JSF a4j:support with h:selectManyCheckbox

Question

I'm having trouble with a JSF selectManyCheckbox and A4J support. The purpose is to run some action when a checkbox is selected. This works perfectly in Firefox. Yet, when testing in any IE (ie6 / ie7 / ie8), found out that the action was being called but the selected value was put to null. Just to test it, I placed a JSF commandButton to submit the form and to check the value that was selected and it was correct. So the problem is really in the ajax action (without submiting the form). Here is my code:

        <h:selectManyCheckbox id="supportCategoryCardFilter" value="#{cardListProvider.categoriesHolder.selectedCategories}"  layout="pageDirection" required="false" >
            <f:selectItems value="#{cardListProvider.categoriesList}" />
            <a:support ajaxSingle="true" status="statusSearchCard" id="supportCategoryCardFilter2" event="onclick" reRender="cardsHolder, renderCardsCategoriesPanel" 
                 action="#{cardListProvider.findCards(cardListProvider.categoriesHolder.selectedCategories)}"  >
            </a:support>
        </h:selectManyCheckbox>

where cardListProvider.categoriesList is a List<SelectItem> and cardListProvider.categoriesHolder.selectedCategories is a List<String>

Has anyone had this problem? Can anyone help me with this? Thank you

Answer 1

You should use either JBoss EL, or declare a JSF function. If you are using facelets, this is as easy as:

declare a public static method in a class of your preference

in a my.taglib.xml (facelets decriptor) add:

<function>
    <function-name>concat</function-name>
    <function-class>com.mycompany.myproject.ServiceFunctions</function-class>
    <function-signature>java.lang.String concat(java.lang.String, java.lang.String)   </function-signature>
</function>

Also, try setting the event to "onselect" (or "onchange") rather than "onclick"

try seting immediate="true"

try removing the method parameter - you don't need it, since you can access it via the property of the managed bean - i.e. action="#{cardListProvider.findCards}" and then in findCards() get this.cardListProvider.categoriesHolder.selectedCategories

try upgrading to richfaces 3.3.2.SR1

Answer 2

I am surprised this even works in Firefox. Action methods don't support parameters. From the Richfaces docs:

signature must match java.lang.Object action()

http://livedemo.exadel.com/richfaces-demo/richfaces/support.jsf?tab=info&cid=1615759