Migrating from Richfaces 3.3.3 to 4.2 - problem with @KeepAlive - @ViewScoped

[ivancosta]

Hi all,

I'm migrating from  Richfaces 3.3.3 to 4.2 and I'm getting trouble with @ViewScoped.

On RF 3.3.3 it was fine for me to navigate from pageA.xhtml (list of entities) to pageB.xhtml (edit the entity) this way:

beanA

     @KeepAlive

pageA.xhtml

     on a datatable rowclick event, a jsFunction calls a method on beanB do get the id, populate beanB values, and return pageB.xhtml, like this:

     <a4j:jsFunction name="jsFooName" action="#{beanB.edit}">

          <f:param name="id" />

      </a4j:jsFunction>

     <rich:datatable value="#{beanA.someList}"

          var="item"

          onRowClick="jsFooName('#{item.id}');"

beanB

     @KeepAlive

     public String edit() {

          // get id in the request

          // read from database and populate beanB properties

          return "pageB.xhtml"

     }

It was fine, but NOW, changing from @KeepAlive to @ViewScoped, pageB.xhtml DO NOT show any values, just empty fields AND I need to click twice on a commandButton on pageB.xhtml to get back to pageA.xhtml (first click just blinks the page)

     pageB.xhtml

          <h:commandButton value="Back" action="#{beanA.backMethod}" immediate="true" />

So, I had two problems:

1) data are not shown in pageB.xhtml

2) commandButton needs to be clicked twice to get back from pageB to pageA

Then, I've tried to use a @PostConstruct method to populate the page, and changed the calling

from:

     <a4j:jsFunction name="jsFooName" action="#{beanB.edit}">

          <f:param name="id" />

      </a4j:jsFunction>

to:

     <a4j:jsFunction name="jsFooName" action="pageB.xhtml">

          <f:param name="id" />

      </a4j:jsFunction>

wich solved problem both problems...

What's wrong with my old approach? Is calling beanB.method on a pageA.xhtml and beanA.method on pageB  (a type of cross calling) wrong with @ViewScoped ?

Thanks in advance

Ivan