Injecting 'selected' value from RichFaces 'selectOneMenu' into an EJB

[notify]

I'm porting a live JBoss 6.1, RichFaces 3.x & Seam 2.x application to:

JBoss WildFly 8.2, RichFaces 4.5.1 & JBoss Weld 2.2

I'm having trouble retrieving the selected value from a RichFaces selectOneMenu, which I need to select the values for the second selectOneMenu list,

My first selectOneMenu is populated with two rows from the database using @Produces

I have it working in all my Seam applications, but in the Weld CDI application it's returning 'null'.

XHTML

<code>

<h:selectOneMenu value="#{selectedAwcat}" valueChangeListener="#{categoriesBean.selectedAwcatChanged}">

  <f:selectItems value="#{categoriesBean.awcatsList}" var='awCat' itemValue="${awCat.awcat}" itemLabel="#{awCat.awcat}" />

  <f:converter converterId="awcatConverter" />

  <a4j:ajax event="valueChange" execute="@this" />

</h:selectOneMenu>

</code>

My EJB

<code>

@Stateless
@Named("categoriesBean")

public class CategoriesBean implements CategoriesLocal {

    ...........

    @Inject
    private Awcat selectedAwcat;

    @Produces
    public List<Awcat> getAwcatsList() {

          .....

          return return awcatList;

    }

    /**
      *
      *  @param awcat
      * /
    public void setSelectedAwcat(Awcat selectedAwcat) {

            this.selectedAwcat = selectedAwcat;

    }

    /**
      *
      * @return
      */
    public Awcat getSelectedAwcat() {

            return this.selectedAwcat;

    }

    /**
        *
      */
    public void selectedAwcatChanged() {

            logger.info(">>>>> selectedAwcatChanged selectedAwcat == " + this.selectedAwcat.getAwcat());

    }

</code>

AwCat is an Entity bean:

<code>

public class Awcat implements Serializable {

}

<code>

I also wrote a customer converter

<code>

@FacesConverter("awcatConverter")

public class AwCatConverter implements Converter {

  @Override
  public Object getAsObject(FacesContext facesContext, UIComponent uiComponent, String s) {

  System.out.println(">>>>> AwCatConverter s = " + s);

  Awcat awcat = new Awcat();

  awcat.setAwcat(s);

  //return null;
  return awcat;

  }

  @Override
  public String getAsString(FacesContext facesContext, UIComponent uiComponent, Object o) {

  System.out.println(">>>>> AwCatConvçerter getAsString o = " + o.toString());

  //return null;
  return o.toString();

  }

}

<code>

In Seam I used:

<s:convertEntity/>

The JBoss WildFly console shows:

12:17:31,487 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-128) >>>>> getAwcatsList .....

12:17:31,489 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-128) >>>>> getAwcatsList awcatList = 2

12:17:31,489 INFO  [stdout] (default task-128) >>>>> AwCatConvçerter  getAsString o = Cycling

12:17:31,490 INFO  [stdout] (default task-128) >>>>> AwCatConvçerter  getAsString o = Motorcycling

12:17:35,042 INFO  [stdout] (default task-15) >>>>> AwCatConverter  s = Motorcycling

12:17:35,043 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-15) >>>>> getAwcatsList .....

12:17:35,043 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-15) >>>>> getAwcatsList awcatList = 2

12:17:35,044 INFO  [stdout] (default task-15) >>>>> AwCatConverter  s = Cycling

12:17:35,044 INFO  [stdout] (default task-15) >>>>> AwCatConverter  s = Motorcycling

12:17:35,045 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-15) >>>>> getAwcatsList .....

12:17:35,045 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-15) >>>>> getAwcatsList awcatList = 2

12:17:35,045 INFO  [stdout] (default task-15) >>>>> AwCatConverter  s = Cycling

12:17:35,045 INFO  [stdout] (default task-15) >>>>> AwCatConverter  s = Motorcycling

12:17:35,047 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-15) >>>>> selectedAwcatChanged selectedAwcat == null

I can't get my head around what I'm doing wrong. Any pointers greatly received.

N.B. For many reasons I want to use EJB as my 'backing' beans, unless I've misunderstood the spec this is possible.

[tremes]

Hi Roger,

I guess you don't need to specify "Produces" annotation on your list getter ( in other words: producing new managed bean) when you acces the value by "#{categoriesBean.awcatsList}".  How is the list created/filled? 

[notify]

The @Produces is needed to create the list to populate the selectOneMenu? It's the replacement annotation for the Seam @Factory. This part is working fine:

@Produces
public List<Awcat> getAwcatsList() {

   logger.info(">>>>> getAwcatsList .....");

  TypedQuery<Awcat> awcatTypedQuery = entityManager.createNamedQuery("Awcat.findAll", Awcat.class);

   //List<Awcat> awcatList = null;
   this.awcatList = null;

   try {

   awcatList = awcatTypedQuery.getResultList();

  } catch (NoResultException nre) {

  }

   logger.info(">>>>> getAwcatsList awcatList = " + awcatList.size());

   return awcatList;

}

Gives:

13:11:53,292 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-3) >>>>> getAwcatsList .....

