Two primefaces calendar component validation

Question

I've a form in JSF 2 where I'm using a double field to specify a range of dates. The aim of that is not to let the user to pick a first date which is before the second one. So I want to perform a validation before the form is sent, using p:calendar components. What I do is to tie a validator to the second calendar input in order to access the first component internally and compare dates.

Here it is my xhtml page:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
    xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
    xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
    xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
    xmlns:p="http://primefaces.org/ui">

<h:head />
<h:body>
    <h:form id="date_form">
        <p:calendar id="date1input" value="#{dateTestBean.date1}" />
        <p:calendar value="#{dateTestBean.date2}" validator="dateValidator">
            <f:attribute name="date1" value="#{date1input}" />
        </p:calendar>
        <p:commandButton value="Submit" action="#{dateTestBean.submit}"
            ajax="false" />
    </h:form>
</h:body>
</html>

My managed bean:

@ManagedBean
@ViewScoped
public class DateTestBean {

    private Date date1;

    private Date date2;

    public Date getDate1() {
        return date1;
    }

    public void setDate1(Date date1) {
        this.date1 = date1;
    }

    public Date getDate2() {
        return date2;
    }

    public void setDate2(Date date2) {
        this.date2 = date2;
    }

    public void submit() {
        System.out.println("Submited " + date1 + " " + date2);
    }

}

My validator class:

@FacesValidator(value = "dateValidator")
public class DateValidator implements Validator {

    @Override
    public void validate(FacesContext context, UIComponent component,
            Object value) throws ValidatorException {
        System.out.println(((UIInput) context.getViewRoot().findComponent(
                "date_form:date1input")).getValue());
        UIInput date = (UIInput) component.getAttributes().get("date1");
        System.out.println(date);
        //Will perform date comparison
    }
}

The output I get here sending 2013-10-10 as first date and 2013-10-12 as second one is:

Thu Oct 10 00:00:00 CEST 2013

null

Submited Thu Oct 10 00:00:00 CEST 2013 Sat Oct 12 00:00:00 CEST 2013

Which suggests f:attribute tag is not working for p:calendar component as it does for other input components. However, I can access the first calendar via view root, but enforces me to know the entire path of the client id of the component I want to validate. Both values are set in the managed bean later with no issues.

A workaround would be to use an ajax call when first date changes in order to place it in the model and send it as date itself in the f:attribute instead of sending the UIInput (I'm already doing it that way).

Isn't there a better way? Perhaps I have to join them in a single component like in this case?

The `#{date1input}` doesn't refer `id="date1input"`, instead it's supposed to refer `binding="#{date1input}"`. Check those examples more carefully. — BalusC, Oct 28 '13 at 12:56
possible duplicate of [Date range validation](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19093192/date-range-validation) — BalusC, Oct 28 '13 at 12:57
That's true! I haven't seen that, it makes sense because what you're passing is the binded component's reference instead of the id itself. But also enforces you to have it binded, which is IMHO a negative point. Probably the best bet is implementing a double input based component and validating it in one go. — Aritz, Oct 28 '13 at 14:52
As to your apparent aversion against using `binding`: carefully read [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14911158/how-binding-attribute-in-jsf-works) how to properly use it. It's indeed evil when misunderstood and misused. As to "best" approach, have you looked at the OmniFaces way in the linked duplicate? No binding, no f:attribute, no other mess. Just a `` tag and that's it. — BalusC, Oct 28 '13 at 14:59
Many thanks @BalusC, Omnifaces helped me to achieve that. However it seems to break when at least one of the components is null (NPE). My components are not required, I only want to check their order if both of them are not null. It seems not to be specified in the documentation, neither in [validateOrder](http://wiki.omnifaces.googlecode.com/hg/vdldoc/o/validateOrder.html) or [validateAll](http://wiki.omnifaces.googlecode.com/hg/vdldoc/o/validateAll.html). Anyway, thanks for your contribution! — Aritz, Oct 30 '13 at 07:59

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:30

From your code,

<p:calendar id="date1input" ... />
<p:calendar ...>
    <f:attribute name="date1" value="#{date1input}" />
</p:calendar>

The #{date1input} isn't represented by id="date1input". As shown on those code examples, it's represented by binding="#{date1input}".

Fix it accordingly:

<p:calendar binding="#{date1input}" ... />
<p:calendar ...>
    <f:attribute name="date1" value="#{date1input}" />
</p:calendar>

                            <p:calendar
                                id="startdate"
                                value="#{bean.startdate}">
                                <p:ajax
                                    event="dateSelect"
                                    listener="#{origemBean.listener}"
                                    update="@form" />
                            </p:calendar>                   
                            <p:calendar
                                id="enddate"
                                disabled="#{empty bean.startdate}"
                                value="#{bean.enddate}"
                                mindate="#{bean.startdate}">
                                <p:ajax
                                    event="dateSelect"
                                    listener="#{bean.listener}"
                                    update="@form" />
                            </p:calendar>

On the managed bean, just verify if the startdate is after enddate and treat them.

Two primefaces calendar component validation

2 Answers2

See also:

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