How to collapse or expand all RichFaces collapsiblePanel elements on the page? - jsf

Question

I'm using RichFaces with JSF to develop a simple app. One page of this app contains several collapsiblePanel elements. Some of the collapsiblePanel elements are nested, but never more than a second layer.
I would like to provide links or buttons on the page to expand all and collapse all collapsiblePanel elements on the page. How can I do that?
The elements currently use the switchType="client" attribute to let the client handle the expanding and collapsing. I suspect that using a type of ajax instead may help, but I'm not sure nor do I know how I would take advantage of it.
Update: My question may be easier to understand if I include an example of what I'm trying to do:
<h:form>
<a4j:commandButton actionListener="#{bean.setDefaultExpanded(true)}"
render="reportPanel" value="Expand all" />
<a4j:commandButton actionListener="#{bean.setDefaultExpanded(false)}"
render="reportPanel" value="Collapse all" />
<h:panelGrid id="reportPanel">
<ui:repeat var="account" value="#{bean.results.entrySet().toArray()}">
<rich:collapsiblePanel expanded="#{bean.defaultExpanded}">
<ui:repeat var="chargeGroup" value="#{account.value.entrySet().toArray()}">
<rich:collapsiblePanel expanded="#{bean.defaultExpanded}">
<h:outputText value="content: #{chargeGroup.value}" />
</rich:collapsiblePanel>
</ui:repeat>
</rich:collapsiblePanel>
</ui:repeat>
</h:panelGrid>
</h:form>

Answer 1

The <rich:collapsiblePanel> has the expanded attribute, you can bind it to bean property and control the expansion from there. Something like this
<rich:collapsiblePanel id="panel1" expanded="#{bean.expanded}" …>
<a4j:commandButton actionListener="#{bean.togglePanels()}"
… render="panel1, panel2, …"/>
The switchType controls where the content is pulled from, not how you expand/collapse the panel.

Answer 2

I had the same problem when click individual panels and then expand/collapse all. This work for me (richfaces 4.2.3):
<h:commandButton immediate="true" action="#{controllerBean.toggleMin}" value="collapse all" >
<a4j:ajax render="panel1 panel2"></a4j:ajax>
</h:commandButton>
<h:commandButton immediate="true" action="#{controllerBean.toggleMax}" value="expand all">
<a4j:ajax render="panel1 panel2"></a4j:ajax>
</h:commandButton>
...
<rich:collapsiblePanel id="panel1" immediate="true" expanded="#{modelBean.expanded}" header="Title text" switchType="client">
...
</rich:collapsiblePanel>
...