13:11:53,306 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-3) >>>>> getAwcatsList awcatList = 2

13:11:53,309 INFO  [stdout] (default task-3) >>>>> AwCatConvçerter  getAsString o = Cycling

13:11:53,309 INFO  [stdout] (default task-3) >>>>> AwCatConvçerter  getAsString o = Motorcycling

[tremes]

Ok I misunderstood your problem. So there is no Awcat instance during valueChangeListener  call. Can you provide some basic reproducer?  

[notify]

Tomas,

The selectedAwcat object is null, though I create it in the custom converter:

EJB:

@Inject
private Awcat selectedAwcat;

<f:converter converterId="awcatConverter" />

@FacesConverter("awcatConverter")

public class AwCatConverter implements Converter {

  @Override
  public Object getAsObject(FacesContext facesContext, UIComponent uiComponent, String s) {

  System.out.println(">>>>> AwCatConverter s = " + s);

Awcat selectedAwcat = new Awcat();

  selectedAwcat.setAwcat(s);

  return selectedAwcat;

  }

  @Override
  public String getAsString(FacesContext facesContext, UIComponent uiComponent, Object o) {

  System.out.println(">>>>> AwCatConvçerter getAsString o = " + o.toString());

  //return null;
  return o.toString();

  }

}

Have just noticed that in the 'logger' from the custom converter that the selected value from the selectedOneMenu is displayed but then goes all awry:

14:01:10,305 INFO  [stdout] (default task-42) >>>>> AwCatConvçerter  getAsString o = Cycling

14:01:10,306 INFO  [stdout] (default task-42) >>>>> AwCatConvçerter  getAsString o = Motorcycling

14:01:13,379 INFO  [stdout] (default task-53) >>>>> AwCatConverter  s = Motorcycling

14:01:13,380 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-53) >>>>> getAwcatsList .....

14:01:13,381 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-53) >>>>> getAwcatsList awcatList = 2

14:01:13,381 INFO  [stdout] (default task-53) >>>>> AwCatConverter  s = Cycling

14:01:13,381 INFO  [stdout] (default task-53) >>>>> AwCatConverter  s = Motorcycling

14:01:13,382 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-53) >>>>> getAwcatsList .....

14:01:13,382 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-53) >>>>> getAwcatsList awcatList = 2

14:01:13,383 INFO  [stdout] (default task-53) >>>>> AwCatConverter  s = Cycling

14:01:13,383 INFO  [stdout] (default task-53) >>>>> AwCatConverter  s = Motorcycling

14:01:13,384 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-53) >>>>> selectedAwcatChanged selectedAwcat == null

Even though I create & set the value in selectedAwcat it's still null when it's returned I thought by naming it in the XHTML and annotating in the EJB it would inject it with the newly created and 'set' object?

[tremes]

Yes I know. The selectedAwcat is null (after setting) because it's not managed by CDI.  It seems to me little bit complicated that's why I asked for reproducer.

[notify]

Tomas,

What do you mean by "reproducer"? My source?

[tremes]

Yes. The WAR archive you are deploying to WildFly along with the source code if possible...

[notify]

Tomas,

I appreciate you're trying to help but the EAR is 24 Mb. and requires a MySQL database to connect to. Also the product is subject to a NDA.

Have you used RichFaces SelectOneMenu with an EJB?

Thanks

[tremes]

Well I don't know RichFaces (always used plain JSF) but I used selectOneRadio where I simply bound selected value to integer attribute of some bean. I guess there is no default mechanism (in RichFaces) which will create CDI managed bean instance (selectedAwcat in your case) based on UI action like selecting some value. 

[notify]

It is, just a plain old JSF 2 component in this instance,

<h:selectOneMenu value="#{selectedAwcat}" valueChangeListener="#{categoriesBean.selectedAwcatChanged}">

I've injected JSF 2 & RichFaces component's values into EJBs using Seam with no issues. Will have a look at the source of the Seam taglib <s:convertEntity> to see is I'm missing something in my customer converter.

I can see my selected value from the 'selectOneMenu' in the logging of my custom converter so the issue may be there.

[tremes]

Yes the selected value you are seeing is just String and then you are doing:

Awcat selectedAwcat = new Awcat();

  selectedAwcat.setAwcat(s);

  return selectedAwcat;

CDI is not aware of this newly created instance that's why you cannot injected with "@Inject Awcat selectedAwcat". You will need to create producer method (Weld 2.2.14.Final - CDI Reference Implementation) to become Awcat available for injection, however I am not sure if the FacesConverter is best class for placing this new producer.  

[notify]

Tomas,

Thanks for that suggestion. I misunderstood and thought that @Produces was just a replacement for Seam's @Factory and could only be used only on a method.

In my EJB I changed the annotation to Awcat to:

@Produces
private static Awcat selectedAwcat;

and now Awcat is injected from the XHTML with the value selected:

08:08:51,364 INFO  [com.nohagl.ejb.CategoriesBean] (default task-16) >>>>> selectedAwcatChanged selectedAwcat == com.nohagl.entities.Awcat[ awcat=Cycling ]

I've also removed my custom converter.

Many thanks for all your help.

- See more at: https://developer.jboss.org/message/934970#934970