CommandLink not Working on a Lazy Loaded Primefaces Datascroller - jsf

Question

I'm having an issue with lazy loading a Primefaces Datascroller component.
I have a jsf page that should display 10 events on page load. If the user wants to see more he/she can click the more button to load and display the 10 next events. For each of the event rows, there is a link that can be used to display the event's details.
<h:form id="mainForm" >
<p:dataScroller value="#{backing.lazyModel}" var="event" lazy="true" chunkSize="10" rowIndexVar="index">
#{event.name}
<p:commandLink class="view-trigger"
value="View Event Details"
actionListener="#{backing.initViewEventDetails(index, event)}"/>
<f:facet name="loader">
<p:outputPanel
visible="#{backing.lazyModel.rowCount gt 10}"
rendered="#{backing.lazyModel.rowCount gt 10}">
<p:commandLink value="More" />
</p:outputPanel>
</f:facet>
</p:dataScroller>
</h:form>
The initial search works fine, that is, when I click the view event details link, my backing bean is invoked and I see that the index and event received correspond to the row I clicked on.
However, once I load the next chunk, which consists of 1 extra event, the page displays 11 events but clicking a view event details link sends the proper index but does not send the proper event. For example, if I click on event at index 0, I get the event at index 10, if I click on event at index 1 my backing bean is not invoked.
It looks like the datascroller forgets about the last 10 events when I click on the more button but my lazy data model still remembers.
The backing bean:
#ManagedBean(name="backing")
#ViewScoped
public class DataScrollerBacking implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 4012320411042043677L;
private static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger(DataScrollerBacking.class);
#ManagedProperty("#{settings.dataSource}")
private String dataSource;
private WebEventDAO webEventDAO;
private LazyDataModel<Event> lazyModel;
#PostConstruct
public void init() {
webEventDAO = CommonDAOFactory.getInstance(dataSource).getWebEventDAO();
search();
}
public void search() {
DateTime start = new DateTime(2014, 1, 1, 0, 0 ,0);
final Date startDate = start.toDate();
final Date endDate = start.plus(Years.ONE.toPeriod()).minus(Seconds.ONE.toPeriod()).toDate();
lazyModel = new LazyDataModel<Event>() {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1231902031619933635L;
private LinkedHashSet<Event> eventCache; // Ordered set of all retrieved events so far.
// I'm using a set because the load method is called twice on page load (any idea why???) and I don't want duplicates in my cache.
#Override
public List<Event> load(int first, int pageSize, String sortField, SortOrder sortOrder, Map<String, Object> filters) {
List<Event> events = new ArrayList<Event>(10);
try {
if(eventCache == null){
int count = webEventDAO.getSearchByPeriodRaceTypeAndRaceStatusForCompanyCount(Collections.singletonList(1), startDate, endDate, null, null);
this.setRowCount(count);
eventCache = new LinkedHashSet<Event>(count);
}
events = webEventDAO.searchByPeriodRaceTypeAndRaceStatusForCompany(Collections.singletonList(1), startDate, endDate, null, null, true, first, pageSize);
eventCache.addAll(events);
} catch (DAOException e) {
LOGGER.error("An error occurred while retrieving events.", e);
}
return events;
}
};
}
public void initViewEventDetails(Integer index, Event event){
LOGGER.info("index=" + index + " eventname=" + event.getName());
}
public String getDataSource() {
return dataSource;
}
public void setDataSource(String dataSource) {
this.dataSource = dataSource;
}
public LazyDataModel<Event> getLazyModel() {
return lazyModel;
}
public void setLazyModel(LazyDataModel<Event> lazyModel) {
this.lazyModel = lazyModel;
}}
Since the page displays the proper information and the index received is always valid, my current workaround is to go fetch the Event in the lazy data model by index.
However, I would like to understand why the received event is not the one I clicked on.
Am I doing something wrong or this is just how the scroller is implemented?
Running on Mojarra 2.2, Tomcat 7, Primefaces 5, Omnifaces 1.8

Answer 1

I found a good explanation about the behavior of request scope in this link http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=44186
If you are using ManagedBeans in request scope, you get problems with
CommandLinks inside DataTables. DataTables are one thing I really like
about JSF, and CommandLinks often come in handy as well. But when you
put a CommandLink inside a DataTable, e. g., to select the entry of
the row in which the CommandLink is, you get bitten. That is, if you
want ManagedBeans with request scope. The action which should be
triggered by the CommandLink is never triggered, the page is simply
rendered again. The reason for this behaviour is that the DataTable
modifies the id of the CommandLink during renderering, but the
CommandLink does not know that it was rendered with a different id.
During the decoding of the request which was triggered by clicking the
CommandLink, the ComandLinkRenderer looks at a hidden form parameter.
If the value of that form parameter equals the id of the CommandLink,
an action is queued. If not, nothing is done. Since the DataTable
changes the ids, the value of the hidden form parameter does not match
the id of the CommandLink.
Based on above context, you need to change the scope annotations from #ViewScoped to
#SessionScope, and your problem will be solved automatically. It seems to be a better solution than write additional code, unless you need to keep the #ViewScopped

