after autocomplete - render other components

[apanag]

My goal is to update the value of a field after the call of the autocomplete method of a rich:autocomplete component.

<h:form id="myform">

      <h:outputText id="out1" value=" #{mybean.value}" />

      <rich:autocomplete
            mode="ajax"
            value="#{bean.criteria}" 
            minChars="1" 
            autocompleteMethod="#{action.method}"
            fetchValue="#{result.name}" 
            var="result" 
            render="myform:out1,myform:out2"> 

            <h:column>
                <h:outputText value="#{result.value}" />
             </h:column>
      </rich:autocomplete>

      <h:outputText id="out2" value=" #{mybean.value}" />

</h:form>

The behaviour of the above code:

• The value of the first text field (out1), which lies in the code after the rich:autocomplete does not update properly.

The getter of mybean.value for the out1 is called before the autocomplete method, so it displays the old value. (not the desired behaviour)

• The value of the second text field (out2), which lies in the code after the rich:autocomplete gets properly updated (when typing in the autocomplete field) .

The getter of mybean.value is rightly called after the autocompleteMethod.

Why the getter of the first text field is called before the autocomplete method?

I use RichFaces 4.2.1.Final

[apanag]

I found a workaround to my problem. Thus, the outputText field "out1" gets properly updated with each ajax call of the autocomplete method.

<h:form id="myform">
        <a4j:jsFunction name="updateOutput" render="out1" />
    <h:outputText id="out1" value="#{mybean.value}" />

    <rich:autocomplete
          mode="ajax"
          value="#{bean.criteria}"
          minChars="1"
          autocompleteMethod="#{action.method}"
          fetchValue="#{result.name}"
          var="result"

                      oncomplete="updateOutput();"

          render="myform:out2">

          <h:column>
              <h:outputText value="#{result.value}" />
          </h:column>
     </rich:autocomplete>

     <h:outputText id="out2" value="#{mybean.value}" />

</h:form>

[apanag]

My first workaround doesn't solve the problem 100%: when the is no character left in the input field, the rich:autocomplete doesn't send any ajax request.

Even if you set the minChars to 0, the value taken by the element is 1. It is a design decision. Maybe the RichFaces guys want to evaluate it.

I ended up with a little more complex workaround that works for all cases:

<h:form id="myform">

    <h:outputText id="out1" value="#{mybean.value}" />

    <a4j:jsFunction name="updateOutputFunction" render="out1,out2"  action="#{mybean.updateValue()}">

           <a4j:param name="bufferParam" assignTo="#{mybean.bufferParam}" />

    </a4j:jsFunction>


    <rich:autocomplete id="myAutocompleteBox"
            mode="ajax"
            value="#{bean.criteria}"
            minChars="1"
            autocompleteMethod="#{action.method}"
            fetchValue="#{result.name}"
            var="result"
            onkeyup="updateOutputFunction(document.getElementById('myform:myAutocompleteBoxInput').value);"
            >

            <h:column>
                <h:outputText value="#{result.value}" />
             </h:column>
      </rich:autocomplete>

      <h:outputText id="out2" value=" #{mybean.value}" />

</h:form>

Mybean.java

...

  private String bufferParam;

  public String getBufferParam(){
     return bufferParam;
  }

  public String setBufferParam(String bufferParam){
     this.bufferParam = bufferParam;
  }

  public void updateValue(){
      value = bufferParam;
   }