AjaxBehaviorEvent from f:ajax inside p:selectOneMenu is sometimes null - ajax

I am currently observing a really weird behaviour in the server-side callback of an ajax call from a value change event. Basically, I have a list of p:selectOneMenus on my page and want to make some decisions based on what was selected where. This is the jsf:
<p:outputLabel value="Provider:"/>
<p:selectOneMenu id="bacc_ba_check" value="#{bean.baCheck}" style="width:20em" styleClass="bigDefaultEnabled" disabled="#{controller.readOnlyUser}">
<f:selectItem itemLabel="none" itemValue=""/>
<f:selectItems value="#{bean.baCheckStrings}" />
<f:ajax listener="#{controller.providerChanged}" render="providerlist RPPPanel" onevent="reapplyDefaults" immediate="true"/>
</p:selectOneMenu>
And this is the callback in the controller:
public void providerChanged(AjaxBehaviorEvent event) {
// check for value
if ("Someval".equalsIgnoreCase(...)) {
this.setSomething(true);
} else {
this.setSomething(false);
}
The confusing part is the following: The event is always NULL when I select something else than none from the selectOneMenu. If I reselect 'none' after having selected something else before, the event is correctly set. In the callback, I want to check what the source of the event is so I can set some defaults elsewhere. Does anyone have an idea what could cause this strange behaviour? I really need to know which component fired the event at all times, especially when someone select a non-null value in a dropdown.
Thanks for help or any hints.
(JSF 2.1.7 Mojarra with Primefaces 4.0)

Related

SelectOneMenu fire ajax when up or down arrow key is pressed

I need to fire an ajax call when i hit the up arrow key or the down arrow key when im focused on the selectOneMenu.
Here is my code, i tried only with the up key first (Its not working, and i tried several variations)
<h:selectOneMenu id="id" disabled="#!Bean.disabled}" value="#{Bean.value}" styleClass="style" onkeypress="if (event.keyCode == 38) { onchange(); return false; }">
<f:selectItems id="idItem" value="#{Bean.options}" var="option" />
<f:ajax event="change" execute="#this" render="group"/>
</h:selectOneMenu>
Hint: Tab key is firing it and moving the focus (if the value changed). I dont want the tab key firing it.
Just change the event of your f:ajax to keyup, the change event will not send any ajax request unless your selectOneMenu loses focus (that's also confirmed by your hint "Tab key is firing it and moving the focus ").
That will work like this:
<f:ajax event="keyup" execute="#this" render="group"/>
Update:
I updated my answer following BalusC's comment that the you want the ajax request to be fired only if the up Key or down Key are fired, so i am suggesting you to invoke directly the javascript function that f:ajax calls behind the scenes, So you can add a direct call to jsf.ajax.request(source, event, options) function, you can find more informations about that function here.
In order to use that method you must add the JSF’s built-in JavaScript library in your XHTML files like this:
<h:outputScript library="javax.faces" name="jsf.js"/>
Then change your code like this:
<h:selectOneMenu id="id" disabled="#!Bean.disabled}" value="#{Bean.value}" styleClass="style"
onkeyup="if (event.keyCode == 38 || event.keyCode == 40) { jsf.ajax.request(this, event, { render: 'form:group'}); return false;}">
<f:selectItems id="idItem" value="#{Bean.options}" var="option" />
</h:selectOneMenu>
NB: Please notice that in the render option of the jsf.ajax.request() i specified the exact ClientID of the component you want to render and not only the component id (form is here the id of h:form), if you want to use only the id group you must add prependId="false" to your h:form.

