Popup helpful message before selecting from h:selectOneMenu in JSF - jsf

Question

I am using JSF and I have an h:selectOneMenu which is populated using f:selectItems from a backing bean. I would like to display a helpful message for each option in the h:selectOneMenu. This message will come from a bean too and it will be different for each option. I want to do that while the user navigates between the options and before selecting the options that he wants. The idea is to help the user decide what to select. In other words I want something very similar to “title” attribute of component but more fancy and powerful than this. Specifically I want something like a small popup window which allows unlimited number of characters. Is this possible? Do you have any idea as to how to proceed? Is there any JSF library that can help me do this?
I found this link ToolTip for each SelectOneMenu Items in jsf but it is not helpful for me because first of all it uses the “title” attribute and secondly the message does not come from a backing bean.
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

As BalusC mentioned, you can just use Primefaces, and here is a sample code using the PowerTip jQuery plugin:
<p:selectOneMenu id="users" converter="userConverter" var="u">
<f:selectItems value="#{userManagedBean.users}" var="user" itemLabel="#{user.firstName}" itemValue="#{user}"/>
<p:column >
<span customData="#{u.emailOrAnyOtheInfoYouWantToDisplayInTooltip}" class="aClassForTooltips">
<h:outputText value="#{u.firstName} - #{u.lastName}" />
</span>
</p:column>
And on the jQuery part:
<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.10.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<h:outputScript name="js/jquery.powertip.min.js" />
<script type="text/javascript">
$.noConflict();
jQuery(document).ready(function () {
jQuery('.aClassForTooltips').each(function(){
var elementToH = jQuery(this),
data = elementToH.attr('customdata').replace(/%20/g,' ');
elementToH.data('powertip', function() {
return '<div style="background-color:black;width:200px;height:25px">'+data+'.</div>';
});
///////
elementToH.powerTip({
placement: 'ne' // north-east tooltip position
});
//////
});
});
Notice the use of a custom attribute in the span element. This attribute is ignored by JSF renderers if used with any JSF component, that's why you need a span.
Finally do not forget to include at least this CSS:
#powerTip {
position: absolute;
display: none;
z-index: 2147483647;
color:red;
}
I hope this helps