a4j commandlink no action inside rich:extendedDataTable
I am using Richfaces 4 for our company project. I am fairly new at JSF and Richfaces. I need to perfrom a sort on the columns of the extendedDataTable. I followed the Richfaces demo example, but the action is not being fired. I tried a simple helloworld example to see if the method from the bean would be called, and it is not. So I don't think the problem lies in the sorting aspect. When I am debug mode, the breakpoint inside the sort method is never called. Below is my code. Could you please look at it and see where I might be going wrong.
Other troubleshooting I have tried: getting rid of all forms in the page, changing all forms to a4j:region, calling the sort method outside of the datatable. When this is done the sort method is called but the variables needed to do the sort are inside the table.
<ui:composition xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
xmlns:a4j="http://richfaces.org/a4j"
xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:c="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"
xmlns:rich="http://richfaces.org/rich"
xmlns:fn="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/functions">
<h:head>
<h:outputStylesheet library="css" name="ocs.css" />
</h:head>
<rich:panel headerClass="outpanelHeader">
<a4j:log popup="false" />
<h:panelGrid columnClasses="ocs_panel,ocs_panel_right" columns="2">
<h:column>
<h:panelGroup>
<rich:panel header="#{ocsMsgs.txt_registries}">
<h:form>
<c:forEach items="#{patientRegistry.registryNameList}"
var="registryName">
<a4j:commandLink immediate="true"
action="#{patientRegistry.setParameters}"
value="#{registryName}" execute="@form"
render="selectedGender,registryTable,registryPanel,selectedPayer,regFilterPopup,payerPanel,genderPanel,a1chtml,a1cSelect,a1cPanel,alcCheck,alcText,resetall,filterSelected">
<f:param name="selectedRegistryName" value="#{registryName}" />
</a4j:commandLink>
<p />
</c:forEach>
</h:form>
</rich:panel>
<rich:panel header="#{ocsMsgs.txt_filters}" id="fil">
<h:form>
<h:panelGrid>
<a4j:commandLink id="filterSelected"
value="#{ocsMsgs.txt_filters_applied}" execute="@form"
disabled="#{!patientRegistry.filterChanged}"
onclick="#{rich:component('regFilterPopup')}.show();">
</a4j:commandLink>
</h:panelGrid>
<h:commandLink id="resetall"
value="#{ocsMsgs.txt_reset_all_filters}"
action="#{patientRegistry.resetAllFilters}"
style="#{patientRegistry.panelStyleVisible}" />
</h:form>
<ui:include src="FillInWithData.xhtml"></ui:include>
<ui:include src="MultiSelectCheckboxes.xhtml"></ui:include>
</rich:panel>
</h:panelGroup>
</h:column>
<h:column>
<h:panelGroup>
<h:form>
<rich:panel id="registryPanel" style="border:0px">
<h:panelGrid rendered="#{patientRegistry.filterChanged}"
columns="3" columnClasses="550px,50px,50px">
<h:column>
</h:column>
<h:column>
<h:outputText
value="#{ocsMsgs['txt_export_filtered_registry_to']}"
style="font-weight:bold" />
</h:column>
<h:column>
<h:commandButton id="exportButton"
image="/iCollabImages/excel.png" value="Export"
action="#{patientRegistry.openExport(true)}" />
</h:column>
</h:panelGrid>
<h:panelGrid rendered="#{patientRegistry.patientListLength > 0}"
columns="3" columnClasses="550px,50px,50px">
<h:column>
</h:column>
<h:column>
<h:outputText value="#{ocsMsgs['txt_export_full_registry_to']}"
style="font-weight:bold" />
</h:column>
<h:column>
<h:commandButton id="exportFullButton"
image="/iCollabImages/excel.png" value="Export"
action="#{patientRegistry.openExport(false)}" />
</h:column>
</h:panelGrid>
<rich:panel header="#{patientRegistry.selectedRegistryName}">
<rich:extendedDataTable id="registryTable"
rowClasses="tableEvenRow, tableOddRow" var="patient"
value="#{patientRegistry.patientList}"
iterationStatusVar="index"
rendered="#{(patientRegistry.patientListLength>=0) and (patientRegistry.selectedRegistryName != null)}"
selectionMode="single"