SelectOneMenu set to null when updating p:panelGrid

I am having a problem, I am firing a ajax event in a selectOneMenu like this: the first one does not fire any event
<p:selectOneMenu id="IdSelectOne" value="#{MB.myentity.myValue}" converter="myConverter1">
.....
</p:selectOneMenu>
<p:selectOneMenu id="IdSelectTwo" converter="myConverter2">
<p:ajax event="change" process="#this" partialSubmit="true"
listener="#{MB.ChangeOption}" update="creatPanel" >
</p:ajax>
</p:selectOneMenu>
The problem is that when the ajax event updates the panel, the first SelectOneMenu sets tu null, i can't use #form because it validates all fields and never do what I need which is show a field based on the selection of the second SelectOneMenu, is there a way to avoid this problem to happend?
This is my backing bean:
public void ChangeOption(AjaxBehaviorEvent event){
.....
}
I solved it by updating just the element I needed and not the complete panel, Thanks

selectOneMenu ajax events

I am using an editable primefaces selectOneMenu to display some values. If the user selects an item from the List a textarea should be updated. However, if the user types something in the selectOneMenu, the textarea should not be updated.
I thought I could work this with ajax event out. However, I don't know which event I can use here. I only know the valueChange event. Are there any other events, like onSelect or onKeyUp?
Here is my code:
<p:selectOneMenu id="betreff" style="width: 470px !important;"
editable="true" value="#{post.aktNachricht.subject}">
<p:ajax event="valueChange" update="msgtext"
listener="#{post.subjectSelectionChanged}" />
<f:selectItems value="#{post.subjectList}" />
</p:selectOneMenu>
<p:inputTextarea style="width:550px;" rows="15" id="msgtext"
value="#{post.aktNachricht.text}" />
The PrimeFaces ajax events sometimes are very poorly documented, so in most cases you must go to the source code and check yourself.
p:selectOneMenu supports change event:
<p:selectOneMenu ..>
<p:ajax event="change" update="msgtext"
listener="#{post.subjectSelectionChanged}" />
<!--...-->
</p:selectOneMenu>
which triggers listener with AjaxBehaviorEvent as argument in signature:
public void subjectSelectionChanged(final AjaxBehaviorEvent event) {...}
I'd rather use more convenient itemSelect event. With this event you can use org.primefaces.event.SelectEvent objects in your listener.
<p:selectOneMenu ...>
<p:ajax event="itemSelect"
update="messages"
listener="#{beanMB.onItemSelectedListener}"/>
</p:selectOneMenu>
With such listener:
public void onItemSelectedListener(SelectEvent event){
MyItem selectedItem = (MyItem) event.getObject();
//do something with selected value
}
Be carefull that the page does not contain any empty component which has "required" attribute as "true" before your selectOneMenu component running.
If you use a component such as
<p:inputText label="Nm:" id="id_name" value="#{ myHelper.name}" required="true"/>
then,
<p:selectOneMenu .....></p:selectOneMenu>
and forget to fill the required component, ajax listener of selectoneMenu cannot be executed.
You could check whether the value of your selectOneMenu component belongs to the list of subjects.
Namely:
public void subjectSelectionChanged() {
// Cancel if subject is manually written
if (!subjectList.contains(aktNachricht.subject)) { return; }
// Write your code here in case the user selected (or wrote) an item of the list
// ....
}
Supposedly subjectList is a collection type, like ArrayList. Of course here your code will run in case the user writes an item of your selectOneMenu list.

When to use valueChangeListener or f:ajax listener?

