I have experienced a problem with the datascroller, when it is used in combination with tables that appear on several places with the same ID. This is roughly what I want to do:

main.jsp:

<h:panelGroup id="all">
<rich:tabPanel>
 <rich:tab>
 <rich:datascroller for="table" reRender="all"/>
 <a4j:include viewId="/sub.jsp" />
 </rich:tab>
 <rich:tab>
 <rich:datascroller for="table" reRender="all"/>
 <a4j:include viewId="/sub.jsp" />
 </rich:tab>
</rich:tabPanel>
</h:panelGroup>

sub.jsp:

<rich:dataTable id="table">
[...]
</rich:dataTable>

When using the datascroller on the second tab, it will update the contents of the first tab, even if it displays the paging of the second one.

Now I know that my problem is resolved when I put the datascrollers within the dataTable themselves:

<rich:dataTable>
 <f:facet name="header">
 <rich:datascroller for="table"/>
 </f:facet>
[...]
</rich:dataTable>

But I have several cosmetic reasons why I want to put the scroller outside the table structure. Also, I could duplicate sub.jsp so that different ID's are possible. But that would be annoying, as the two tabs' contents are very similar in structure.

I have found the problem in this method:

UIComponent org.ajax4jsf.renderkit.RendererUtils.findComponentFor(UIComponent, String):

// Lines 876-880
while (null == target && null != parent) {
 target = parent.findComponent(id);
 root = parent;
 parent = parent.getParent();
}

It is the UIComponent.findComponent(String) method marked in red that will not go look within the <a4j:include /> tags as specified, because <a4j:include /> is a NamingContainer. The funny thing is, a couple of lines below the correct method to use was implemented by the ajax4jsf people:

if (null == target) {
target = findUIComponentBelow(root, id);
}

This code explains, why in the end, the first tab is updated

I am using JSF 1.2.12 and RichFaces 3.3.0 GA on Tomcat 6.0.16