a4j:ajax "listener" not evaluating/invoking MethodExpression properly?
I'm in the process of upgrading my application from Facelets/JSF 1.2/RichFaces 3.3.3 to JSF 2.0/RichFaces 4.0 and I'm having trouble transitioning from the a4j:support tag to the a4j:ajax tag. Specifically, I'm having difficulty using a ui:param to pass a MethodExpression to the "listener" property of the a4j:ajax tag. This is a technique that was working for for me with the old a4j:support tag, and my application uses this pattern extensively, so I'm really keen to find a solution!
Here's a simplified example of what I'm trying to do with the a4j:ajax tag which is *not* working right now.
test_outer.xhtml
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:a4j="http://richfaces.org/a4j"
xmlns:rich="http://richfaces.org/rich">
<ui:composition>
<html>
<h:head>
</h:head>
<h:body>
<h:form>
<ui:include src="test_inner.xhtml">
<ui:param name="controller_bean" value="#{TestBean}"/>
</ui:include>
</h:form>
</h:body>
</html>
</ui:composition>
</html>
test_inner.xhtml
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:a4j="http://richfaces.org/a4j"
xmlns:rich="http://richfaces.org/rich">
<ui:composition>
<rich:extendedDataTable value = "#{controller_bean.list}"
var = "rowvar"
selectionMode="single">
<a4j:ajax event="selectionchange" listener="#{controller_bean.action}"/>
<rich:column>
<f:facet name="header">
<h:outputText value="Value" />
</f:facet>
<h:outputText value="#{rowvar}"/>
</rich:column>
</rich:extendedDataTable>
</ui:composition>
</html>
TestBean.java
@ManagedBean(name="TestBean")
@SessionScoped
public class TestBean
{
private static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(TestBean.class.getName());
public List<String> getList()
{
String[] num = {"1", "2", "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9", "10"};
ArrayList<String> nums = new ArrayList<String>(Arrays.asList(num));
return nums;
}
public void action(AjaxBehaviorEvent event)
{
logger.info("action");
}
}
With this code, when I select a row in the extendedDataTable, I get an error:
WARNING [javax.enterprise.resource.webcontainer.jsf.lifecycle] Target Unreachable, identifier 'controller_bean' resolved to null: javax.el.PropertyNotFoundException: Target Unreachable, identifier 'controller_bean' resolved to null ... ERROR [STDERR] javax.faces.FacesException: Target Unreachable, identifier 'controller_bean' resolved to null ... ERROR [STDERR] Caused by: javax.el.PropertyNotFoundException: Target Unreachable, identifier 'controller_bean' resolved to null
This error seems transparently bogus to me, because the table otherwise displays the values in the list.
What I had been doing (which was working great until now) was use the a4j:support tag:
<a4j:support event="onselectionchange" actionListener="#{controller_bean.action}"/>
In this case, the action method (with the proper ActionEvent signature, of course) would get invoked, no problem.
Help!