What's the difference between the following two pieces of code - with regards to listener placement?
<h:selectOneMenu ...>
<f:selectItems ... />
<f:ajax listener="#{bean.listener}" />
</h:selectOneMenu>
and
<h:selectOneMenu ... valueChangeListener="#{bean.listener}">
<f:selectItems ... />
</h:selectOneMenu>
The valueChangeListener will only be invoked when the form is submitted and the submitted value is different from the initial value. It's thus not invoked when only the HTML DOM change event is fired. If you would like to submit the form during the HTML DOM change event, then you'd need to add another <f:ajax/> without a listener(!) to the input component. It will cause a form submit which processes only the current component (as in execute="#this").
<h:selectOneMenu value="#{bean.value}" valueChangeListener="#{bean.changeListener}">
<f:selectItems ... />
<f:ajax />
</h:selectOneMenu>
When using <f:ajax listener> instead of valueChangeListener, it would by default executed during the HTML DOM change event already. Inside UICommand components and input components representing a checkbox or radiobutton, it would be by default executed during the HTML DOM click event only.
<h:selectOneMenu value="#{bean.value}">
<f:selectItems ... />
<f:ajax listener="#{bean.ajaxListener}" />
</h:selectOneMenu>
Another major difference is that the valueChangeListener method is invoked during the end of the PROCESS_VALIDATIONS phase. At that moment, the submitted value is not been updated in the model yet. So you cannot get it by just accessing the bean property which is bound to the input component's value. You need to get it by ValueChangeEvent#getNewValue(). The old value is by the way also available by ValueChangeEvent#getOldValue().
public void changeListener(ValueChangeEvent event) {
Object oldValue = event.getOldValue();
Object newValue = event.getNewValue();
// ...
}
The <f:ajax listener> method is invoked during INVOKE_APPLICATION phase. At that moment, the submitted value is already been updated in the model. You can just get it by directly accessing the bean property which is bound to the input component's value.
private Object value; // +getter+setter.
public void ajaxListener(AjaxBehaviorEvent event) {
System.out.println(value); // Look, (new) value is already set.
}
Also, if you would need to update another property based on the submitted value, then it would fail when you're using valueChangeListener as the updated property can be overridden by the submitted value during the subsequent UPDATE_MODEL_VALUES phase. That's exactly why you see in old JSF 1.x applications/tutorials/resources that a valueChangeListener is in such construct been used in combination with immediate="true" and FacesContext#renderResponse() to prevent that from happening. After all, using the valueChangeListener to execute business actions has actually always been a hack/workaround.
Summarized: Use the valueChangeListener only if you need to intercept on the actual value change itself. I.e. you're actually interested in both the old and the new value (e.g. to log them).
public void changeListener(ValueChangeEvent event) {
changeLogger.log(event.getOldValue(), event.getNewValue());
}
Use the <f:ajax listener> only if you need to execute a business action on the newly changed value. I.e. you're actually interested in only the new value (e.g. to populate a second dropdown).
public void ajaxListener(AjaxBehaviorEvent event) {
selectItemsOfSecondDropdown = populateItBasedOn(selectedValueOfFirstDropdown);
}
If you're actually also interested in the old value while executing a business action, then fall back to valueChangeListener, but queue it to the INVOKE_APPLICATION phase.
public void changeListener(ValueChangeEvent event) {
if (event.getPhaseId() != PhaseId.INVOKE_APPLICATION) {
event.setPhaseId(PhaseId.INVOKE_APPLICATION);
event.queue();
return;
}
Object oldValue = event.getOldValue();
Object newValue = event.getNewValue();
System.out.println(newValue.equals(value)); // true
// ...
}
for the first fragment (ajax listener attribute):
The "listener" attribute of an ajax tag is a method that is called on the server side every time the ajax function happens on the client side. For instance, you could use this attribute to specify a server side function to call every time the user pressed a key
but the second fragment (valueChangeListener) :
The ValueChangeListener will only be called when the form is submitted, not when the value of the input is changed
*you might like to view this handy answer

