JSF Datatable can't get the value of OnetoMany relationship object? - jsf

Question

I'm a JSF Newbie and having problem with displaying data using datatable. These is my scenario:
I want to display the contract(s) assigned to the Customer
JSF page's Datatable : customerdetail.jsp
<h:dataTable id="dt_contract_list" value="#{customerBean.customer.contracts}" var="item">
<h:column>
<f:facet name="header">
<h:outputText value="Contract Identifier"/>
</f:facet>
<h:outputText style="" value="#{item.contractIdentifier}"></h:outputText>
</h:column>
</h:dataTable>
Entity Bean : Customer.java
#Entity
#NamedQueries({
#NamedQuery(name="getCustomerByName", query="SELECT customer FROM Customer customer WHERE customer.name = :name"),
#NamedQuery(name="getAllCustomer", query="SELECT customer FROM Customer customer")
})
public class Customer {
#Id
#GeneratedValue(strategy=GenerationType.IDENTITY)
private int id;
private String name;
#OneToMany(targetEntity = Contract.class,
mappedBy = "customer",
cascade = CascadeType.ALL,
fetch=FetchType.EAGER)
private List<Contract> contracts = new ArrayList<Contract>();
public Customer() {
super();
}
public int getId() {
return this.id;
}
public void setId(int id) {
this.id = id;
}
public String getName() {
return this.name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public List<Contract> getContracts() {
return this.contracts;
}
#Override
public boolean equals(Object object) {
if (this.getClass().isInstance(object)) {
return this.getName().equals(((Customer) object).getName());
} else {
return false;
}
}
}
BackingBean : CustomerBean.java
public class CustomerBean implements Serializable {
#EJB
private CustomerControllerLocal customerController;
private Customer customer;
public CustomerBean() {
customer = new Customer();
}
public String createCustomer() {
// create customer
}
public String updateCustomer() {
// update customer
}
public String deleteCustomer() {
// delete custoer
}
public String getCustomerByName() {
try {
customerController.getCustomerByName(customer.getName());
} catch (NotFoundException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
return "customer_got";
}
public String assignContractsToCustomer() {
// assign contract to customer
}
public Customer getCustomer() {
return customer;
}
public void setCustomer(Customer customer) {
this.customer = customer;
}
}
There's no errors and the whole business logic layer, data layer were tested and work fine but the result is null (and it shouldn't!) and no sign of any exception. Can anyone help me figure it out what's wrong with this? T___T

Answer 1

Your facelet code looks ok.
In your entity class there is one thing that looks suspicious. It is this line:
private List<Contract> contracts = new ArrayList<Contract>();
In the entity classe for my own projects (classes generated by netbeans) the relationship lists are never initialized. I am no expert in JPA but you could try it without the initialization part.