JSF input processing order - jsf

Is there a way to specify the order in which the inputs should be set after a submit?
Here is my case:
<h:inputText id="fieldA" value=#{myBean.myObject.fieldA}" />
<h:inputText id="fieldB" value=#{myBean.myObject.fieldB}" />
<p:autoComplete id="myObject" value=#{myBean.myObject" converter="myObjectConverter" />
<h:inputText id="fieldC" value=#{myBean.myObject.fieldD}" />
<h:inputText id="fieldD" value=#{myBean.myObject.fieldC}" />
The issue I am encountering is that, as the inputs are processed in the ordered they are declared, fieldA and fieldB are set in the initial instance of myObject, then myObject is set (with a new instance thus filedA and fieldB values are lost), and finally fieldC and fieldD are set with no problem.
If I could manage to start by setting myObject first, that would solve my problem.
I will temporarily set the fields and myObject into two different attributes of my bean, and populate myObject after clicking a save button. But it looks more like a hack than a real solution.
Needless to say that declaring the autocomplete before the inputtexts is not an option.
Thanks in advance.

In shortcut:
You can use <p:inputText> tag from primefaces. Then, you can disable all inputs. Add ajax to your autoComplete, and update other inputs after processing autoComplete. Inputs disable attribute can be set to depend on whether the autoComplete is not null. This way you will make the user to enter the autoComplet first.

you can try to set immediate="true" to p:autocomplete, so that it will be processed in the APPLY_REQUEST_VALUES phase, before all other components.
The simple solution is to update h:inputTexts when p:autocomplete item is selected to reflect its values:
<p:autoComplete id="myObject" value="#{myBean.myObject}" ...>
<p:ajax event="itemSelect" process="#this" update="fieldA fieldB fieldC fieldD" />
</p:autoComplete>
but this reverts user inputs on h:inputTexts. And since you can't move p:autocomplete on top, probably this is not acceptable too.
In case you can't/don't want to use ajax, you can force an early model update:
<p:autoComplete id="myObject" value="#{myBean.myObject}" immediate="true"
valueChangeListener="#{component.updateModel(facesContext)}" ... />
but, in my opinion, this is not very user friendly...
P.S. this time it's tested :)

There's no pretty way to get around this; your situation is already less than ideal and is hacky (re: not being able to simply reorder the fields). One workaround is for you to set fieldA and fieldB as attributes of myObject. In the converter, you could then pull the values off the components. Observe
Set attributes thus
<h:inputText id="fieldA" binding=#{fieldA}" />
<h:inputText id="fieldB" binding=#{fieldB}" />
<p:autoComplete id="myObject" value=#{myBean.myObject" converter="myObjectConverter">
<f:attribute name="fieldA" value="#{fieldA}"/>
<f:attribute name="fieldB" value="#{fieldB}"/>
</p:autoComplete>
The binding attribute effectively turns those components into page-scoped variables, allowing you to then pass them as attributes on your p:autocomplete
Get the values of those variables in your converter
//Retrieve the fields and cast to UIInput, necessary
//to retrieve the submitted values
UIInput fieldA = (UIInput) component.getAttributes().get("fieldA");
UIInput fieldB = (UIInput) component.getAttributes().get("fieldB");
//Retrieve the submitted values and do whatever you need to do
String valueA = fieldA.getSubmittedValue().toString();
String valueB = fieldB.getSubmittedValue().toString();
More importantly, why can't you just reorder the fields/logical flow of your form? You can avoid all this nasty business if you did

