I'm trying to create a jsf custom table component extending HtmlDataTable. I need to implement pagination so I want to incorporate command links for first, last, next, and prev. How do I get the commandLinks to fire the methods in the component to update its attributes and reRender the entire component. I was moving in the direction of using A4J, but could not get the reRendering to occur. Here is what I have so far.

/*
 * Created on Jul 19, 2004
 *
 */
package net.em.com.components;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import javax.el.ValueExpression;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.faces.component.html.HtmlDataTable;
import javax.faces.component.html.HtmlOutputText;
import net.em.com.tags.table.ListAlgorithm;
import org.ajax4jsf.ajax.html.HtmlAjaxCommandLink;
import org.ajax4jsf.framework.ajax.AjaxEvent;
import org.ajax4jsf.framework.ajax.AjaxListener;
import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;

public class UITable extends HtmlDataTable implements AjaxListener {

 private static final Log log = LogFactory.getLog(UITable.class);

 // To support commands on the data prior to sorting and pagination
 private Class algorithm = null;
 private String algorithmCriteria = "";
 private boolean algorithmApplied = false ;

 // To Support pagination
 private boolean paginate = false ;
 private int pageSize = 10 ;
 private int currentPage = 1 ;
 private String firstTxt = "First" ;
 private String lastTxt = "Last" ;

 //To Support AJAX
 private String reRender ;
 private String eventsQueue = "dummy" ;
 private int requestDelay = 10 ;

 public void processAjax(AjaxEvent event) {
 Object j = event ;
 }

 public Object saveState(FacesContext context) {
 return super.saveState(context);
 }
 public void restoreState(FacesContext context, Object state) {
 super.setRendered(true) ;
 this.currentPage = 3 ;
 super.restoreState(context, state);

 }
 public String getFamily(){
 return "em.EmTable";
 }
 public String getRendererType(){
 return "javax.faces.Table";
 }

 public String getAlgorithmCriteria() {
 return algorithmCriteria;
 }

 public void setAlgorithmCriteria(String algorithmCriteria) {
 this.algorithmCriteria = algorithmCriteria;
 }

 public String getAlgorithmClass() {
 return (this.algorithm != null) ? this.algorithm.toString() : "";
 }

 public void setAlgorithmClass(String val) {
 if(val.length() > 0) {
 try {
 this.algorithm = Class.forName(val);
 if(!IterableAlgorithm.class.isAssignableFrom(this.algorithm)) {
 this.algorithm = null;
 }
 } catch (Exception e) {
 this.algorithm = null;
 }
 } else {
 this.algorithm = null;
 }
 if(this.algorithm == null) {
 log.info(this.getClass().toString() + ":setAlgorithm(String className)");
 log.info(val + "not of type: " + ListAlgorithm.class.toString());
 } else {
 this.algorithmApplied = false ;
 }
 }

 public void setValue(Object value) {
 this.algorithmApplied = false ;
 if(!Iterable.class.isAssignableFrom(value.getClass())) {
 ArrayList list = new ArrayList() ;
 list.add(value) ;
 super.setValue(list) ;
 } else {
 super.setValue(value) ;
 }
 }

 public Object getValue() {
 if(this.algorithmApplied == false && this.algorithm != null) {
 this.algorithmApplied = true ;
 setValue(applyAlgorithm((Iterable)super.getValue())) ;
 }
 if(isPaginate()){
 setRows(this.getPageSize());
 }
 //return retVal ;
 return super.getValue();
 }

 public void next() {
 setFirst(getFirst() + getPageSize());
 setCurrentPage(getCurrentPage() + 1);
 //enable prev
 if((getFirst() + getPageSize()) >= getRows()){
 //no more rows to display, disable "next" button?
 }
 }
 public void prev() {


 if((getFirst() - getPageSize()) < 0){
 setFirst(0);
 setCurrentPage(1);
 //hit start of table, diable "prev" button?
 }else{
 setFirst(getFirst() - getPageSize());
 setCurrentPage(getCurrentPage() - 1);
 //enable next
 }
 }
 public void last() {
 this.setFirst((getRows()/getPageSize()) * getPageSize());
 this.setCurrentPage(getRows()/getPageSize());
 //disable next, enable prev

