UPDATE:
I found that the issue with the dataGrid not looping through a list inside a list was an issue on the XML code side. Now the dataGrid is reading the List and looping through it creating panels based on the name. The issue now seems to be accessing certain properties in this List.
<p:dataGrid value="#{objList.objList2}" var="objList2" columns="1">
<p:panel id="obj2" header="#{objList2.name}" toggleable="true" collapsed="false">
<h:panelGrid columns="2" style="width: 100%" columnClasses="scenario-viewer-leftcolumn,scenario-viewer-rightcolumn">
<h:outputText value="Output Name:" />
<p:inputText value="#{objList2.objType}" styleClass="textBoxStyle"/>
<h:outputText value="Output Bool:" />
<p:selectBooleanCheckbox value="#{objList2.boolVar}"/>
</h:panelGrid>
</p:panel>
</p:dataGrid>
</p:panel>
</p:dataGrid>
When I try to access a variable under objList2 is gives me the error saying The class obj2 does not have a readable property 'objType'. I double checked and it does have this property/variable and it is initialized.
What makes this even more strange is if I use objList2.boolVar in place of objList2.name in the header for each panel, it displays the information fine. This proves that the property exists and is initialized. Why wouldn't this work in inputText?? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
ORIGINAL:
I am working with PrimeFaces and trying to create a xhtml form for my UI. I am trying to dynamically display data from a list into a dataGrid structure. I am able to do this successfully, but I also need to display data from a list inside the first list.
For example:
I have a List under the variable objList which I use for my first dataGrid. I am able to loop through this list and create panels for each object and some other String data per object.
<p:dataGrid value="#{scenarioTree.objList}" var="objList" columns="1">
<p:panel id="obj" header="#{objList.name}" toggleable="true" collapsed="true">
<h:panelGrid columns="2" style="width: 100%" columnClasses="scenario-viewer-leftcolumn,scenario-viewer-rightcolumn">
<h:outputText value="text:" />
<p:inputText value="#{objList.variable}" styleClass="textBoxStyle"/>
<h:outputText value="text2:" />
<p:inputText value="#{objList.variable2}" styleClass="textBoxStyle"/>
</h:panelGrid>
Now I want to be able to create a second dataGrid that refers to objList2 which is inside objList1. Doing this though returns No records found in the UI even though there is a bunch of records there.
<p:dataGrid value="#{objList.objList2}" var="objList2" columns="1">
<p:panel id="obj2" header="#{objList2.name}" toggleable="true" collapsed="false">
</p:panel>
</p:dataGrid>
</p:panel>
</p:dataGrid>
Is this a bug with PrimeFaces or am I not able to do this? Or am I doing this wrong?
whenever we are talking about iterating list in xhtml we have dataTable,dataGrid, etc and panelGrid also becoz dataTable and all others are child of panelGrid(we can say this becoz panelGrid is also going to form table and others as well i meant child from this way) so in this case try to iterate the inner list in panelGrid since you are using panelGrid and referring variable is list so internally jsf is going to understand like this:
objList.get(i).getVariable();//For the first row
but according to your code it is understanding like this:
objList.getVariable();
which is not at all present so it is giving issue take out panel i don't find it's use and use like this:
<p:panelGrid value="#{objList}" var="obj">
//Access properties inside that
</p:panelGrid>
you can use <f:facet> tag if you want something in header
The following code is inspired from PrimeFaces DataGrid + DataTable Tutorials and put into a <p:tab> of a <p:tabView> residing in a <p:layoutUnit> of a <p:layout>. Here is the inner part of the code (starting from p:tab component); the outer part is trivial.
<p:tabView id="tabs">
<p:tab id="search" title="Search">
<h:form id="insTable">
<p:dataTable id="table" var="lndInstrument" value="#{instrumentBean.instruments}">
<p:column>
<p:commandLink id="select" update="insTable:display" oncomplete="dlg.show()">
<f:setPropertyActionListener value="#{lndInstrument}"
target="#{instrumentBean.selectedInstrument}" />
<h:outputText value="#{lndInstrument.name}" />
</p:commandLink>
</p:column>
</p:dataTable>
<p:dialog id="dlg" modal="true" widgetVar="dlg">
<h:panelGrid id="display">
<h:outputText value="Name:" />
<h:outputText value="#{instrumentBean.selectedInstrument.name}" />
</h:panelGrid>
</p:dialog>
</h:form>
</p:tab>
</p:tabView>
When I click the <p:commandLink>, the code stops working and gives the message:
Cannot find component with expression "insTable:display" referenced from "tabs:insTable:select".