Related

p:selectOneMenu get just first value from list primefaces JSF

i have p:selectOneMenu, all values are viewed correctly but just first on my list can be chosen for example, on my list i have e-mail addresses, i can choose everyone but mail is sending just on first of them on list. My JSF code:
<p:dataTable value="#{additionalOrdersBean.additionalOrdersList}"
var="additionalOrders" rowIndexVar="lp" id="myTable" editable="true>
<p:column>
<p:selectOneMenu id="recipient" value="#{additionalOrdersBean.mailTo}" converter="#{mailConverter}" required="true" requiredMessage="#{loc['fieldRequired']}">
<f:selectItems value="#{buildingBean.buildingList2}" var="mail" itemLabel="#{mail.mail1}" itemValue="#{mail.mail1}" />
<f:selectItems value="#{buildingBean.buildingList2}" var="mail" itemLabel="#{mail.mail2}" itemValue="#{mail.mail2}" />
<f:selectItems value="#{buildingBean.buildingList2}" var="mail" itemLabel="#{mail.mail3}" itemValue="#{mail.mail3}" />
</p:selectOneMenu>
<h:message for="recipient" style="color:red"/>
<h:commandButton value="#{loc['send']}" action="#{additionalOrdersBean.sendProtocol()}" onclick="sendProtocolDialog.hide()"/>
</p:column>
</p:dataTable>
My bean:
private String mail1;
private String mail2;
private String mail3;
public List<Building> getBuildingList2() {
buildingList2 = getBldRepo().findByLocationId(lid);
return buildingList2;
}
Can anyone know how to fix it? I wont to send e-mail on choosen address not just on first on my list. Thanks
You seem to expect that only the current row is submitted when you press the command button in the row. This is untrue. The command button submits the entire form. In your particular case, the form is wrapping the whole table and thus the dropdown in every single row is submitted.
However, the value attribute of all those dropdowns are bound to one and same bean property instead of to the currently iterated row.
The consequence is, for every single row, the currently selected value is set on the bean property, hereby everytime overriding the value set by the previous row until you end up with the selected value of the last row.
You've here basically a design mistake and a fundamental misunderstanding of how basic HTML forms work. You basically need to move the form to inside the table cell in order to submit only the data contained in the same cell to the server.
<p:dataTable ...>
<p:column>
<h:form>
...
</h:form>
</p:column>
</p:dataTable>
If that is design technically not an option (for example, because you've inputs in another cells of the same row, or outside the table which also need to be sent), then you'd need to bind the value attribute to the currently iterated row instead and pass exactly that row to the command button's action method:
<p:dataTable value="#{additionalOrdersBean.additionalOrdersList}" var="additionalOrders" ...>
<p:column>
<p:selectOneMenu value="#{additionalOrders.mailTo}" ...>
...
</p:selectOneMenu>
...
<h:commandButton value="#{loc['send']}" action="#{additionalOrdersBean.sendProtocol(additionalOrders)}" ... />
</p:column>
</p:dataTable>
It's by the way not self-documenting and quite confusing to have a plural in the var name. Wouldn't you rather call it additionalOrder? Or is the javabean/entity class representing a single additional order really named AdditionalOrders?
Unrelated to the concrete problem: doing business logic in getter methods is killing your application. Just don't do that. See also Why JSF calls getters multiple times.

JSF PrimeFaces inputText inside dataTable

JSF-2.0, Mojarra 2.1.19, PrimeFaces 3.4.1
Summary of the problem: Have a p:inputText inside p:dataTable and inputText action fired by p:remoteCommand which passes the dataTable row index as a parameter with f:setPropertyActionListener. But it always passes the last row of the dataTable, not the index of the row which includes currently clicked p:inputText.
As it can be seen from my previous questions, I am trying to use p:inputText as a comment taker for a status like in Facebook or etc. Implementation includes a p:dataTable. It's rows represents each status. Seems like:
<p:dataTable id="dataTable" value="#{statusBean.statusList}" var="status"
rowIndexVar="indexStatusList">
<p:column>
<p:panel id="statusRepeatPanel">
<p:remoteCommand name="test" action="#{statusBean.insertComment}"
update="statusRepeatPanel">
<f:setPropertyActionListener
target="#{statusBean.indexStatusList}"
value="#{indexStatusList}">
</f:setPropertyActionListener>
</p:remoteCommand>
<p:inputText id="commentInput" value="#{statusBean.newComment}"
onkeypress="if (event.keyCode == 13) { test(); return false; }">
</p:inputText>
</p:panel>
</p:column>
</p:dataTable>
Upper code says when the press enter key, fire p:remoteCommand which calls the insert method of the managed bean.
#ManagedBean
#ViewScoped
public class StatusBean {
List<Status> statusList = new ArrayList<Status>();
public int indexStatusList;
public String newComment
//getters and setters
public void insertComment() {
long statusID = findStatusID(statusList.get(indexStatusList));
statusDao.insert(this.newComment,statusID)
}
Let's debug together; assuming there are three statuses shown in the p:dataTable, click in the p:inputText which in the second status(index of 1), type "relax" and press the enter key.
In the debug console, it correctly shows "relax", but it finds the wrong status because indexStatusList has the value of 2 which belongs the last status in the p:statusList. It must be 1 which is the index of p:inputText that clicked on the dataTable row.
I think problem is about p:remoteCommand which takes the last index on the screen.
How it works?
Let's imagine there is a p:commandLink instead of p:remoteCommand and p:inputText:
<p:commandLink action=#{statusBean.insertComment>
<f:setPropertyActionListener target="#{statusBean.indexStatusList}"
value="#{indexStatusList}"></f:setPropertyActionListener>
This component successfully passes the indexStatusList as currently clicked one.
Conceptual problem in this solution lies in way how p:remoteCommand works. It creates JavaScript function whose name is defined in name attribute of p:remoteCommand. As you putted this in dataTable it will iterate and create JavaScript function called test as many times as there is rows in this table, and at the end last one will be only one. So, solution can be in appending index at the name of the remoteCommand but that is bad, because you will have many unnecessary JavaScript functions. Better approach would be to create one function an pass argument to it. So define remoteCommand outside of datatable:
<p:remoteCommand name="test" action="#{statusBean.insertComment}" update="statusRepeatPanel">
and call test function like this in your onkeypress event:
test([{ name: 'rowNumber', value: #{indexStatusList} }])
This will pass rowNumber parameter in your AJAX request. In backing bean's insertComment() method you can read this parameter and do with it anything you want:
FacesContext context = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
Map map = context.getExternalContext().getRequestParameterMap();
Integer rowNumber = Integer.parseInt(map.get("rowNumber").toString());
NOTE: as you are updating panel in each row, maybe you can change update attribute of remoteCommand to #parent so this will work for all rows.
EDIT: You can update the specific panel in specific row with following code in Java method:
RequestContext.getCurrentinstance().update("form:dataTable:" + rowNumber + ":statusRepeatPanel")

