Get rowIndex of rich:dataTable rows - jsf

Question

In my JSF application, I use a rich:dataTable as follows:
<rich:dataTable id="itemTable" value="#{backingBean.itemsList}" var="i" >
<rich:column> <f:facet name="header">ItemValue</f:facet>
<h:inputText id="myId" value="#{i.value}" style="width: 30px" />
</rich:column> </rich:dataTable>
<h:commandButton id="saveB" value="Save" action="#{backingBean.doSave()}" />
Bean code of doSave:
public String doSave() {
Iterator<Item> = itemsList.iterator();
while(iter.hasNext()) {
//do something
}
}
In the doSave()-Method, i need to know the row index of the current Item, is there a way to achieve this?

Answer 1

While Richfaces extended data tables support a selection management, Richfaces datatables don't.
What I found the easiest way to do to retrieve a somehow selected item from a list, is to add an icon to every row. For this, put the command-Button into the data table itself:
<rich:dataTable id="itemTable" value="#{backingBean.itemsList}" var="i" >
<rich:column>
<h:inputText id="myId" value="#{i.value}" />
<h:commandButton id="saveB" action="#{backingBean.doSave}" />
</rich:column>
</rich:dataTable>
In the bean code, provide the method doSave but with an additional parameter ´ActionEvent´
public String doSave(ActionEvent ev) {
Item selectedItem = null;
UIDataTable objHtmlDataTable = retrieveDataTable((UIComponent)ev.getSource());
if (objHtmlDataTable != null) {
selectedItem = (Item) objHtmlDataTable.getRowData();
}
}
private static UIDataTable retrieveDataTable(UIComponent component) {
if (component instanceof UIDataTable) {return (UIDataTable) component;}
if (component.getParent() == null) {return null;}
return retrieveDataTable(component.getParent());
}
You see, that the ActionEvent ev provides you with the source element (UIComponent)ev.getSource(). Traverse through it until you hit the UIDataTable element and use it's row data.
Possible way two is to justgive the element as parameter with the function call:
<rich:dataTable id="itemTable" value="#{backingBean.itemsList}" var="i" >
<rich:column>
<h:inputText id="myId" value="#{i.value}" />
<h:commandButton id="saveB" action="#{backingBean.doSave(i)}" />
</rich:column>
</rich:dataTable>
and in the bean
public String doSave(Item item) {
// do stuff
}
That's not as clean, but should work with the EL, too. Hope, it helps...