I've scoured the forum and docs trying to figure this out and have been unsuccessfull, so hopefully someone can steer me in the right direction.

I have a page that displays a set of dataTable elements. The scenario is that I have a bunch of objects that can be categorized. The list of categories is dynamic. On the page, I am iterating over each category (using ui:repeat) and displaying a dataTable for each category. The dataTable snippet currently looks like:

<ui:repeat value="#{allCategories}" var="category">
 <rich:dataTable width="100%" var="record" value="#{calculationManager.findCalculations(category.id)}">
 <rich:column>
 <h:outputText value="#{record.calculation)}"/>
 </rich:column>
 </rich:dataTable>
</ui:repeat>

The allCategories property is backed by a DataModel, this is fine. The dataTables are being populated by a bean (referenced by calculationManager) that contains the following:

public List<FinancialCalculation> findCalculations(int categoryId) {
 return (List <FinancialCalculation>)em.createQuery("select f from FinancialCalculation f where category_id=:c")
 .setParameter("c", categoryId)
 .getResultList();
}

This is displaying as I want. However, my next step is that each item in each table needs to be clickable (it will take the user to a details page).

There are two options that I've thought of. First, I can use a commandLink and pass an id of the selected item through it, then look up the object in the method that is called. I haven't done it, but can't think of why it wouldn't work. It just doesn't feel "correct".

The second was to switch to using a DataModel to back each table and use the DataModelSelection functionality. This is what I think I should be doing. The problem is, I don't know how to create the DataModel using a factory method that needs to take a parameter (ie, make the findCalculations method above be a factory). Alternatively, I could remove the method parameters and add an injected property:

@In private Integer categoryId

But then I don't know how to have the proper value injected for each of the dataTables.

Did I explain that clearly? If so, any suggestions?

Thanks!
Matt