanelRenderer.encodeMarkup(PanelRend
erer.java:137)
at org.icefaces.ace.component.panel.PanelRenderer.encodeEnd(PanelRendere
r.java:75)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.encodeEnd(UIComponentBase.java:
877)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponent.encodeAll(UIComponent.java:1826)
at javax.faces.render.Renderer.encodeChildren(Renderer.java:168)
at org.icefaces.impl.renderkit.RendererWrapper.encodeChildren(RendererWr
apper.java:49)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.encodeChildren(UIComponentBase.
java:847)
at com.sun.faces.renderkit.html_basic.HtmlBasicRenderer.encodeRecursive(
HtmlBasicRenderer.java:304)
at com.sun.faces.renderkit.html_basic.GroupRenderer.encodeChildren(Group
Renderer.java:105)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.encodeChildren(UIComponentBase.
java:847)
at com.sun.faces.renderkit.html_basic.HtmlBasicRenderer.encodeRecursive(
HtmlBasicRenderer.java:304)
at com.sun.faces.renderkit.html_basic.GroupRenderer.encodeChildren(Group
Renderer.java:105)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.encodeChildren(UIComponentBase.
java:847)
at com.sun.faces.renderkit.html_basic.HtmlBasicRenderer.encodeRecursive(
HtmlBasicRenderer.java:304)
at com.sun.faces.renderkit.html_basic.GroupRenderer.encodeChildren(Group
Renderer.java:105)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.encodeChildren(UIComponentBase.
java:847)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponent.encodeAll(UIComponent.java:1819)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponent.encodeAll(UIComponent.java:1822)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponent.encodeAll(UIComponent.java:1822)
at com.sun.faces.application.view.FaceletViewHandlingStrategy.renderView
(FaceletViewHandlingStrategy.java:447)
at com.sun.faces.application.view.MultiViewHandler.renderView(MultiViewH
andler.java:125)
at javax.faces.application.ViewHandlerWrapper.renderView(ViewHandlerWrap
per.java:286)
at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.RenderResponsePhase.execute(RenderResponsePha
se.java:120)
at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.Phase.doPhase(Phase.java:101)
at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.render(LifecycleImpl.java:139)
at javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:594)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(Appl
icationFilterChain.java:305)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationF
ilterChain.java:210)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperV
alve.java:225)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextV
alve.java:169)
at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(Authentica
torBase.java:472)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.j
ava:168)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.j
ava:98)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:
927)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineVal
ve.java:118)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.jav
a:407)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp
11Processor.java:999)
at org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(
AbstractProtocol.java:565)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoin
t.java:309)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.runTask(ThreadPoolExec
utor.java:895)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor
.java:918)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:662)
Apr 20, 2015 2:28:54 PM org.icefaces.samples.showcase.util.SourceCodeLoaderConne
ction get
SEVERE: Broken URL for the source code loader (http://localhost:8443/showcase/so
urcecodeStream.html?path=), check your web.xml.

Issue in the last comment has been moved to http://jira.icesoft.org/browse/ICE-10645