p:pickList not fetching data after pressing p:commandButton - spring

Question

I have a users list page which holds the users in a p:dataTable and in each row I have an update button that shows a p:dialog popup.
The page and the dialog is managed in view scope (implemented in Spring).
When I press the editUserButton in the main page the popup appears with all data and then I type an invalid string into the fields email and username. The validation message appears, but the picklist is not populated with any value.
What could be the problem?
This is the main page (users list) snippet code:
<ui:composition>
<f:view id="bodyView">
<div id="content_body">
<ui:include src="editUserDialog.xhtml"/>
<h:form id="usersListForm">
<table width="85%" align="center">
<tr>
<td>
<p:dataTable id="usersList" var="user"
value="#{usersController.usersList}"
selectionMode="single"
rowKey="#{user.userId}">
<p:columnGroup type="header">
<p:row>
...
<p:column rowspan="2" headerText="Users"/>
...
</p:row>
</p:columnGroup>
...
<p:column id="users" >
<p:commandLink id="editUserButton" oncomplete="addEditUserConfirmation.show()" actionListener="#{addEditUserController.selectionListener}"
update=":addEditCustomerDialogForm:dialogContent">
<f:attribute value="#{user}" name="selectedUser" />
</p:commandLink>
</p:column>
</p:dataTable>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<br/>
</h:form>
</div>
</f:view>
This is the p:dialog code:
<ui:composition>
<h:form id="addEditUserDialogForm">
<p:dialog id="addEditUserDialog" severity="alert" widgetVar="addEditUserConfirmation" draggable="true" modal="true"
resizable="false" >
<p:outputPanel id="dialogContent">
<div>
<table cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<td>
<p:inputText value="#{addEditUserController.addEditCustomerBean.userName}"
maxlength="250" size="50" label="user name" id="userName">
<f:validator validatorId="UsernameValidator"/>
</p:inputText>
<p:message for="userName"/>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p:inputText value="#{addEditUserController.addEditCustomerBean.email}"
maxlength="50" size="50" label="E-mail" id="email">
<f:validator validatorId="EmailValidator"/>
</p:inputText>
<p:message for="email"/>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<table cellpadding="5">
<tr>
<td>
<p:pickList id="customersList" iconOnly="true"
value="#{addEditUserController.customersList}" var="customer"
itemValue="#{customer.value}" itemLabel="#{customer.label}"/>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div>
<div align="right">
<p:commandButton value="#{isNewUser ? 'add' : 'update'}" id="updateUserButton"
actionListener="#{addEditUserController.persistUser}"
update="dialogContent"
styleClass="fiftyone-default-button"
oncomplete="handleRequest(xhr, status, args)"/>
</div>
</p:outputPanel>
</p:dialog>
</h:form>
<script type="text/javascript">
function handleRequest(xhr, status, args) {
if(!(args.validationFailed && args.validationFailed == true)) {
addEditUserConfirmation.hide();
}
}
</script>
This is the backing bean code:
import org.primefaces.model.DualListModel;
import javax.annotation.PostConstruct;
import javax.faces.event.ActionEvent;
import java.util.List;
public class AddEditUserController {
private AddEditCustomerBean addEditCustomerBean;
private DualListModel<LabelValueBean> customersList;
// ... constructor getters and setters
public void selectionListener(ActionEvent event) throws Exception {
selectedUser = event.getComponent().getAttributes().get("selectedUser");
// some code
AddEditCustomerBean = new AddEditCustomerBean();
// some code
customersList = getSomeCustomersDualListModel()
}
public void persistUser() throws Exception {
// save user to DB
}
}

Answer 1

First thing I'd do would be to make sure that the method selectionListener is being called (either put a break-point on it or print something and check in the console later).
If it is, you must check if the variable customersList is being updated correctly, if it's not, you probably have a problem with bean scoping.
In your sample code it isn't clear how you are setting the scope for the backing bean, so I assume you're doing it on Spring's XML config file.
Make sure you really have the backing bean in the view scope, by inspecting the contents of the view map: FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getViewRoot().getViewMap().
Hope it helps!

Answer 2

This is an old question, but I also encountered this issue recently, and now being helpless. Let's see the p:pickList:
<td>
<p:pickList id="customersList" iconOnly="true"
value="#{addEditUserController.customersList}" var="customer"
itemValue="#{customer.value}" itemLabel="#{customer.label}"/>
</td>
We know the [var="customer"] is an iterator, but when validation error happens, this var is assigned to String type, it's odd. When you close this popup then re-populate it again, you will get an error, messages like this: no property label(value) on type of String... the customer var now is a String, so it has no value nor label property.
For now, I use a tricky way, it won't work out always, it depends on your code:
Assume that the value and label are unique, set customersList type of List String, customersList binds the label, find the value of the label when submit at the backend; Why this way can avoid re-populate exception, that's because the iterator is always type of String, no matter validation error occurs or not.
Hope this can help the need.