JSF f:ajax listener not called

I am trying to have an h:inputText switch out with a different one when an h:commandButton is clicked. To do this, I am trying to tie an f:ajax command with the h:commandButton, with the listener setting a value on the bean (deciding which one to display), and re-rendering the area.
I have tried using listener on the f:ajax, actionListener on the h:commandButton, action on the h:commandButton with execute on the f:ajax. Nothing worked. The mothed I am trying to call is not being called at all - there is no println (see what follows).
The panelGroup is being re-rendered, which is why I need the onevent attribute that re-attaches some JavaScript hint text based on the title (I had an earlier question involving this).
The method I am trying to call:
public void morePressed(AjaxBehaviorEvent e) {
easySearch = !easySearch;
System.out.println("Made it!");
}
The JSF segment that is not working (note the last h:commandButton is trying to re-render the panelGroup):
<h:form>
<h:panelGroup id="switchSearchTexts">
<h:inputText accesskey="s" alt="Search" id="searchBoxPeople" title="Search Plebeians" valueChangeListener="#{peopleBean.simplePersonQuery}" size="25" rendered="#{peopleBean.easySearch}">
<f:ajax render="peopleDataTable" event="keyup" />
</h:inputText>
<h:inputText accesskey="s" alt="Search First Name" id="searchBoxFN" title="Search First Name" size="25" rendered="#{!peopleBean.easySearch}">
<f:ajax render="peopleDataTable" event="keyup" />
</h:inputText>
</h:panelGroup>
<div id="expandBox">
<h:inputText id="searchBoxLN" alt="Search Last Name" styleClass="hideToggle" title="Search Last Name" size="25" />
<h:inputText id="searchBoxAddress" alt="Search Address" styleClass="hideToggle" title="Search Address" size="25" />
</div>
<h:commandButton type="button" styleClass="moreButtonAsText" id="moreButtonAsText" value="▸More">
<f:ajax listener="#{peopleBean.morePressed}" render="switchSearchTexts" event="click" onevent="callFunctionAjaxRequest" />
</h:commandButton>
This is the JavaScript (jQuery) that I attach to the More button on pageload. I give it not because I think it could help, but I don't know if this could interfere with the ajax listener in any way:
$(function() {
textboxHint();
$('input[id$="moreButtonAsText"]').toggle(function(e) {
$(this).prop('value', '\u25c2Less');
$(".hideToggle").show(300);
}
, function () {
$(this).prop('value', '\u25b8More');
$(".hideToggle").hide(100);
$('input[id$="searchBoxAddress"]').prop('value', function() {
return $(this).prop('title');
});
$('input[id$="searchBoxAddress"]').blur();
});
});
I have no idea. As I said, I have tried actionListener on h:commandButton with various appraoches there, as well as various approaches to the listener on the ajax. Can anybody see why the listener does not work?
Update:
What I ended up doing, before having an answer, is converting everything to display and hide based on JavaScript, with stuff I needed hidden if they didn't have javascript initially hidden, etc.
However I need the f:ajax elsewhere, now.
The solution is to take out event="click" on the h:commandButton. I still do now know why this was causing it to break, but hey, whatever works.
I had an issue like this. It turned out that an inputText somewhere had a value="#{something.something}" where the property wasn't settable. The exception wasn't being reported anywhere. I had to put a breakpoint on Exception and all subclasses to find it.
Do you really have a function named callFunctionAjaxRequest in your js code? cause if not it may cause the button not to work (because its being referenced to a not existing function) ,
look at the firebug for a possible errors...
try this version of your command button (event="click" can be removed too... and self execute too)
<h:commandButton type="button" styleClass="moreButtonAsText" id="moreButtonAsText" value="More">
<f:ajax listener="#{peopleBean.morePressed}" render="switchSearchTexts" />
</h:commandButton>
Another thing , in your ajax calls of the upper input texts you got reference to searchBoxPeople twice (instead to searchBoxFN in the second f:ajax), fix it cause otherwise when working with searchBoxFN its f:ajax will try to execute an element that its not being rendered ... (can cause serious issues...)
p.s prependId="false" in your h:form will simplify your selectors in jQuery...
The issue is that the managed bean needs to be set up with the right signature event as an input param. Through lots of testing, I was trying to use the same class taking an AjaxBehaviorEvent. As in the same example on the previous forum.
when I declared an ActionListener event (compliant with the button jsf action), the bean is executed!
I had the same problem and followed your example to help me exactly. I simply (20 hrs) fixed this by including the following in my bean:
The first one now gets fired!
public void actionListener(ActionEvent actionEvent) {
// Add event code here...
System.out.println("Made it!");
}
public void morePressed(AjaxBehaviorEvent e) {
System.out.println("Made it!");
}

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