When I try the same using <f:ajax>, then it fails with a different message basically telling the same:
<f:ajax> contains an unknown id "insTable:display" cannot locate it in the context of the component "tabs:insTable:select"
When it happens during another Ajax postback and the JSF project stage is set to Development, then it fails with a JavaScript alert with the message:
malformedXML: During update: insTable:display not found
How is this caused and how can I solve it?
Look in HTML output for actual client ID
You need to look in the generated HTML output to find out the right client ID. Open the page in browser, do a rightclick and View Source. Locate the HTML representation of the JSF component of interest and take its id as client ID. You can use it in an absolute or relative way depending on the current naming container. See following chapter.
Note: if it happens to contain iteration index like :0:, :1:, etc (because it's inside an iterating component), then you need to realize that updating a specific iteration round is not always supported. See bottom of answer for more detail on that.
Memorize NamingContainer components and always give them a fixed ID
If a component which you'd like to reference by ajax process/execute/update/render is inside the same NamingContainer parent, then just reference its own ID.
<h:form id="form">
<p:commandLink update="result"> <!-- OK! -->
<h:panelGroup id="result" />
</h:form>
If it's not inside the same NamingContainer, then you need to reference it using an absolute client ID. An absolute client ID starts with the NamingContainer separator character, which is by default :.
<h:form id="form">
<p:commandLink update="result"> <!-- FAIL! -->
</h:form>
<h:panelGroup id="result" />
<h:form id="form">
<p:commandLink update=":result"> <!-- OK! -->
</h:form>
<h:panelGroup id="result" />
<h:form id="form">
<p:commandLink update=":result"> <!-- FAIL! -->
</h:form>
<h:form id="otherform">
<h:panelGroup id="result" />
</h:form>
<h:form id="form">
<p:commandLink update=":otherform:result"> <!-- OK! -->
</h:form>
<h:form id="otherform">
<h:panelGroup id="result" />
</h:form>
NamingContainer components are for example <h:form>, <h:dataTable>, <p:tabView>, <cc:implementation> (thus, all composite components), etc. You recognize them easily by looking at the generated HTML output, their ID will be prepended to the generated client ID of all child components. Note that when they don't have a fixed ID, then JSF will use an autogenerated ID in j_idXXX format. You should absolutely avoid that by giving them a fixed ID. The OmniFaces NoAutoGeneratedIdViewHandler may be helpful in this during development.
If you know to find the javadoc of the UIComponent in question, then you can also just check in there whether it implements the NamingContainer interface or not. For example, the HtmlForm (the UIComponent behind <h:form> tag) shows it implements NamingContainer, but the HtmlPanelGroup (the UIComponent behind <h:panelGroup> tag) does not show it, so it does not implement NamingContainer. Here is the javadoc of all standard components and here is the javadoc of PrimeFaces.
Solving your problem
So in your case of:
<p:tabView id="tabs"><!-- This is a NamingContainer -->
<p:tab id="search"><!-- This is NOT a NamingContainer -->
<h:form id="insTable"><!-- This is a NamingContainer -->
<p:dialog id="dlg"><!-- This is NOT a NamingContainer -->
<h:panelGrid id="display">
The generated HTML output of <h:panelGrid id="display"> looks like this:
<table id="tabs:insTable:display">
You need to take exactly that id as client ID and then prefix with : for usage in update:
<p:commandLink update=":tabs:insTable:display">
Referencing outside include/tagfile/composite
If this command link is inside an include/tagfile, and the target is outside it, and thus you don't necessarily know the ID of the naming container parent of the current naming container, then you can dynamically reference it via UIComponent#getNamingContainer() like so:
<p:commandLink update=":#{component.namingContainer.parent.namingContainer.clientId}:display">
Or, if this command link is inside a composite component and the target is outside it:
<p:commandLink update=":#{cc.parent.namingContainer.clientId}:display">
Or, if both the command link and target are inside same composite component:
<p:commandLink update=":#{cc.clientId}:display">
See also Get id of parent naming container in template for in render / update attribute
How does it work under the covers
This all is specified as "search expression" in the UIComponent#findComponent() javadoc:
A search expression consists of either an identifier (which is matched exactly against the id property of a UIComponent, or a series of such identifiers linked by the UINamingContainer#getSeparatorChar character value. The search algorithm should operates as follows, though alternate alogrithms may be used as long as the end result is the same:
Identify the UIComponent that will be the base for searching, by stopping as soon as one of the following conditions is met:
If the search expression begins with the the separator character (called an "absolute" search expression), the base will be the root UIComponent of the component tree. The leading separator character will be stripped off, and the remainder of the search expression will be treated as a "relative" search expression as described below.
