h:commandLink not working inside dataTable

Question

In my JSF file I have below at the start.

<h:form><h:commandLink value="Create New Staff Account" action="adminCreateStaffMember"/></h:form>.

By use of this, when I create on Create New Staff Account I get re-directed to the page where I have form to create new account.

BUT, When I use the same inside dataTable, NO ACTION is taken. I am still on same page :(

<h:dataTable var="c" value="#{newStaffMemberServiceBean.newStaffMemberDataBeanList}"
  styleClass="order-table"
  headerClass="order-table-header"
  rowClasses="order-table-odd-row,order-table-even-row"
  border="1" id="staffListDataTable" width="100%">

  <h:column>
    <f:facet name="header">
       Staff Member Name
    </f:facet>
    <h:form><h:commandLink value="Create New Staff Account" action="adminCreateStaffMember"/></h:form>
  </h:column>
</h:dataTable>

Actually what I wanted to print is details of respective staff member where I would be using f:setPropertyActionListener. But as above is not working, I won't go ahead.

Please suggest me where I am going wrong.

Update 1

My newStaffMemberServiceBean is in RequestScoped

@ManagedBean(name = "newStaffMemberServiceBean")
@RequestScoped
public class NewStaffMemberServiceBean {
    // some code
}

Update 2

HTML Generated are as below

Outside of dataTable

<div align="right">
<form id="j_idt35" name="j_idt35" method="post" action="/adminManageStaffMember" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
<input type="hidden" name="j_idt35" value="j_idt35" />
<a href="#" onclick="mojarra.jsfcljs(document.getElementById('j_idt35'),{'j_idt35:j_idt36':'j_idt35:j_idt36'},'');return false">Create New Staff Account</a><input type="hidden" name="javax.faces.ViewState" id="javax.faces.ViewState" value="2664682277023387375:-3250423983171933030" autocomplete="off" />
</form>

Inside dataTable

<form id="staffListDataTable:0:j_idt43" name="staffListDataTable:0:j_idt43" method="post" action="/adminManageStaffMember" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
<input type="hidden" name="staffListDataTable:0:j_idt43" value="staffListDataTable:0:j_idt43" />
<a href="#" onclick="mojarra.jsfcljs(document.getElementById('staffListDataTable:0:j_idt43'),{'staffListDataTable:0:j_idt43:j_idt45':'staffListDataTable:0:j_idt43:j_idt45'},'');return false">Create New Staff Account</a><input type="hidden" name="javax.faces.ViewState" id="javax.faces.ViewState" value="2664682277023387375:-3250423983171933030" autocomplete="off" />
</form>

This might be of some help http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8034428/hcommandbutton-not-working-inside-hdatatable — Narendra Yadala, Mar 11 '12 at 07:15
@NarendraYadala : After changing to `ViewScope` same error... — Fahim Parkar, Mar 11 '12 at 07:26

score 8 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 14 '20 at 18:13

8

I would suggest a few modifications for your original code:

don't use h:form for each of your commandLink, instead use one form for your dataTable.
the action will get executed only when it finds the component that triggered the aciton. If you use a request scoped list for your datatable then that list won’t be there when the view is restored or may not match the original one which was used to create the view. You may have to change the managed bean from request scope to view scope or higher.
as a suggestion, you can use h:outputLink or h:link instead of the commandLink and provide the f:param to simplify this, in which case you don't need the form also.

edited Jan 14 '20 at 18:13

wittich

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answered Mar 11 '12 at 08:32

prajeesh kumar

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Did you check with both moving your h:form outside the dataTable and then using viewscope ? If it doesn't work check with using sessionscope also. And then try adding immediate="true" to your commandLink. And if it is still not working, paste your relevent codes to the question. – prajeesh kumar Mar 11 '12 at 08:51
by use of `outputLink` I am re-directing to another page... finger crossed to get Id at another Page... – Fahim Parkar Mar 11 '12 at 09:12
In that page's managed bean you have to use `String value = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext() .getRequestParameterMap().get(key);` to get that parameter value. Your original posted code doesn't tell us anything about what you are actually looking for, try updating it and specify which are the pages you are talking about and which are the managed beans you are using and what all params you are looking for – prajeesh kumar Mar 11 '12 at 09:23

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 11 '12 at 07:58

2

Is your table being wrapped by another form ?

if that's the case and you got form inside form...

remove the form tags that wraps the <h:commandLink value="Create New Staff Account" action="adminCreateStaffMember"/>

something like this

<h:column>
    <f:facet name="header">
       Staff Member Name
    </f:facet>
    <h:commandLink value="Create New Staff Account" action="adminCreateStaffMember"/>
</h:column>

answered Mar 11 '12 at 07:58

Daniel

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try changing h:commandLink into h:commandButto , what jsf implementation are you using MyFaces ? Mojarra and what version ? – Daniel Mar 11 '12 at 08:15
I am using JSF 2.0... Also see my **Update 1** in question. – Fahim Parkar Mar 11 '12 at 08:16
look at this answer.. http://stackoverflow.com/a/8036815/617373 , and you better change the scope to View Scope... – Daniel Mar 11 '12 at 08:37

Luiggi Mendoza · Answer 3 · 2012-03-11T10:50:20.977

I guess your commandLink action method is wrong setted. You have this code:

<h:commandLink value="Create New Staff Account" action="adminCreateStaffMember"/>

You should have something like this:

<h:commandLink value="Create New Staff Account"
    action="#{newStaffMemberServiceBean.adminCreateStaffMember"/>

Besides, like @Daniel has posted, you must have only 1 form to wrap your dataTable and the commandLinks inside the dataTable.

