How to prevent rich:tabPanel submitting whole form when switching tabs

[testcraft]

Hi,

I found that each time switching tabs of tabPanel would make the whole surrounding form submitted with switchType set to 'ajax'.

I'm using tabPanel in my app like following:

<h:form>

     <rich:tabPanel switchType="ajax" activeItem="tab1">

          <rich:tab name="tab1">

               <!-- some inputTexts here, i just omit something like labels, messages...-->

               <h:inputText value="#{user.name}" />

               <h:inputText value="#{user.sn}"  />

               <h:commandButton action="#{user.modify}" value="modify">

                      <f:ajax ... />

               </h:commandButton>

          </rich:tab>

          <rich:tab name="tab2">

               <!-- other inputTexts -->

               <h:inputText value="#{ruleBean.type}" />

                 <h:commandButton action="#{ruleBean.add}" value="add">

                      <f:ajax ... />

               </h:commandButton>

          </rich:tab>    

     </rich:tabPanel>

</h:form>

when i switch from tab1 to tab2, all the inputTexts (both within tab1 & tab2) values are posted, and thus update the back beans. However, it's not expected since there're already commandButtons to submit those inputTexts,  and users may change their info without awareness.

Another problem is if there's a converter for ruleBean.type, and user may find himself unable to switch from tab2 to tab1 if an convertion exception thrown (maybe just leave the inputText empty).

I know setting switchType to 'client' can settle these issues, but it will download all the tabs at once, and the data may be very large.

Is there any other workaround for this question?

[liuliu]

hi,

have your tried form in the tab or a4j:region?

[testcraft]

i've tried both h:form and a4j:region, the latter doesn't work (or maybe i didn't use it the right way).

while form(inside rich:tab) did prevent the submission of the entire outer one(surrounding rich:tabPanel), there's an exception for the first time switching tab. Also i found anthor ajax link in my app got no response for the first time sending request(i could see from firebug that post message is successfully sent, but server-side method not invoked).

Everything is fine when setting switchType to client, but it's really too slow for the first loading.

[liuliu]

you need remove the outsider one. i think jsf not support nested form.

[martam]

I know it's an old issue, but I've spent a lot of time searching for the solution and found nothing.

I would like to set switchType="ajax" on rich:tabPanel, but I don't want the whole form to be submitted. I have to place the whole tabPanel inside form (in other case I get an error org.richfaces.component.UITabPanel did not find parent form), so I can't put separate forms inside rich:tabs. I tried setting execute and immediate parameters, but with no effect.

Did you or anyone else find solution for this problem?