Otherwise, if this UIComponent is a NamingContainer it will serve as the basis.
Otherwise, search up the parents of this component. If a NamingContainer is encountered, it will be the base.
Otherwise (if no NamingContainer is encountered) the root UIComponent will be the base.
The search expression (possibly modified in the previous step) is now a "relative" search expression that will be used to locate the component (if any) that has an id that matches, within the scope of the base component. The match is performed as follows:
If the search expression is a simple identifier, this value is compared to the id property, and then recursively through the facets and children of the base UIComponent (except that if a descendant NamingContainer is found, its own facets and children are not searched).
If the search expression includes more than one identifier separated by the separator character, the first identifier is used to locate a NamingContainer by the rules in the previous bullet point. Then, the findComponent() method of this NamingContainer will be called, passing the remainder of the search expression.
Note that PrimeFaces also adheres the JSF spec, but RichFaces uses "some additional exceptions".
"reRender" uses UIComponent.findComponent() algorithm (with some additional exceptions) to find the component in the component tree.
Those additional exceptions are nowhere in detail described, but it's known that relative component IDs (i.e. those not starting with :) are not only searched in the context of the closest parent NamingContainer, but also in all other NamingContainer components in the same view (which is a relatively expensive job by the way).
Never use prependId="false"
If this all still doesn't work, then verify if you aren't using <h:form prependId="false">. This will fail during processing the ajax submit and render. See also this related question: UIForm with prependId="false" breaks <f:ajax render>.
Referencing specific iteration round of iterating components
It was for long time not possible to reference a specific iterated item in iterating components like <ui:repeat> and <h:dataTable> like so:
<h:form id="form">
<ui:repeat id="list" value="#{['one','two','three']}" var="item">
<h:outputText id="item" value="#{item}" /><br/>
</ui:repeat>
<h:commandButton value="Update second item">
<f:ajax render=":form:list:1:item" />
</h:commandButton>
</h:form>
However, since Mojarra 2.2.5 the <f:ajax> started to support it (it simply stopped validating it; thus you would never face the in the question mentioned exception anymore; another enhancement fix is planned for that later).
This only doesn't work yet in current MyFaces 2.2.7 and PrimeFaces 5.2 versions. The support might come in the future versions. In the meanwhile, your best bet is to update the iterating component itself, or a parent in case it doesn't render HTML, like <ui:repeat>.
When using PrimeFaces, consider Search Expressions or Selectors
PrimeFaces Search Expressions allows you to reference components via JSF component tree search expressions. JSF has several builtin:
#this: current component
#form: parent UIForm
#all: entire document
#none: nothing
PrimeFaces has enhanced this with new keywords and composite expression support:
#parent: parent component
#namingcontainer: parent UINamingContainer
#widgetVar(name): component as identified by given widgetVar
You can also mix those keywords in composite expressions such as #form:#parent, #this:#parent:#parent, etc.
PrimeFaces Selectors (PFS) as in #(.someclass) allows you to reference components via jQuery CSS selector syntax. E.g. referencing components having all a common style class in the HTML output. This is particularly helpful in case you need to reference "a lot of" components. This only prerequires that the target components have all a client ID in the HTML output (fixed or autogenerated, doesn't matter). See also How do PrimeFaces Selectors as in update="#(.myClass)" work?
first of all: as far as i know placing dialog inside a tabview is a bad practice... you better take it out...
and now to your question:
sorry, took me some time to get what exactly you wanted to implement,
did at my web app myself just now, and it works
as I sayed before place the p:dialog out side the `p:tabView ,
leave the p:dialog as you initially suggested :
<p:dialog modal="true" widgetVar="dlg">
<h:panelGrid id="display">
<h:outputText value="Name:" />
<h:outputText value="#{instrumentBean.selectedInstrument.name}" />
</h:panelGrid>
</p:dialog>
and the p:commandlink should look like this (all i did is to change the update attribute)
<p:commandLink update="display" oncomplete="dlg.show()">
<f:setPropertyActionListener value="#{lndInstrument}"
target="#{instrumentBean.selectedInstrument}" />
<h:outputText value="#{lndInstrument.name}" />
</p:commandLink>
the same works in my web app, and if it does not work for you , then i guess there is something wrong in your java bean code...
