h:selectOneMenu labels not changing on a4j rerender - jsf

Question

I have an h:selectOneMenu set up that looks something like this:
<f:view>
<h:form id="tehForm">
<h2>Header</h2><br/>
<a4j:outputPanel id="msgPanel" ajaxRendered="true">
<h:messages styleClass="message"/>
</a4j:outputPanel>
<a4j:outputPanel id="mainPanel" ajaxRendered="true"><br/>
Select an item:<br/>
<h:selectOneMenu id="itemMenu" value="#{bean.itemId}">
<f:selectItem itemValue="-1" itemLabel="Please Select..."/>
<s:selectItems value="#{bean.item}" itemValue="#{item.id}" var="item" label="#{item.name}"/>
<a4j:support event="onchange" action="#{bean.selectItem}"/>
</h:selectOneMenu>
<rich:spacer width="10px"/>
<a4j:commandLink value="Create New" action="#{bean.createNew}"
rendered="#{bean.selectedItemId != 0}"/>
<h:outputText rendered="#{bean.selectedItemId gt -1}" value="Item Name: "/><br/>
<h:inputText rendered="#{bean.selectedItemId gt -1}" value="#{bean.selectedItem.name}" maxlength="50" size="75"/><br/><br/>
<a4j:commandButton value="Save New" action="#{bean.save}" rendered="#{bean.selectedItemId == 0}"/>
<a4j:commandButton value="Save Changes" action="#{bean.save}" rendered="#{bean.selectedItemId gt 0}" oncomplete="jsRerender();" />
<a4j:jsFunction name="jsRerender" rerender="mainPanel"/>
</a4j:outputPanel>
</h:form>
</f:view>
When creating new items, the new item does show up in the drop-down, but if I change the "name" attribute of my item and save, the label doesn't change to the new name until after the next request, despite the data in the bean having changed.
So I worked around it by forcing a second call to rerender again when saving changes is complete. The trouble is, this rerenders the messages panel as well, so I nuke any messages that may have been displayed. Using limitToList="true" in the a4j:jsFunction has the same effect as not calling it.
I need suggestions; either a new target for the rerender function, or another way of approaching the problem. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Try removing the oncomplete javascript and using reRender="mainPanel":
<a4j:commandButton value="Save Changes"
action="#{bean.save}"
rendered="#{bean.selectedItemId gt 0}"
reRender="mainPanel" />
In your version I think that "Save Changes" button without reRender attribute will rerenders all the page, thus refreshing the messages.