JSF: Accessing Bean from Validator via field

Question

I have a JSF validator that checks whether a Container Number string conforms to the ISO-6346 specficiation.

It works fine, however I need to add some conditional p

Answer 1

You can use the following to get any old bean you like using the FacesContext. Very similar to the solution you found.

public void validate(FacesContext context, UIComponent component, Object value)
{
    Application app = context.getApplication();

    ValueExpression expression = app.getExpressionFactory().createValueExpression( context.getELContext(),
            "#{thingoBean}", Object.class );

    ThingoBean thingoBean = (ThingoBean) expression.getValue( context.getELContext() );
}

Answer 2

Using the <f:attribute> you can pass a Bean to the validator and retrieve it from the component as a value expression.

So my input is like this (must be using <f:validator> and not the validator attribute on the <h:inputText>) :

<h:inputText id="containerNum" size="20" maxlength="20" value="#{containerStockAction.containerStock.containerNumber}">
    <f:validator validatorId="containerNumberValidator" />
    <f:attribute name="containerBean" value="#{containerStockAction.containerStock}"/>
</h:inputText>

And my validator class:

public void validate(FacesContext context, UIComponent component, Object value) throws ValidatorException {
  String containerNumber = (String)value;
  Object containerBean = component.getValueExpression("containerBean").getValue(context.getELContext());

  if(containerBean instanceof BeanA) {
    //do this
  }