 }
 public void first() {
 setFirst(0);
 setCurrentPage(1);

 //disable prev, enable next
 }
 public int getCurrentPage() {
 return (Integer)getProperty("currentPage", this.currentPage) ;
 }

 public void setCurrentPage(int currentPage) {
 this.currentPage = currentPage;
 }

 private Iterable applyAlgorithm(Iterable original) {
 this.algorithmApplied = true;
 Iterable results;
 try {
 IterableAlgorithm a = (IterableAlgorithm)this.algorithm.newInstance();
 a.setCriteria(this.getAlgorithmCriteria());
 results = a.Manipulate(original);
 } catch (Exception e) {
 e.printStackTrace();
 log.info(this.getClass().toString() + ":applyAlgorithm()");
 log.info(this.algorithm.toString() + " must support non parametized constructor" );
 log.info("algorithm not applied");

 results = original;
 }
 return results;
 }

 public boolean isPaginate() {
 return (Boolean)getProperty("paginate", this.paginate) ;
 }

 public void setPaginate(boolean paginate) {
 this.paginate = paginate;
 }

 public int getPageSize() {
 return (Integer)getProperty("pageSize", this.pageSize) ;
 }

 public void setPageSize(int pageSize) {
 this.pageSize = pageSize;
 }

 private Object getProperty(String att, Object field) {
 if (field != null) return field;
 ValueExpression ve = this.getValueExpression(att);
 if (ve != null) return (String) ve.getValue(this.getFacesContext().getELContext());
 return null;
 }

 public HtmlAjaxCommandLink getCmdLnkLast(FacesContext facesCtx) {

 HtmlAjaxCommandLink cmdLnkLast = (HtmlAjaxCommandLink)getComponent(facesCtx, HtmlAjaxCommandLink.COMPONENT_TYPE) ;
 cmdLnkLast.setParent(this) ;
 cmdLnkLast.setId(this.getId() + "_LAST");
 cmdLnkLast.setReRender(this.getId()) ;
 cmdLnkLast.setRequestDelay(this.requestDelay) ;
 cmdLnkLast.setEventsQueue(this.eventsQueue) ;

 HtmlOutputText text = (HtmlOutputText)getComponent(facesCtx, HtmlOutputText.COMPONENT_TYPE) ;
 text.setValue(this.lastTxt) ;

 cmdLnkLast.getChildren().add(text) ;

 return cmdLnkLast;
 }

 private Object getComponent(FacesContext facesCtx, String name) {
 return facesCtx.getApplication().createComponent(name) ;
 }

 public void setReRender(String reRender) {
 this.reRender = reRender;
 }
}


/*
 * Created on Jul 19, 2004
 *
 */
package net.em.com.components;

import com.sun.faces.renderkit.html_basic.TableRenderer;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.faces.component.UIComponent;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.faces.render.Renderer;

public class UITableRenderer extends TableRenderer {


 public void encodeBegin(FacesContext context, UIComponent component) throws IOException {
 UITable table = (UITable)component ;

 render(context, table.getCmdLnkLast(context)) ;

 super.encodeBegin(context, component) ;
 }
 public void encodeEnd(FacesContext context, UIComponent component) throws IOException {
 super.encodeEnd(context, component) ;
 }
 public void decode(FacesContext context, UIComponent component) {
 super.decode(context, component) ;
 }

 private void render(FacesContext context, UIComponent component) throws IOException {
 Renderer renderer = getRendererFor(context, component) ;
 renderer.encodeBegin(context, component) ;
 renderer.encodeChildren(context, component) ;
 renderer.encodeEnd(context, component) ;
 }

 private Renderer getRendererFor(FacesContext context, UIComponent c) {
 return context.getRenderKit().getRenderer(c.getFamily(), c.getRendererType());
 }

}