Answer 2

A workaround would be to use PrimeFaces remote command, passing arguments with rc([name: 'paramName', value: someParamValue]). These arguments should be available using #{param['paramName']} EL expression
Example:
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' ?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:h="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/html"
xmlns:ui="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:p="http://primefaces.org/ui"
xmlns:f="http://xmlns.jcp.org/jsf/core">
<h:body>
<ui:composition>
<p:dataTable id="#{id}" widgetVar="#{id}"
value="#{requestCache.getLazy(id, () -> dataSource)}" var="rpo"
selectionMode="single" selection="#{selection}"
lazy="true" paginator="true" rows="#{pageSizeController.pageSize}"
pageLinks="10" paginatorPosition="top"
paginatorTemplate="{CurrentPageReport} {FirstPageLink} {PreviousPageLink} {PageLinks} {NextPageLink} {LastPageLink} {RowsPerPageDropdown}"
currentPageReportTemplate="(#{label.Page} {currentPage} #{label.of} {totalPages}, #{label.Row} {startRecord} - {endRecord} #{label.of} {totalRecords})"
rowsPerPageTemplate="5 10 20 30 40 50 100"
scrollable="true" scrollHeight="#{empty scrollHeight ? 300 : scrollHeight}"
resizableColumns="true" emptyMessage="#{label.Table_is_empty}">
<p:column>
<h:outputText value="#{rpo.decreeSequence.code}" />
<p:commandLink id="displayAdditionalInfoCommandLink" type="link" style="float: right; text-decoration: none"
onclick="displayAdditionalInfo([{name: 'refundPaymentOrderId', value: #{rpo.id}}])"
title="#{label.Additional_information}">
<h:outputLabel for="displayAdditionalInfoCommandLink" styleClass="fa fa-info-circle"
onmouseover="jQuery(this).addClass('fa-lg').css('cursor', 'pointer')"
onmouseout="jQuery(this).removeClass('fa-lg')"/>
</p:commandLink>
</p:column>
</p:dataTable>
<p:remoteCommand name="displayAdditionalInfo" process="#this" update="#parent">
<f:setPropertyActionListener target="#{refundPaymentOrderCache.refundPaymentOrder}"
value="#{refundPaymentOrderRepo.find(requestCache.toLong(param['refundPaymentOrderId']))}" />
<f:actionListener binding="#{dialog.displayInputForm('RPO_ADDITIONAL_INFO')}" />
</p:remoteCommand>
</ui:composition>
</h:body>
</html>

Answer 3

I finally had time to spend on this issue and I found a workaround. It's a hack so maybe the proper solution would be to use a different component or create my own.
It seems like Primefaces DataScroller limitation that occurs when using the DataScroller with a LazyDataModel. It would seem that the component was not designed to do this.
To avoid this issue, I implemented my own lazy loading where the same list instance is returned in addition to the newly added elements.
Here is my previous example modified to implement this new lazy loading pattern:
The html page:
<h:form id="mainForm" >
<p:dataScroller value="#{backing.events}" var="event" rowIndexVar="index">
#{event.name}
<p:commandLink class="view-trigger"
value="View Event Details"
action="#{backing.initViewEventDetails(index, event)}"/>
<f:facet name="loader"><h:outputText value=""/></f:facet>
</p:dataScroller>
<p:commandLink value="More" process="#form" update="#form"
action="#{backing.loadMore()}"
visible="#{backing.totalCount gt backing.events.size()}"
rendered="#{backing.totalCount gt backing.events.size()}"/>
</h:form>
The DataScroller no longer has lazy="true", chunkSize="10", uses a list called events as the value and declares an empty loader facet (to avoid auto-load more when the bottom of the list is reached). I used a commandLink that calls backing.loadMore() and updates the form to replace the loader facet.
The backing bean:
#Named("backing")
#ViewScoped
public class DataScrollerBacking implements Serializable {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 4012320411042043677L;
private static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger(DataScrollerBacking.class);
private static final Integer CHUNK_SIZE = 10;
#DataSource
#Inject
private String dataSource;
private WebEventDAO webEventDAO;
private List<Event> events;
private Integer totalCount;
private Date startDate;
private Date endDate;
#PostConstruct
public void init() {
webEventDAO = CommonDAOFactory.getInstance(dataSource).getWebEventDAO();
search();
}
public void search() {
DateTime start = new DateTime(2014, 1, 1, 0, 0 ,0);
startDate = start.toDate();
endDate = start.plus(Years.ONE.toPeriod()).minus(Seconds.ONE.toPeriod()).toDate();
try {
totalCount = webEventDAO.getSearchByPeriodRaceTypeAndRaceStatusForCompanyCount(Collections.singletonList(1), startDate, endDate, null, null);
events = new ArrayList<Event>(totalCount);
loadMore();
} catch (DAOException e) {
LOGGER.error("An error occurred while retrieving events.", e);
}
}
public void loadMore() {
List<Event> newEvents = new ArrayList<Event>(CHUNK_SIZE);
try {
newEvents = webEventDAO.searchByPeriodRaceTypeAndRaceStatusForCompany(Collections.singletonList(1), startDate, endDate, null, null, true, events.size(), CHUNK_SIZE);
events.addAll(newEvents);
} catch (DAOException e) {
LOGGER.error("An error occurred while retrieving events.", e);
}
}
public void initViewEventDetails(Integer index, Event event){
LOGGER.info("index=" + index + " eventname=" + event.getName());
}
public String getDataSource() {
return dataSource;
}
public void setDataSource(String dataSource) {
this.dataSource = dataSource;
}
public List<Event> getEvents() {
return events;
}
public void setEvents(List<Event> events) {
this.events = events;
}
public Integer getTotalCount() {
return totalCount;
}
public void setTotalCount(Integer totalCount) {
this.totalCount = totalCount;
}}
In the backing bean, the search method counts the total number of events, saves that information and calls loadMore() to load the first 10 events in the events list.
When the more button is clicked, loadMore() is called again and the next 10 events are appended at the end of events list.
Now when I click on newly loaded elements, the commandLink invokes the backing bean with the correct value.