modalPanel best practice data passing question

[asookazian]

So I need to submit a form with input text in a rich:modalPanel. When I reference the fields of the dataTable in the main form of the facelet in which the modalPanel exists I get -1 for rowIndex and the other values are null in the SFSB method.

<!-- note and row data submit -->
 <rich:modalPanel id="mpNoteAndEmployeeSubmit" minHeight="200" minWidth="450"
 height="500" width="500" zindex="2000">

 <f:facet name="header">
 <a4j:form id="a4jHeaderForm3">
 <h:outputText id="headerText3" value=""/>
 </a4j:form>
 </f:facet>

 <a4j:form id="a4jMainForm3">
 <h:panelGrid columns="2" style="vertical-align:middle">
 <h:outputText id="description3" value=""/>
 <BR/>

 <h:inputTextarea id="noteText3" value="#{noteAction.noteText}" rows="6" cols="50">
 <a4j:support event="onkeyup" reRender="out3" />
 </h:inputTextarea>

 <h:panelGroup id="out3">
 <a4j:commandButton id="submit3" value="submit" actionListener="#{noteAction.submit}" oncomplete="clickDataTableSubmit();Richfaces.hideModalPanel('mpNoteAndEmployeeSubmit')"
 rendered="#{not empty noteAction.noteText2}">
 <f:attribute name="rowIndex" value="#{myAuditList.getRowIndex()}"/>
 <f:attribute name="siteId" value="#{myRow[0].id.siteId}"/>
 <f:attribute name="employeeNumber" value="#{myRow[0].id.employeeNumber}"/>
 <f:attribute name="modalPanelName" value="mpNoteAndEmployeeSubmit"/>
 </a4j:commandButton>
 </h:panelGroup>

 <BR/>

 <a4j:commandButton value="cancel" onclick="Richfaces.hideModalPanel('mpNoteAndEmployeeSubmit');unselectCurrentRadioButton()"/>
 </h:panelGrid>
 </a4j:form>
 </rich:modalPanel>

Should I set global JS variables before the modalPanel opens and use js functions with f:attribute, pass params via the showModalPanel call, or use Seam remoting (currently using Seam remoting as I just recently found out that f:param does not work with h:commandButton, only h:commandLink. Now I know I can use f:attribute with h:commandButton).

What's the recommendation here?

[asookazian]

Here's the SFSB code:

//submit method called from adminSecurityAudit.xhtml modalPanel a4j:form's
 public void submit(ActionEvent event) {

 UIComponent component = event.getComponent();
 Map<String, Object> attrs = component.getAttributes();

 int attrsSize = attrs.size();

 Integer rowIndex = (Integer)attrs.get("rowIndex");
 Integer siteId = (Integer)attrs.get("siteId");
 Integer employeeNumber = (Integer)attrs.get("employeeNumber");
 String modalPanelName = (String)attrs.get("modalPanelName");

 log.info("*** attrsSize = " + attrsSize);
 log.info("rowIndex = " + rowIndex + " *** siteId = " + siteId +
 " *** employeeNumber = " + employeeNumber);

 //in the case of yes/no/yes (with user entering selection for adjLimit RB last, check to make sure if the secLevel RB is No. If it's Yes (i.e. yes/yes/yes), don't proceed.

 if ( !( this.getIcomsAccountApproved() == true && this.getSecurityLevelApproved() == true && this.getAdjustmentLimitApproved() == true ) ) {

 if ( !modalPanelName.equalsIgnoreCase("mpEmployeeSubmit") ) { // in case of yes/no/yes, prevent insertion of blank note for the 3rd RB (adjLimit)
 //create a new instance of TblSecurityAuditNote entity bean

 TblSecurityAuditNote note = new TblSecurityAuditNote(siteId, employeeNumber, colName, noteText, new Date());

 //TO DO: remove hard-coding of the name-number mapping
 Integer colNum = convertColName(colName);
 Integer rowNum = rowIndex==null?0:rowIndex; //TO DO: add exception handling here in case null or empty string (throw application exception)

 TblSecurityAuditNote[] myNoteArray = noteList.get(rowNum);
 myNoteArray[colNum] = note;

 noteList.set(rowNum, myNoteArray);

 noteText = "";
 }
 }

 }