Develop Reference

ColorPicker on jsf page

I need color picker on my page.
First, I placed Primefaces' colorpicker, but when I tried to use it, I received "IllegalArgumentException: text/xml is not a supported mime type". Probably this occurs because I use my own jquery library, which has no colorpicker element, and it overrides Primefaces' one.
So, I tried it in other way. I used "jscolor" library which turns any input field to colorpicker. I got component:
<h:inputText value="#{searchManagedBean.selectedColor}" class="color"/>
It works perfectly, but when I submit form, value in backing bean doesn't update. In backing bean I have getter and setter for this field, so I can't figure out what is the reason of this problem.
Could you help me with one of these problems, or maybe provide another solution?
Thanks!

I found the solution. If I update the value in some other element, value in backing bean updates too. So, now I have something like this:
<h:inputText value="#{searchManagedBean.selectedColor}" class="color">
<p:ajax event="change" update="outcolor"/>
</h:inputText>
<h:outputText style="display: none" id="outcolor" value="#searchManagedBean.selectedColor}"/>
For me, it's very strange behaviour. I don't know why it works, but it works!

Validation for checking the field value before submitting the page to the server

I have developed an JSF and richfaces based application, Here I want to know about a nice way to throw the warning to the user if described field (Rich:inplaceInput) is empty
I have created rich:extendedDataTable in which one of the column is this...
<rich:column width="120" id="col15" label="yardNo">
<f:facet name="header">
<h:outputText value="Yard Number"></h:outputText>
</f:facet>
<rich:inplaceInput value="#{r.runSlNo}" defaultLabel="Assign Manual Number"
inputWidth="90" showControls="true"/>
</rich:column>
and i have created a rich:contextMenu for displaying menu like this...
One commandbutton is also there for submitting the page.
I have two problems over here regarding rich:inplaceInput.
first,
I just dont want to allow the user to submit the page if the rich:InplaceInput value field is empty, rather throw an warning to fill it.
I know how to throw the error or warning before submitting the page.
Second, how can i avoid displaying contextMenu over rich:InplaceInput value but let it display at other 4 columns....

you can add required="true" to inplaceInput that way you wont submit the form... and you add h:messages bellow the table to display the error of required field or try adding h:message with for="id_of_the_rich:inplaceInput" and locate the h:message bellow the <rich:inplaceInput

a4j: outputPanel ReRender does not work

I have a an a4j:outputPanel that is rendered based on some boolean condition:
<a4j:outputPanel id="someDisplayRegion" rendered="#{doc.ready &&amp someClass.someBooleanMethod}">
// bunch of stuff //
</a4j:outputPanel>
Then on the same .xhtml page, I have a drop-down menu and selecting one of its options should reRender the above region:
<rich:dropDownMenu>
<f:facet name="label">
<a4j:commandLink styleClass="btn-pulldown">
<span><h:outputText value="Export"></h:outputText></span>
<span class="opener"></span>
</a4j:commandLink>
</f:facet>
<rich:menuItem submitMode="none">
<s:link
rendered="#{someOtherBooleanMethod}"
value="#exportDoc"
action="#{runSomething.exportDoc()}"
reRender="someDisplayRegion"
target="downloadfile"
><s:conversationId /></s:link>
</rich:menuItem>
</rich:dropDownMenu>
However, when I click on the menu item from the drop-down menu, it does not go into someClass.someBooleanMethod and thus, does not re-render someDisplayRegion. Am I doing something wrong?

Consider this point of the RichFaces documentation:
As with most Ajax frameworks, you should not attempt to append or
delete elements on a page using RichFaces Ajax, but should instead
replace them. As such, elements that are rendered conditionally should
not be targeted in the render attributes for Ajax controls. For
successful updates, an element with the same identifier as in the
response must exist on the page. If it is necessary to append code to
a page, include a placeholder for it (an empty element).
So add a wrapper around your outputPanel and target the wrapper in the reRender attribute.
<a4j:outputPanel id="wrapper">
<a4j:outputPanel id="someDisplayRegion" rendered="#{doc.ready && someClass.someBooleanMethod}">
// bunch of stuff //
</a4j:outputPanel>
</a4j:outputPanel>
<s:link reRender="wrapper" [...] />

s:link doesn't have reRender attribute, it's only available on RichFaces components.

rich:menuItem and s:link aren't the best of friends. (especially not in earlier version of RichFaces).
Is there a specific reason why you want to use s:link here ?
Putting the action and the reRender on the menuItem itself should work fine.