selection="#{patientRegistry.selection}"
sortPriority="#{patientRegistry.sortPriorities}">
<a4j:ajax execute="@form" event="selectionchange"
listener="#{patientRegistry.selectionListener}" render="res"
oncomplete="#{rich:component('res')}.show();" />
<c:forEach items="#{patientRegistry.attributesMap}"
var="entry">
<c:set var="columnWidth" value="80px" />
<c:if
test='#{patientRegistry.metadataAttributesMap["registry_grid"].containsKey(entry.key)}'>
<c:set var="columnWidth"
value='#{patientRegistry.metadataAttributesMap["registry_grid"].get(entry.key).displayWidth}px' />
</c:if>
<c:set var="columnRendered" value="false" />
<c:if
test='#{patientRegistry.metadataAttributesMap["registry_grid"].containsKey(entry.key)}'>
<c:set var="columnRendered" value="true" />
</c:if>
<rich:column width="#{columnWidth}"
sortIconAscending="dataTableAscIcon"
sortIconDescending="dataTableDescIcon"
rendered="#{columnRendered}"
sortBy="#{entry.value[patient.id]}"
index="index">
<c:choose>
<c:when test="#{entry.key=='txt_bp'}">
<f:facet name="header">
<h:panelGrid columns="2">
<a4j:commandLink execute="@this"
value="#{ocsMsgs[entry.key]}" render="registryTable"
action="#{patientRegistry.sort}">
<f:param name="sortProperty"
value="#{entry.value[patient.id]}" />
</a4j:commandLink>
<h:graphicImage
value="/WebContent/images/down_icon.gif"
rendered="#{patientRegistry.sortsOrders['#{entry.value[patient.id]}']=='descending'}" />
<h:graphicImage
value="/WebContent/images/up_icon.gif.gif"
rendered="#{patientRegistry.sortsOrders['#{entry.value[patient.id]}']=='ascending'}" />
</h:panelGrid>
</f:facet>
</c:when>
<c:otherwise>
<f:facet name="header">
<h:panelGrid columns="2">
<a4j:commandLink execute="@this"
value="#{ocsMsgs[entry.key]}"
render="registryPanel, registryTable"
action="#{patientRegistry.sort}">
<f:param name="sortProperty"
value="#{entry.value[patient.id]}" />
</a4j:commandLink>
<h:graphicImage
value="/WebContent/images/down_icon.gif"
rendered="#{patientRegistry.sortsOrders['#{entry.value[patient.id]}']=='descending'}" />
<h:graphicImage
value="/WebContent/images/up_icon.gif.gif"
rendered="#{patientRegistry.sortsOrders['#{entry.value[patient.id]}']=='ascending'}" />
</h:panelGrid>
</f:facet>
</c:otherwise>
</c:choose>
<h:outputText value="#{entry.value[patient.id]}"
rendered="#{patientRegistry.patientListLength>0}">
<c:if
test='#{patientRegistry.metadataAttributesMap["registry_grid"].get(entry.key).dataType.equals("date")}'>
<f:convertDateTime dateStyle="medium" />
</c:if>
</h:outputText>
</rich:column>
</c:forEach>
</rich:extendedDataTable>
<c:if
test="#{(patientRegistry.patientListLength == 0) and (patientRegistry.selectedRegistryName != null) }">
<br />
<h:outputText value="#{ocsMsgs['txt_patient_not_found']}"
styleClass="ocs_aligncenter" />
<br />
<br />
</c:if>
</rich:panel>
</rich:panel>
</h:form>
</h:panelGroup>
</h:column>
</h:panelGrid>
</rich:panel>
<ui:include src="RegistryPopup.xhtml"></ui:include>
<ui:include src="RegistryFilterPopup.xhtml"></ui:include>
<a4j:status onstart="#{rich:component('loadingpage')}.show()"
onstop="#{rich:component('loadingpage')}.hide()" />
<rich:popupPanel id="loadingpage" autosized="true">
<h:outputText value="#{ocsMsgs['txt_loading_page']}" />
</rich:popupPanel>
</ui:composition>
Code from managed bean:
public void sort() {
String property = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance()
.getExternalContext().getRequestParameterMap()
.get(SORT_PROPERTY_PARAMETER);
if (property != null) {
SortOrder currentPropertySortOrder = sortsOrders.get(property);
if (multipleSorting) {
if (!sortPriorities.contains(property)) {
sortPriorities.add(property);
}
} else {
sortsOrders.clear();
}
if (currentPropertySortOrder == null
|| currentPropertySortOrder.equals(SortOrder.descending)) {
sortsOrders.put(property, SortOrder.ascending);
} else {
sortsOrders.put(property, SortOrder.descending);
}
}
}