I have a conversation-scoped SFSB backing bean with the following business methods:

@End
public void applyData(){
...
em.flush();
}

@Factory(value="totalUndefined", scope=ScopeType.EVENT)
public Long getTotalUndefined(){

Long totalUndefined = (Long)entityManager.createQuery("select count(*) "+
" from RecoveredEquipmentManagement rem "+
" where rem.recoveryType = ( SELECT lv.listValueId "+
" FROM ListValue lv, List l "+
" WHERE l.listId = lv.list.listId "+
" and l.listName = :recoveryType"+
" and lv.listValue = :undefined)")
.setParameter("recoveryType", RECOVERY_TYPE)                                                  
.setParameter("undefined", UNDEFINED)
.getSingleResult();

return totalUndefined;

}

The problem is that the following xhtml fragment is not being refreshed in time (in my test case, total number is expected to decrement by one):

<a4j:outputPanel ajaxRendered="true"> 
      <h:panelGrid columns="2"
             rendered="#{totalUndefined gt 0 and recoveredEquipmentManagementList.getRowCount() > 0}">
     <s:graphicImage value="/img/warning_red_lg.jpg"/>
      <h:outputText value="There are #{totalUndefined} undefined item number(s)."/>
      </h:panelGrid>
</a4j:outputPanel>

The @Factory method is executing before the applyData action-handler method for my a4j:commandButton.  Thus, the decremented value is not displayed in the JSF page.

How can I reverse the order of execution while still using @Factory pattern?  Alternatively, I could probably just simply call the public method directly and remove the @Factory annotation.  Ideally, I only wan that method to be executed once per HTTP rep/resp cycle (that's why it's EVENT scoped).

Also, I noticed in the debugger that the @Factory method is executing twice (at least in some cases) and there is a JPQL query in that method.  How best to handle that to avoid duplicate SQL executions in the same HTTP req/resp cycle?  Perhaps I can make the local variable an instance variable instead and check for null?