richfaces pickList - validation error

A common error when using pickList is a "Value is not valid" error.

One reason for this is that the selectItem list does not contain one of the selected values. This happens often when you try to created a pre-selected list.

For example, suppose your selectItems are: A, B, C, D, E
And A & B are already selected.

This means that when the pickList is shows, you want A & B to appear in the right side, and you want C, D, E to appear on the left side.

What you need to do is put all five - A, B, C, D & E in the selectItems list (left side list).
Then in the list which will hold the selected items (right side list - the one that you will bind to the value attribute of the picklist), you need to put the select Item value of A & B.

richfaces will automatically show A & B on the right and C, D, E on the left.

However, if you put A & B in the right side list, and pnly C, D, E in the left side list - you will get a value is not valid error!


Secondly, remember that if your value is a non-String object, then you need to override the "equals" method in your Object class.

richfaces pickList - converters

Here are a few things to remember when using richfaces pickList:

1. If the value of your selectItem is a non-String object type, then you need to write a converter. You can have a property on your backing bean to hold an instance of the converter, and you can point the pickList converter to use it.

Like below:

1. -------------- Converter ----------------------------

package org.fastkangaroo.quasimodo.converters;

import java.util.Map;

import javax.faces.component.UIComponent;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.faces.convert.Converter;

import org.fastkangaroo.quasimodo.entities.UserProfile;

public class UserProfileConverter implements Converter {
private Map choiceMap;

public Object getAsObject(FacesContext arg0, UIComponent arg1, String label) {
return choiceMap.get(label);
}

public String getAsString(FacesContext arg0, UIComponent arg1, Object obj) {
UserProfile userProfile = (UserProfile) obj;
String label = userProfile.getFirstName() + " " + userProfile.getLastName() + " " + userProfile.getMiddleName();
return label;
}

/**
* @param choiceMap the choiceMap to set
*/
public void setChoiceMap(Map choiceMap) {
this.choiceMap = choiceMap;
}

}


2. ------------------ Beacking Bean --------------------------

public class ProjectBean {

...
private UserProfileConverter userProfileConverter;

...

+ getter/setter
}




3. ------------------- XHTML ------------------

<rich:pickList id="memberPickList"
value="#{projectBean.selectedMembers}"
converter="#{projectBean.userProfileConverter}"
validator="#{projectBean.projectMembersValidator}" >
<f:selectItems value="#{projectBean.memberSelection}" />
</rich:pickList>

richfaces DataTable - getting selected row

Unfortunately, a simple thing like getting which row in the rich:DataTable was selected is not so simple!

For excellent examples, see this page:
http://balusc.blogspot.com/2006/06/using-datatables.html

And, in addition, remember this:

1. Binding the datatable in your xhtml to a backing bean datatable (using the 'binding' attribute) will work only if the backing bean is in request scope. If it is in session scope, you will get a duplicate Id error when you refresh or revisit the page.

2. If you put a commandButton (or commandLink) on each row - it will work only if the action handler backing bean is in session scope. If it is in request scope, the action handler will not be called.

So, these two things are in contradiction to each other. The solution, if you are in this situation, is to have two backing beans - one for binding the datatable and another for handling the commandButton!

Now, if the reason you are binding the datatable in the first place is to use dataTable.getRowData() to identify the row - so that you can get to the row object, then you are in trouble. Because the action handler will go to a different backing bean!

The solution is to use f:setPropertyActionListener to pass the selected row object to the commandButton, as below:
<a4j:commandLink value="#{project.name}" action="#{projectBean.view}">
<f:setPropertyActionListener target="#{projectBean.project}" value="#{project}" />
</a4j:commandLink>

The backing bean, in this case projectBean should have a property called 'project' with getters and setters.

How to setup a JSF + Richfaces + Facelets project in Eclipse

Follow the instructions here:
http://labs.jboss.com/file-access/default/members/jbossrichfaces/freezone/docs/devguide/en/html/GettingStarted.html


Then follow the instructions here:
https://facelets.dev.java.net/nonav/docs/dev/docbook.html#gettingstarted-setup-web

Running Apache Tomcat from inside Eclipse

You can run Apache Tomcat from inside Eclipse by:
* Window--> Show View --> Server

In the Servers panel that opens up:
* R-click --> New --> Server
* Select the Apache Tomcat Server from List
* Add your WebApp Project

You can now Right Click on the Server and Start/Stop it from inside Eclipse.


Here is a Gotcha:
- The application is run directly from your src folder (i.e. the war file is not actually copied to the /webapps directory of the tomcat install!)
- This is great because it speeds up development - you do not have to keep building the project to test it out on the server

- But REMEMBER to make a copy of all the jar files in the src/WEB-INF/lib directory otherwise TomCat will not find them!

How to maven-ize richfaces

For some reason, richfaces jars are no longer available on the maven repository.
To do it yourself:
- Download richfaces-ui-3.3.1.GA-bin.zip from the JBoss richfaces website
- Unzip it to say C:\Program Files\Richfaces


- Open a command prompt and cd to the /lib directory
You will see 3 jars in the /lib directory

- Give the following commands to load the jars to maven
> mvn install:install-file -DgroupId=org.richfaces -DartifactId=richfaces-impl -Dversion=3.3.1.GA -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=./richfaces-impl-3.3.1.GA.jar

> mvn install:install-file -DgroupId=org.richfaces -DartifactId=richfaces-ui -Dversion=3.3.1.GA -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=./richfaces-ui-3.3.1.GA.jar

> mvn install:install-file -DgroupId=org.richfaces -DartifactId=richfaces-api -Dversion=3.3.1.GA -Dpackaging=jar -Dfile=./richfaces-api-3.3.1.GA.jar


You can now reference these libraries in your pom.xml:

<dependency>
<groupId>org.richfaces</groupId>
<artifactId>richfaces-ui</artifactId>
<version>3.3.1.GA</version>
</dependency>

<dependency>
<groupId>org.richfaces</groupId>
<artifactId>richfaces-api</artifactId>
<version>3.3.1.GA</version>
</dependency>

<dependency>
<groupId>org.richfaces</groupId>
<artifactId>richfaces-impl</artifactId>
<version>3.3.1.GA</version>
</dependency>

Example: Generating a SHA hash in Java

import java.security.MessageDigest;
...
public String createHashSHA (String someString){

try {
MessageDigest md = MessageDigest.getInstance("SHA");
md.update(someString.getBytes());
byte[] someStringDigest = md.digest();
String someStringHashSHA = new String(someStringDigest);
return someStringHashSHA;
}
catch (Exception e){
...
}
}