UPDATE:

There is an important things you must know:

If you have a list as an attribute of your managed bean, this list is used to display info (i.e. using a dataTable) and you want to include some button or link inside the datatable, your managed bean MUST have a reference of the list in the creator. This can be achieved by at least 2 ways:

Save and load the list from session (very bad design, and it pretty hard to maintain the code).
Set the bean to ViewScoped (JSF2.x perspective. If you're with JSF 1.2, you can try the a4j:keepAlive tag from RichFaces or t:saveState from MyFaces).

Having said this, and since you're using JSF 2, you can use the ViewScope on your bean. With this, the bean won't be recreated after doing a request on the same view, so the list will be saved automatically inside the bean. The bean should look like this:

@ManagedBean(name = "newStaffMemberServiceBean")
@ViewScoped
public class NewStaffMemberServiceBean implements Serializable {
    private List<StaffMember> lstStaffMember;
    //getters and setters...
    public NewStaffMemberServiceBean() {
        //populate the list...
        lstStaffMember = new ArrayList<StaffMember>();
    }

    //managing the navigation using the id as a parameter
    //additional, this can (and MUST BE) improved.
    public String viewStaffMemberDetails() {
        //get the id parameter from the link
        int id = Integer.valueOf(FacesContext.getCurrentInstance()
            .getExternalContext().getRequestParameterMap().get("id"));
        //searching that id in our staff member list
        for(StaffMember sm : lstStaffMember) {
            if (sm.getId() == id) {
                //setting the staff member object in session
                FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext()
                    .getSessionMap().put("staffMember", sm);
                //returning the name of the page we want to navigate
                return "adminCreateStaffMember";
            }
        }
        return "";
    }
}

Now, let's check the xhtml. It's pretty simple:

<h:form>
    Welcome
    <br />
    <h:dataTable
        value="#{newStaffMemberServiceBean.lstStaffMember}"
        var="staffMember">
        <h:column>
            <f:facet name="header">
                Name
            </f:facet>
            <h:outputText value="#{staffMember.name}" />
        </h:column>
        <h:column>
            <f:facet name="header">
                View Details
            </f:facet>
            <h:commandLink value="Show details"
                action="#{newStaffMemberServiceBean.viewStaffMemberDetails}">
                <f:param name="id" value="#{staffMember.id}" />
            </h:commandLink>
        </h:column>
    </h:dataTable>
</h:form>

And that's it! You can navigate to adminCreateStaffMember.xhtml with no problems, and use the staffmember object in the adminCreateStaffMember managed bean to show the data (details). I've tried this code myself (I'm in a new pc so I have to check the code before posting, install software, etc...).

NO, `adminCreateStaffMember` is the page and I am calling the respective page onClicking event. — Fahim Parkar, Mar 11 '12 at 08:31
by use of ``, when I click on `Create New Staff Account` I get re-directed to `adminCreateStaffMember` page. — Fahim Parkar, Mar 11 '12 at 08:31
can you post the HTML rendered by both tries the commandLink outside dataTable and the link inside datatable? — Luiggi Mendoza, Mar 11 '12 at 08:33
yes that HTML code in a navigator :) how it looks, is the same link generated? there is a small difference? If it's the last case, maybe, just maybe, you should create a navigation rule and that link must call it (that will work in every scenario). — Luiggi Mendoza, Mar 11 '12 at 08:44
very odd, when your `commandLink` is inside a datatable, there is no ` DOM element =\ are you loading the datatable using ajax or something like that? — Luiggi Mendoza, Mar 11 '12 at 08:52
I mean, you populate the dataTable when the page starts or you populate it when the user __clicks__ a button or a link in your page and tada! the data appear out of nowhere (for users, of course) — Luiggi Mendoza, Mar 11 '12 at 08:57
Actually I m creating Admin side page. When Admin clicks on `Manage Staff`, `adminManageStaffMember` page get displayed. In this page I am displaying list of staff member. At the right top I have `Create New Staff Member` link. When I click on `Create ...`, page get opened. In table I am displaying all staff member name & their ID. **What I want to do is** When I click on Name**, respective staff member details should be displayed. To try instead of Name, I am currently using `Create New Account` link for **checking purpose**... BUT ITS NOT WORKING :( — Fahim Parkar, Mar 11 '12 at 09:01
I already got your problem. I'll edit my post trying to resolve your issue. — Luiggi Mendoza, Mar 11 '12 at 09:04
@FahimParkar If you update your question giving your exact requirement and all relevent parts of the code and remove unrelated things then you have a better chance of getting solution — prajeesh kumar, Mar 11 '12 at 09:04
@LuiggiMendoza : You said **I already got your problem. I'll edit my post trying to resolve your issue.** I am still waiting... — Fahim Parkar, Mar 11 '12 at 09:53
nope.. still working... I have kept all at session scope.. the problem is that when I click, it won't get re-directed to createStaffMember page.. it comes back to same page... — Fahim Parkar, Mar 11 '12 at 11:17
can you post all your xhtml page and your managed bean to check where could be your problem? — Luiggi Mendoza, Mar 11 '12 at 11:21

h:commandLink not working inside dataTable

Update 1

Update 2

3 Answers3

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