nested a4j:outputPanel elements not re-rendering

[raindogs]

I'm having a little trouble getting ajax4jsf to re-render an element nested within an a4j:outputPanel. Essentially what I have is a drop-down menu with a4j:support attached that populates another drop-down when the value changes. This works fine, but I also want that menu to call another method via a4j:support when it changes, but I can't get this to work.

In the code snippet below, everything works fine with the "category" drop-down change - the "loadNames" method is called and the items in the "CommodityNamePanel" panel are re-rendered. However, when I change the "name" drop-down, the "loadUnitType" method is never called and the "unitTypePanel" panel never re-renders. Can anyone suggest a way to make this work?

<h:outputText value="Category" />
 <h:selectOneMenu value="#{checkInCommodity.category}" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;" id="category">
 <a4j:support event="onchange" action="#{checkInCommodity.loadNames}" reRender="CommodityNamePanel" />
 <f:selectItems value ="#{checkInCommodity.categoryList}" />
 </h:selectOneMenu>

 <h:outputText value="Type" />
 <a4j:outputPanel id="CommodityNamePanel">
 <h:selectOneMenu value="#{checkInCommodity.name}" style="padding:0px;margin:0px;" id="name">
 <a4j:support event="onchange" action="#{checkInCommodity.loadUnitType}" reRender="unitTypePanel" />
 <f:selectItems value ="#{checkInCommodity.nameList}" id="nameList"/>
 </h:selectOneMenu>
 </a4j:outputPanel>

 <h:outputText value="Unit Type" />
 <a4j:outputPanel id="unitTypePanel" ajaxRendered="true">
 <h:inputText value="#{checkInCommodity.unitType}" id="unitType" />
 </a4j:outputPanel>

[sergeysmirnov]

action method is not invoked if validation and/or conversion are failed. It is not a Ajax specific. This is like the standard JSF lifecycle works.

It save your time if you put h:messages on the page during the development time at least:

<a4j:outputPanel ajaxRendered="true">
 <h:messages />
</a4j:outputPanel>

Also, it is helpful to have a phase tracker. It allows to understand where is the point the regular lifecycle is aborted.

http://www.jsftutorials.net/faces-config/phaseTracker.html

Returning back to your code:
Try to surround the selectOneMenu with <a4j:region>. It allows to bypass the validation of other fields.

P.S. I do not see the reason why you surround the second selectOneMenu with outputPanel. You can point to the second selectOneMenu id directly from reRender of the first a4j:support

[raindogs]

That took care of the problem, thanks a lot.

Alex