Hi, I play with the issue and I am able to display the message in the dialog with the action method:

    public String refreshObjectAction() throws Exception {
        try {
            throw new Exception("test error message!");
        } catch (Exception e) {
            FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addMessage(null,
                new FacesMessage(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR, e.getMessage(), e.getStackTrace()[0].toString()));
        }
       
        return null;
    }

 

and the dialog code:

<a4j:outputPanel ajaxRendered="true">
    <rich:modalPanel id="errorPanel" zindex="2000" resizeable="false" minWidth="100"
        minHeight="40" showWhenRendered="true">
        <f:facet name="header">Error</f:facet>
        <f:facet name="controls">
            <h:graphicImage value="/images/close.gif" style="cursor:pointer" onclick="Richfaces.hideModalPanel('errorPanel');" />
        </f:facet>
        <rich:panel styleClass="main_error_panel">
            <h:panelGrid columns="2" width="100%" columnClasses="image_col, message_col"
                style="margin:0px; padding:0px; border:5px">
                <h:graphicImage value="/images/bigError.gif" />       
                <rich:messages/>
            </h:panelGrid>
            <a4j:commandButton value="OK" styleClass="dialog_button"
                onclick="Richfaces.hideModalPanel('errorPanel'); return false;">
            </a4j:commandButton>
        </rich:panel>
    </rich:modalPanel>
</a4j:outputPanel>

As expected the dialog is displayed for every request.  If I replace the first line of the dialog code with

<a4j:outputPanel ajaxRendered="#{facesContext.maximumSeverity != null}">

The dialog does not show up at all.  Could someone told me why the condition "#{facesContext.maximumSeverity != null}" does not work and how to fix it?

Thanks,

-ZJ

Hi.  I still struggle with the issue and here is my current dialog code:

<a4j:outputPanel ajaxRendered="true" >
    <rich:modalPanel id="errorPanel" zindex="2000" resizeable="false" minWidth="100"
        minHeight="40" showWhenRendered="true">
        <f:facet name="header">Error</f:facet>
        <f:facet name="controls">
            <h:graphicImage value="/images/close.gif" style="cursor:pointer" onclick="Richfaces.hideModalPanel('errorPanel');" />
        </f:facet>
            Is message queue empty? "#{empty facesMessages.currentGlobalMessages}"
            <br/>
            <rich:messages globalOnly="true">
            </rich:messages>
            <br/>
            <a4j:commandButton value="OK" styleClass="dialog_button"
                onclick="Richfaces.hideModalPanel('errorPanel'); return false;">
            </a4j:commandButton>
    </rich:modalPanel>
</a4j:outputPanel>

The #{empty facesMessages.currentGlobalMessages} always returns "true" while <rich:messages> displays the message set in the action method.   Could someone shed light on it?

Thanks,

-ZJ

Finally I solved the problem and I want to share my solution here. The dialog looks like

<a4j:outputPanel ajaxRendered="true" >
    <rich:modalPanel id="errorPanel" zindex="2000" resizeable="false"
        autosized="true" showWhenRendered="#{apiException}">

...

and method:

        try {
            throw new Exception("test error message!");
        } catch (Exception e) {
            FacesContext fc = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
            HttpServletRequest request = (HttpServletRequest) fc.getExternalContext().getRequest();
            request.setAttribute("apiException", "true");
            fc.addMessage(null, new FacesMessage(FacesMessage.SEVERITY_ERROR, e.getMessage(), ""));
        }

cheers,
-ZJ