I don't understand why you think clicking on the menu item should go into someClass.someBooleanMethod and not into runSomething.exportDoc(). At what point are doc.ready and someClass.someBooleanMethod being set to true? You might put a debugging statement in your code that verifies these are being set to true. If they are set to true and your a4j:outputPanel is still not rendering then you have a problem. I use the s:link as you do here and it works, but I remember having to fiddle with it. Make sure the action fired in the s:link returns a String. "actions" have to return strings that can be used for navigation though in my case the page navigates to itself (like yours).

I need a button that performs an action but doesn't trigger validation or refreshes the page(JSF 2.0)

I need you to recommend me a JSF component that can help in the following scenario(I will first paste an image that will help me explain):
This page that you see in the image is a registration page, each of the panels have different fields and gadgets, when the register button is clicked, a new user is saved into the database.
The problem i have is in the show buttons. The buttons on top of each panel when clicked should display one panel and hide the other, but they must not trigger the field validation.
I use field validation by the attribute "validator"(in combination with a backing bean method) that most of JSF input fields have.
Currently everything that you see there is inside one h:form.
-what should i do to display a panel and hide the other without triggering the validation of the panel that is hiding?
-Is there another alternative to the h:commandLink or h:commandButton(they trigger the validation)?
-Putting each panel in a different h:form can do the trick?(Is that permited?)
-What do you think would be the best approach?

Use p:tabView Of primefaces, then put your contents(registration panels) in separate tab, use separate form for both of the tab, it will solve your problem....
e.g.
<p:tabView>
<p:tab title="panel1">
<h:form id="form1" prependId="false">
<h:inputText label="Sample Label"/>
<p:commandButton value="register"/>
</h:form>
</p:tab>
<p:tab title="panel2">
<h:form id="form2" prependId="false">
<h:inputText label="Sample Label"/>
<p:commandButton value="register"/>
</h:form>
</p:tab>
</p:tabView>

-what should i do to display a panel and hide the other without triggering the validation of the panel that is hiding?
Use two h:form
s there another alternative to the h:commandLink or h:commandButton(they trigger the validation)?
to make POST you must only use them
I would have used rich:modalpanel for this purpose

For the panel's toggle, Why don't you use JavaScript?
<h:commandButton value="Show panel 1" onclick="$('#panel1').hide();$('#panel2').show();return false;"/>
The return false will restrict the page from submitting, hence page won't refresh and since no data is posted back to server, validation phase will never execute.
Bottom line : IMHO this can be handled at client side itself.

You are aware of the immediate attribute, allowing to refresh without changing data.
Unfortunately it doesn't remember changes entered, so you might end up in the validation explicitly being done in your action instead of by JSF itself.

How to use RichFaces a4j:commandButton not using submit

I have an a4j:commandButton which looks like this
<a4j:commandButton id="stopBtn" type="button" reRender="lastOp"
action="#{MyBacking.stop}" value="Stop" />
</a4j:commandButton>
When the app is deployed, and the button clicked, the stop() method is not being called. All the a4j:commandButton examples refer to forms, but this button is not in a form - it's a button the user is going to use to cause the server to run some back-end logic. At the moment, the method is
public void stopNode() {
logger.info("STOPPING");
setLastOp("Stopped.");
}
Other methods which don't use this type of button are updating the lastOp field, but I'm not seeing anything on the console with this one. Am I right to cast this as a button? Should I put this in a h:form tag?
The firebug console says:
this._form is null
which I don't understand.
Any help well appreciated.

UICommand components ought to be placed inside an UIForm component. So, your guess
Should I put this in a h:form tag?
is entirely correct :) This because they fire a POST request and the only (normal) way for that is using a HTML <form> element whose method attribute is set to "post". Firebug also says that a parent form element is been expected, but it resolved to null and thus no actions can be taken place.
Only "plain vanilla" links like h:outputLink and consorts doesn't need a form, because they just fires a GET request.

Yes, wrap it in a form. I'm sure BalusC will post a detailed explanation while I'm typing my answer. (yup, there it is)
I have to ask why you didn't just try a form first, before posting here.

Look at your code:
<a4j:commandButton id="stopBtn" type="button" reRender="lastOp" action="#{MyBacking.stop}" value="Stop" />
You finished <a4j:commandButton with />, why need that orphan </a4j:commandButton> ?

If for some reason you don't want to place the button inside a form, you can do something like this:
<a4j:commandButton onclick="fireAjax()"/>
<h:form>
<a4j:jsFunction name="fireAjax" action=".."/>
</h:form>