How to get a UIComponent by its component id in icefaces - jsf

Question

I'm trying to access an icefaces component, exactly an Accordion so i can set its activeIndex from my bean. the problem is that the returned value is always null. this is my code.
public static UIComponent findComponentInRoot(String id) {
UIComponent component = null;
FacesContext facesContext = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
if (facesContext != null) {
UIComponent root = facesContext.getViewRoot();
component = findComponent(root, id);
}
return component;
}
public static UIComponent findComponent(UIComponent base, String id) {
if (id.equals(base.getId()))
return base;
UIComponent kid = null;
UIComponent result = null;
Iterator kids = base.getFacetsAndChildren();
while (kids.hasNext() && (result == null)) {
kid = (UIComponent) kids.next();
if (id.equals(kid.getId())) {
result = kid;
break;
}
result = findComponent(kid, id);
if (result != null) {
break;
}
}
return result;
}
and i call this method like this:
Accordion acco = (Accordion)findComponentInRoot("menuFormId:menu");
my page look like this or to say a part of it:
<h:form id="menuFormId">
<icecore:singleSubmit />
<ace:accordion id="menu" collapsible="true" autoHeight="false" >
<ace:accordionPane id="system" title="#{msgs.LABEL_ADMINISTRATION}"
rendered="#{navigationCtrl.functionList['GESUTAD'] or navigationCtrl.functionList['GESPROF'] or navigationCtrl.functionList['GESUTTOM'] or navigationCtrl.functionList['SYNCPRC']}">
<div class="divLinkStyle">
<ice:commandLink rendered="#{navigationCtrl.functionList['GESPROF']}" styleClass="linkMenu" action="#{navigationCtrl.redirectConsulterProfil}"
onmouseover="this.style.backgroundColor='#DEEDF8'" onmouseout="this.style.backgroundColor='#FFFFFF'">
<h:graphicImage value="../resources/images/util.png" />
<h:outputLabel value="#{msgs.LABEL_GESTION_PROFIL}" style="cursor: pointer;" />
</ice:commandLink>
</div>
...
Any ideas ?
my bean is session scoped.
i'm using icefaces 3.3.0 and jsf 2.2

Answer 1

You're confusing component ID with client ID. You're passing a client ID "menuFormId:menu" instead of component ID "menu" to your utility method, while the utility method actually finds the component by component ID instead of client ID.
Just use UIViewRoot#findComponent().
public static UIComponent findComponentInRoot(String id) {
return FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getViewRoot().findComponent(id);
}
Unrelated to the concrete problem. You're making here a design mistake. The model should not be interested in the view. It should be the other way round. Set the activeIndex as a bean property and let the view hook on it the usual way.
<ace:accordion ... activeIndex="#{bean.activeIndex}">
In any case you're trying to grab/create/bind/manipulate/whatever a physical UIComponent instance in a backing bean class, you should absolutely stop coding and think twice if you're really doing things the right way. Ask if necessary at Stack Overflow if you can't figure out the right way.