How to retrieve and show list of values in listbox and text corresponding to list item in textarea

I need to use a list box to show some values from database and do further processing when a single value from the list is selected.
At the PrimeFaces showcase site the example loads fixed (static) data into the listbox and there is one PrimeFaces command for each list item. How do I show items in a list box dynamically, when I may not know the number of items beforehand?
I also need to show some text corresponding to the item selected in list, in a textarea. Do I have to use an event listener for this purpose? I would like to leave the text area blank at the beginning. Only when a value is selected in the list box, then I want to use a bean to retrieve and store data using that textarea. Is this possible? How do I implement this?
How do I show items in a list box dynamically, when I may not know the number of items beforehand?
Use <f:selectItems> which you bind to a List<T> property. Basic example, assuming you're using EJB/JPA to interact with DB:
private Item selectedItem; // +getter+setter
private List<Item> availableItems; // +getter
#EJB
private ItemService service;
#PostConstruct
public void init() {
availableItems = service.list();
}
with
<p:selectOneListbox value="#{bean.selectedItem}" converter="itemConverter">
<f:selectItems value="#{bean.availableItems}" var="item"
itemValue="#{item}" itemLabel="#{item.someLabel}" />
</p:selectOneListbox>
The itemConverter should implement javax.faces.convert.Converter and convert from the Item object to its unique string representation (usually its DB identifier) in getAsString() and convert the other way round getAsObject().
I also need to show some text corresponding to the item selected in list, in a textarea. Do I have to use an event listener for this purpose?
Just put a <p:ajax> (the PrimeFaces equivalent of standard JSF <f:ajax>) in the listbox which updates the textarea. E.g.
<p:selectOneListbox value="#{bean.selectedItem}" converter="itemConverter">
<f:selectItems value="#{bean.availableItems}" var="item"
itemValue="#{item}" itemLabel="#{item.someLabel}" />
<p:ajax update="textarea" />
</p:selectOneListbox>
<p:inputTextarea id="textarea" value="#{bean.selectedItem.someText}" />
It'll be invoked when you select an item.
See also:
Our h:selectOneMenu wiki page - same applies to PrimeFaces p:selectOneListbox
Yes, for demonstration purposes most of the examples are loaded with static data. But if you look at the same example on PF showcase, the second listbox code is as follows:
<h:outputText value="Scrollbar: " />
<p:selectOneListbox id="scroll" value="#{autoCompleteBean.selectedPlayer1}"
converter="player" style="height:100px">
<f:selectItems value="#{autoCompleteBean.players}"
var="player" itemLabel="#{player.name}" itemValue="#{player}" />
</p:selectOneListbox>
and f:selectItems value attribute can point to a collection, an array, a map or a SelectItem instance. So coming to the above example players could be any list that is being populated using a database in the managed bean.
But if the instance is not a SelectItem, the labels are obtained by calling a toString on each object and finally the selected itemValue is set to the selectedPlayer1 attribute but you can also see that there is a converter in between so the incoming itemValue string is converted back to a player object and then set to selectedPlayer1.
And if you want to display the selected item in a text area, you can do something like this:
<h:outputText value="Scrollbar: " />
<p:selectOneListbox id="scroll" value="#{autoCompleteBean.selectedPlayer1}"
converter="player" style="height:100px">
<f:selectItems value="#{autoCompleteBean.players}"
var="player" itemLabel="#{player.name}" itemValue="#{player}" />
<p:ajax update="displayArea"/>
</p:selectOneListbox>
<p:inputTextarea id="displayArea" value="#{autoCompleteBean.selectedPlayer1}" />
Here the inputTextarea is updated using ajax with the value selected by the user.

