Setting focus to element outside of current form

[geggle]

Is it possible to use the focus attribute of an a4j:xxx element to set the focus to an element not in the submitted form?

I have a page which has a form (form A) containing some data being edited. From this form, a modal dialog is shown which uses a different form (form B) to perform its work. I want to have a a4j:commandButton invoked from form B that, on completion, pops down the modal dialog and sets the focus to an element in form A.

From what I can see in the debug, this doesn't appear to be possible:

debug[11:43:37,729]: focus must be set to control nocForm:registration_view:damagesClaim_matter_claimantSolicitor_pick
debug[11:43:37,729]: No control element nocForm:registration_view:damagesClaim_matter_claimantSolicitor_pick in submitted form
debug[11:43:37,729]: Set focus to control

Is there an alternative way to do this?

[ilya_shaikovsky]

could you try specify full id in focus attribute like ":elementToSetId"

[geggle]

"ilya_shaikovsky" wrote:
could you try specify full id in focus attribute like ":elementToSetId"

I've resorted to using a JavaScript solution in the meantime, however when I get time, I'll do up a small test case to verify and post the results here.

For my own benefit, is it the case that the leading ":" functions like a leading "/" in Unix? That is, it denotes an absolute identifier, and an identifier without a leading ":" may be relative to an enclosing naming container?

[nbelaevski]

Yes, client identifiers starting with ':' are absolute. Please see Javadoc for javax.faces.component.UIComponent.findComponent(String) for details.