Adding setRequired() programmatically to expression

[oneworld95]

How do you set the required attribute of a dynamically created component to an expression? Here's what I'm trying to do:

StringBuilder el = new StringBuilder();
HtmlInputText hoursInput = new HtmlInputText();

el.append("#{");
el.append("calOvertimeDate_" + Integer.toString(componentCount));
el.append(".value == null || ");
el.append("calOvertimeDate_" + Integer.toString(componentCount));
el.append(".value == '' ? false : true}");

hoursInput.setRequired(el.toString());

It doesn't like the last line of code because it's expecting a boolean and I'm giving it an expression to be evaluated at runtime. I'd like to use a setRequiredExpression, but no such thing exists as far as I can tell. Help!!

[radhesh]

setRequired may not work.

You will have to construct an EL Expression using the String and set the expression as a value binding to the component: Something like:

FacesContext ctx = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
ValueExpression ve = ctx.getApplication().getExpressionFactory().createValueExpression(ctx .getELContext(),el.toString(), Boolean.class);

hoursInput.setValueExpression("required", ve);

[oneworld95]

Wow!! That's exactly what I needed, radhesh. Thank you so much for the code example :)

[oneworld95]

A followup: How do I also add a ValueBinding to this same control, so that its value is bound to a property on a bean? Thanks.