How to save h:inputText values of a h:dataTable? My attempt only saves the value of last row

I'm having trouble making a dataTable where each row has a inputText and a commandLink. When the link is clicked, only it's row's inputText's data is submitted.
Something like this?
<h:dataTable value="#{bean.items}" var="item">
<h:column>
<h:inputText value="#{bean.value}"/>
</h:column>
<h:column>
<h:commandLink action="#{bean.save}" value="save">
<f:setPropertyActionListener target="#{bean.item}" value="#{item}" />
</h:commandLink>
</h:column>
</h:dataTable>
Bean:
#RequestScoped
public class Bean {
private Item item;
private String value;
Right now, as it is, it's using the last row's inputText to fill the value. I wrapped another h:form, but it broke other things and I've learned that nested h:form is not the right way to do it hehe
What's the correct way to do this?
Thanks.
You're binding the value of all HTML input elements to one and same bean property. This is of course not going to work if all those HTML input elements are inside the same form. All values are subsequently set on the very same property in the order as the inputs appeared in the form. That's why you end up with the last value. You'd like to move that form to inside the <h:column> (move; thus don't add/nest another one).
The usual approach, however, would be to just bind the input field to the iterated object.
<h:inputText value="#{item.value}"/>
An alternative, if you really need to have your form around the table, is to have a Map<K, V> as bean property where K represents the type of the unique identifier of the object behind #{item} and V represents the type of value. Let's assume that it's Long and String:
private Map<Long, String> transferredValues = new HashMap<Long, String>();
// +getter (no setter necessary)
with
<h:inputText ... value="#{bean.values[item.id]}" />
This way you can get it in the action method as follows:
String value = values.get(item.getId());
By the way, if you happen to target Servlet 3.0 containers which supports EL 2.2 (Tomcat 7, Glassfish 3, etc), then you can also just pass the #{req} as a method argument without the need for a <f:setPropertyActionListener>.
<h:commandLink ... action="#{bean.save(item)}" />
See also:
How and when should I load the model from database for h:dataTable
How can I pass selected row to commandLink inside dataTable?
How to dynamically add JSF components

JSF Number Validation

Is there any inbuilt number validator tag in JSF that checks whether an input entered in h:inputext field is a number?
The first question was answered. Edited to explain the next problem:
<h:inputText id="maxrecs" value="#{simpleBean.numRecords}" required="false" maxlength="4" >
<f:convertNumber longOnly="true"/>
</h:inputText>
Backing Bean
private long numRecords = null;
If I use String or Integer object in the backing bean , value is not being set. Now when I use primitive int, 0 is being printed on the screen. I would like the screen to be empty.
You can use f:convertNumber (use the integerOnly attribute).
You can get more information here.
You can use:
<f:validateLongRange minimum="20" maximum="1000" />
Where minimum is the smallest number allowed and maximum is the largest.
Look here for more details
JSF Number validation for inputtext
mention f:converterNumber component in between h inputText component and mention the attributes integerOnly and type.
<h:inputText id="textMobileId" label="Mobile" styleClass="controlfont" value="#{UserRegistrationBean.textMobile}">
<f:convertNumber integerOnly="true" type="number" />
</h:inputText>
If you enter abcd in Mobile textbox at the time when you click on commandbutton it automatically shows an error like
Mobile: 'abcd' is not a number.
i8taken solution converts number into long without validation message (at least in my case: JSF2 / global messages per page). For proper validation message you can
1. check value in action method in bean;
or
2. use converter attribute for inputText:
<h:inputText id="maxrecs" value="#{simpleBean.numRecords}" maxlength="4" converter="javax.faces.Integer" />
You can simply use the passthrough, so first add this library
xmlns:pt="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/passthrough"
and after use this
<h:inputText id="numberId" pt:type="number" />

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