- 

Available since OmniFaces 1.0

Collection of utility methods for the Faces API with respect to working with UIComponent. There are several traversal/lookup methods, there are several UIForm and UIInput related methods which makes it easier to deal with forms and inputs.

Usage

Here are some examples:

// Get closest parent of given type.
UIForm form = Components.getClosestParent(someUIInputComponent, UIForm.class);
// Get currently submitted form.
UIForm form = Components.getCurrentForm();
// Get currently invoked command, useful for logging actions in a phase listener.
UICommand command = Components.getCurrentCommand();
// Get the label of the given UIInput component as Faces uses for validation messages.
String label = Components.getLabel(someUIInputComponent);
// Inside decode() and/or encode() of some custom component, validate if it has no children.
Components.validateHasNoChildren(this);
// Programmatically include composite component.
Components.includeCompositeComponent(someParentComponent, libraryName, tagName, id);
// Programmatically create value and action expressions.
UICommand command = new HtmlCommandButton();
command.setId("foo");
command.setValue(Components.createValueExpression("#{bundle['button.foo']}", String.class));
command.addClientBehavior("action", Components.createAjaxBehavior("#{bean.ajaxListener}"));
command.addActionListener(Components.createActionListenerMethodExpression("#{bean.actionListener}"));
command.setActionExpression(Components.createVoidMethodExpression("#{bean.action}"));
// Programmatically capture HTML output of a given view.
String mailHtml = Components.encodeHtml(Components.buildView("/WEB-INF/mail-template.xhtml"));
// Collecting all queued actions and action listeners as method expression strings in a logging phase listener.
List<String> actions = Components.getActionExpressionsAndListeners(Components.getCurrentActionSource());

For a full list, check the method summary.

Feature request

If you know more useful methods/functions which you think should be added to this OmniFaces utility class so that everyone can benefit from a "standard" Faces utility library, feel free to post a feature request.

Demo

The following shows a utility method for easily invoking an operation on each component in a component tree using the builder pattern.

Count of all components on this page:
700

The following is a rendering of a panel group with several nested components, which will be used for the examples below.


first textfirst nested textsecond text

All IDs of the components in the panel group rendered above:
[mainGroup, firstText, nestedGroup, nestedText, secondText]

All IDs of outputText components in the panel group rendered above:
[firstText, nestedText, secondText]

Demo source code
<p>
    The following shows a utility method for easily invoking an operation on each
    component in a component tree using the builder pattern.
</p>
<p>
    Count of all components on this page:
    <br/>
    #{treeWalkingBean.pageComponentCount}
</p>
<p>
    The following is a rendering of a panel group with several nested components, which will
    be used for the examples below.
</p>

<hr/>

<h:panelGroup id="mainGroup" binding="#{treeWalkingBean.component}">
    <h:outputText id="firstText" value="first text" />
        <h:panelGroup id="nestedGroup">
            <h:outputText id="nestedText" value="first nested text" />
        </h:panelGroup>
    <h:outputText id="secondText" value="second text" />
</h:panelGroup>

<hr/>

<p>
    All IDs of the components in the panel group rendered above: 
    <br/>
    #{treeWalkingBean.allIdsInGroup}
</p>
<p>
    All IDs of outputText components in the panel group rendered above:
    <br/>
    #{treeWalkingBean.textIdsInGroup}
</p>
Documentation & Sources