JSF Question about passing parameters (needing converters) to resource bundles from facelets...

[qdog1028]

have a JSF question about how to pass mutliple complex parameters to resource bundles. Take the following example below where I am passing a value to a resource bundle for a parameter. Works fine.

<h:outputFormat value="#{messages['label.widget.count']}">
<f:param value="#{widgetCount}"/>
</h:outputFormat>

Now take the example(s) below using a converter or more complicated piece of data that needs something done to it and am passing a value to a resource bundle for a parameter. This doesn’t work (it returns a null value even though outside of it it runs fine) . I’ve tried everything and can’t figure out how to do it. Any ideas?

<h:outputFormat value="#{messages['label.welcomemessagewithdate']}">
<f:param value="#{widget.date}">
<f:converter converterId=”dateConverter” />
</f:param>
</h:outputFormat>
OR
<h:outputFormat value="#{messages['label.welcomemessagewithdate']}">
<f:param>
<h:outputText value="#{widget.date}">
<f:converter converterId=”dateConverter” />
</h:outputText>
</f:param>
</h:outputFormat>

So the basic question is how can I pass a parameter to a resource bundle in the form of “widge.message=Hello {0}, the time is {1}” where 1 needs a converter with it to format it correctly?

Thanks in advance!

Chris

[ssilvert]

Hi Chris,

I took a close look at this using Mojarra 2.0.  When I put a <f:converter> tag inside a <f:param> tag and I got this exception:

javax.faces.view.facelets.TagException: /index.xhtml @23,60 <f:converter> Parent not an instance of ValueHolder: javax.faces.component.UIParameter@1675bf3

According to javadoc, <f:param> doesn't support converters.  However, if used with some tags, such as <h:link>, you can use the converterId attribute to pass a converter.  This works:

<h:link value="Hello Link">
  <f:param name="foo" value="#{myDate}" converterId="javax.faces.DateTime"/>
</h:link>

The thing about <f:param> is that the parent component gets to decide how to treat it.

Anyway, I haven't looked at the code for the tag, but it looks like <h:outputFormat> won't look for converters on its <f:param> children. 

I think the easiest workaround for you is to use a managed bean to do the conversion.  You could just let #{widget} return the date as a string that is formatted the way you want it.
<f:param value="#{widget.convertedDate}">

If you were using JBoss AS6, you could take advantage of EL ValueExpressions with params and do something like this:

<f:param value="#{myConverterBean(widget.date)}">

Another approach is to use some logic that changes the value in the component tree during the JSF lifecycle.  I think that would be overly complicated though.

Stan

[skotinin]

Hello!

h:outputFormat uses MessageFormat.format() for output string. See MessageFormat api documentation for information about how can convert param.

For example:

label_pos_dt_dt2=xxx "{0}-{1,date,short}" / yyy "{2}-{3,date,short}"

	<h:outputFormat value="#{msg.label_pos_dt_dt2}" >
	<f:param value="#{CalcBean.selectedPosDt}" />
	<f:param value="#{CalcBean.selectedDPosDt}" />
	<f:param value="#{CalcBean.selectedPosDt2}" />
	<f:param value="#{CalcBean.selectedDPosDt2}" />
	</h:outputFormat>