Get the selected values from a rich:select which is inside o a4j:repeat - ajax

Question

I am using a a4j:repeat control to iterate throughtout a Map<Object, List<MyType>> list. The XHTML page displays both h:outputText and rich:select controls.
I loop throughout a Map<String, List<Items>> instance, to show a master-detail tables. In the h:outputText I show the master description and the rich:select shows the detail.
The code is as follows:
customer.xhtml
<a4j:repeat value="#{masterManagedBean.listMasterItems.entrySet().toArray()}"
var="itemsVar">
<h:outputText value="#{itemsVar.key}" />
<rich:select enableManualInput="true">
<f:selectItems value="#{itemsVar.value}" id="itemsMenu"
var="itemsVarSelect"
itemLabel="#{itemsVarSelect.descriptionItems}"
itemValue="#{itemsVarSelect.idItems}" />
</rich:select>
</a4j:repeat>
This snippet works perfect. But, I don't have any idea how to gain the selected value from every rich:select generated by the repeater. Please guidance me to solve this issue.

Answer 1

Basically I would suggest not to use the datastructure Map<String,List> for the described case. Why not changing the Structure into a normal List of objects (List<SelectionObject>) with the SelectionObject-class holding:
name/label
possible values (as List or Array)
selected value
So the JSF code would look something like
<a4j:repeat value="#{masterManagedBean.listMasterItems}"
var="itemsVar">
<h:outputText value="#{itemsVar.label}" />
<rich:select enableManualInput="true" value="#{itemsVar.selectedValue}">
<f:selectItems value="#{itemsVar.possibleValues}" id="itemsMenu"
var="itemsVarSelect"
itemLabel="#{itemsVarSelect.descriptionItems}"
itemValue="#{itemsVarSelect.idItems}" />
</rich:select>
</a4j:repeat>
Any preparations/building for this object structure can be done e.g. in getListMasterItems (use some caching), the retrieval of the users data is done in the action of your submit-button, anyway. Just iterate through the list and read out the `selectedValue. If the answer is usable/helpful, please consider an upvote, confirm if it worked out for you.
Hope it helps...