It's because the tab is a naming container aswell... your update should be update="Search:insTable:display" What you can do aswell is just place your dialog outside the form and still inside the tab then it would be: update="Search:display"
Please note that from PrimeFaces 10 and up, you are able to use observer and event.
This allows you to update components based on a custom event name, set by the #obs(event) keyword. For example:
<p:commandButton update="#obs(myEvent)"/>
<h:panelGroup>
<p:autoUpdate on="myEvent"/>
</h:panelGroup>
See:
https://www.primefaces.org/showcase/ui/ajax/observer.xhtml
I know this already has a great answer by BalusC but here is a little trick I use to get the container to tell me the correct clientId.
Remove the update on your component that is not working
Put a temporary component with a bogus update within the component you were trying to update
hit the page, the servlet exception error will tell you the correct client Id you need to reference.
Remove bogus component and put correct clientId in the original update
Here is code example as my words may not describe it best.
<p:tabView id="tabs">
<p:tab id="search" title="Search">
<h:form id="insTable">
<p:dataTable id="table" var="lndInstrument" value="#{instrumentBean.instruments}">
<p:column>
<p:commandLink id="select"
Remove the failing update within this component
oncomplete="dlg.show()">
<f:setPropertyActionListener value="#{lndInstrument}"
target="#{instrumentBean.selectedInstrument}" />
<h:outputText value="#{lndInstrument.name}" />
</p:commandLink>
</p:column>
</p:dataTable>
<p:dialog id="dlg" modal="true" widgetVar="dlg">
<h:panelGrid id="display">
Add a component within the component of the id you are trying to update using an update that will fail
<p:commandButton id="BogusButton" update="BogusUpdate"></p:commandButton>
<h:outputText value="Name:" />
<h:outputText value="#{instrumentBean.selectedInstrument.name}" />
</h:panelGrid>
</p:dialog>
</h:form>
</p:tab>
</p:tabView>
Hit this page and view the error.
The error is:
javax.servlet.ServletException: Cannot find component for expression "BogusUpdate" referenced from
tabs:insTable: BogusButton
So the correct clientId to use would then be the bold plus the id of the target container (display in this case)
tabs:insTable:display
Try change update="insTable:display" to update="display". I believe you cannot prefix the id with the form ID like that.
Inside a dynamic="true", cache"false" p:tabview I have dynamically generated content with form. It seems that form IDs are not accessible to elements outside this tabview (in another form). Have tried finding with firebug IDs with all prepending and nothing.
you have to add the ID of the tabview (not the tab id) before the id of the form, like this
:tabViewId:formId
But first assign an ID to the tabview, so it's not autogenerated.
<p:tabView id="tab" dynamic="true" cache="false">
<p:tab>
<h:form id="myForm">
...
</h:form>
</p:tab>
</p:tabView>
In this example, the ID of the form is :tab:myForm
dwelling over how to partial render (divs), by including different source files (with panels and components). Depending on menu actions. If understood the JSF phases correctly, the View is rebuilt during the Render Response, the last phase. And if I have events and actions, they will be invoked during the Invoke Application phase, the phase before.
All I want to do is to set the including xhtml page for a specific menu command via ajax, before the View is re-rendered. But the ui:include always get invoked before the menu action. I've tried with richfaces 4 (a4j:param, rich:panel, etc) and standard JSF 2.0 (f:param, h:panelGroup) components, but the the ui:include always get invoked before the action.
What should I do to process the menu action (to set the including page), before the ui:include gets invoked?
PS. This must be the standard patter, instead of including static content. But I find very few examples on this on the net ?!
Menu.xhtml
<rich:toolbar itemSeparator="line">
...
<rich:dropDownMenu mode="ajax">
<f:facet name="label">
<h:panelGroup>
<h:outputText value="Menu 1" />
</h:panelGroup>
</f:facet>
<rich:menuItem id="newActivityMenu" action="#{navigationBean.menuAction}" render="content" label="New">
<a4j:param id="newActivityParam" name="includeContentPage" value="/user/Create.xhtml" />
</rich:menuItem>
...
