Call action methods in controller managed beans through javascript - jsf

Question

In order to reducing the state I am trying to reduce the no of commandButtons on my webpages.(I had large no of commandButtons shown under a long list of 20 items (6*20 = 120 commandButtons)). Thus I am trying to figure out a way, through javascript by which I can pass parameters & call the action methods in the ManagedBean controller classes. Is there any way to call action methods from javascript & pass them parameters ?

Answer 1

Richfaces 3.2.0.GA and XHTML as mark up
You can use javascript to call an a4j:js method, which inturn calls action method from managed bean.
The param which you need to pass can be set to a hidden variable which when set will set the value to the java variable in your bean.
<script>
function onButtonClick(){
$("#yourValue").val("value");
actionListenerMethod();
}
</script>
<a4j:jsFunction name="actionListenerMethod"
actionListener="#{yourManagedBean.actionMethod}"
oncomplete="scriptOnComplete();">
</a4j:jsFunction>
<h:inputHidden id="yourValue"
value="#{yourManagedBean.yourValue}" />
Managed bean:
public void actionMethod(ActionEvent event){
if(yourValue == "something"){
/*your action goes here*/
}
}
Otherwise you can by-pass this hidden variable by use of action param
<script>
function onButtonClick(){
actionListenerMethod("value");
}
</script>
<a4j:jsFunction name="actionListenerMethod"
actionListener="#{yourManagedBean.actionMethod}"
oncomplete="scriptOnComplete();">
<a4j:actionparam name="param1"
assignTo="#{yourManagedBean.yourValue}" />
</a4j:jsFunction>
In the later case the action param might get set only after the manged bean gets completed, in this case you can use Action atribute to call your action method instead of an action listener.
This will help you to set the param and then call the action method.
<a4j:jsFunction name="actionListenerMethod"
action="#{yourManagedBean.actionMethod}"
oncomplete="scriptOnComplete();">
<a4j:actionparam name="param1"
assignTo="#{yourManagedBean.yourValue}" />
</a4j:jsFunction>