NavigationBean.Java
#ManagedBean
#RequestScoped
public class NavigationBean {
public String menuAction() {
String param = JsfUtil.getRequestParameter("includeContentPage");
this.includedContentPage = param;
JsfUtil.log(this, "Including Content Page : " +param);
FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().renderResponse();
return "";
}
public String getIncludedContentPage() {
if(includedContentPage == null)
return "";
else if(!includedContentPage.endsWith(".xhtml"))
includedContentPage += ".xhtml";
JsfUtil.log(this, "Get Content Page : " +includedContentPage);
return includedContentPage;
}
layoutClient.xhtml
...
<ui:define name="top">
<ui:include src="/resources/viewComponents/menuTop.xhtml"/>
</ui:define>
<ui:define name="content">
<ui:include src="#{navigationBean.includedContentPage}"/>
</ui:define>
...
masterLayout.xhtml (added)
...
<h:body>
<div id="top" >
<ui:insert name="top">Top Default</ui:insert>
</div>
<div id="left">
<ui:insert name="left">Left Default</ui:insert>
</div>
<ui:insert name="content">Content Default</ui:insert>
</h:body>
..
You must have a template page as well since you are defining top and content in layoutClient.xhtml so I think you are trying to be too general with the layoutClient.xhtml page as it appears to be functioning as a template as well. Lets assume your template page is called template.xhtml. The standard pattern you eluded to is to make your template page something like this:
template.xhtml
...
<ui:insert name="top">
<ui:include src="/resources/viewComponents/menuTop.xhtml"/>
</ui:insert>
...
<ui:insert name="content" />
...
This means that all your pages contain the menu at the 'top' (by default, they can override this) and that they must specify their own content, which makes sense.
Now, instead of trying to make a page like layoutClient.xhtml that does tricky stuff to determine which content is inserted, create each page seperately like this:
page1.xhtml
<ui:composition template="template.xhtml">
...
<ui:define name="content">
<p>This is a page that defines some content and also includes my menu that it inherits from template.xhtml</p>
</ui:define>
...
</ui:composition>
page2.xhtml
<ui:composition template="template.xhtml">
...
<ui:define name="content">
<p>This is another page that defines some content and also includes my menu that it inherits from template.xhtml</p>
</ui:define>
...
</ui:composition>
Both of these pages inherit your menu and put the content in the appropriate place.
With that kind of configuration, all your menuAction() method needs to do is return a link to page1.xhtml or page2.xhtml. Also, you don't need any complex use of parameters or manual calls to renderResponse() or a4j:param tags!
EDIT
Cant seem to get rendered to work correctly with update attributes. Here is my codes
<ui:define name="left">
<h:form>
<p:commandLink value="Hey"
actionListener="#{bean.setRenderComment}"
update="comment"/>
</h:form>
</ui:define>
<ui:define name="right">
<h:panelGroup id="comment" rendered="#{bean.renderComment}">
hello
</h:panelGroup>
</ui:define>
renderComment is a boolean attributes inside bean. setRenderComment basically toggle the state of renderComment like this
this.renderComment = !this.renderComment;
Right, every time I click on the link Hey, I need to refresh to either render hello on or off. How can I fix it, so that I dont need to refresh
I am not using Primefaces but Richfaces on my projects. So I am not really aware on how the refresh process is done by Primefaces. However, I have an idea that can be tested easily.
Your problem may be due to the fact that the component to re-render (i.e. update) is not found on the HTML page. If your rendered attribute is equals to false, then the <SPAN> with comment id is not integrated in the HTML page generated. Thus, when the Ajax request is received on the client side, the Ajax engine is not able to refresh this <SPAN> as it is not found.
So what you can do is to always render your panelGroup and move your rendered attribute to a nested <h:outputText> that contains the Hello message.
Here is what I am suggesting:
<h:panelGroup id="comment">
<h:outputText value="Hello" rendered="#{bean.renderComment}"/>
</h:panelGroup>
This way, the panelGroup will always be refreshed after the Ajax call, and it will contain the Hello message or not, regarding the value of the renderComment attribute of your bean.
Since the component with the ID comment isn't one of the form's (an UINamingContainer component) children, you need to prefix the ID with : to instruct JSF to scan from the "upper level".
This should do:
<p:commandLink value="Hey"
actionListener="#{bean.setRenderComment}"
update=":comment" />