Dynamically generate ice:commandButton components

I've been trying a lot of different things that I would think would work like expected. However, they are causing me some frustration. Here's the scoop:

I am using ICEFaces 1.8 components in a Java EE web application. My goal is to render a bunch of ice:commandButtons on the page based on a query to my database. I want these buttons to be able to toggle selections that I will later use for parameters to another query to the database (basically a query front end of sorts for a set of users). I would like the output to look like so:

Deselected

When I click on a button, I would like the following update to my page:

Selected

When I created the buttons on my page statically, as such:

<ice:commandButton id="seasonSEP09" style="background-color: #FFFFFF;" partialSubmit="true" actionListener="#{bean.updateSeasons}" value="2009-2010" />
<ice:commandButton id="seasonSEP08" style="background-color: #FFFFFF;" partialSubmit="true" actionListener="#{bean.updateSeasons}" value="2008-2009" />
<ice:commandButton id="seasonSEP07" style="background-color: #FFFFFF;" partialSubmit="true" actionListener="#{bean.updateSeasons}" value="2007-2008" />
<ice:commandButton id="seasonSEP06" style="background-color: #FFFFFF;" partialSubmit="true" actionListener="#{bean.updateSeasons}" value="2006-2007" />

this works great, and each button works individually as I would expect. My backing bean is updated, the parameters are correctly added in updateSeasons() method, and my output at the end yields the correct records.

However, I know this is not what I want. I don't want to update these anytime another season is entered in the system. Maintainance nightmare, right?

So what I want to do is dynamically generate these ice:commandButton components based on my database table full of Season objects. Here is the Season class I am using:

public class Season
{
    String StartMonth;
    String Season;

    public String getStartMonth()
    {
        return StartMonth;
    }
    public void setStartMonth(String startMonth)
    {
        StartMonth = sweep;
    }    
    public void setSeason(String season)
    {
        Season = season;
    }
    public String getSeason()
    {
        return Season;
    }
}

Very straightforward. Two properties, which I'm guaranteed to be unique in the database.

Here is the backing bean I am using:

public class Bean
{
    public Bean()
    {
        defineSeasonsList();
    }

    public List<HtmlCommandButton> seasonsList;

    // seasonsList getter & setter omitted

    public List<String> selectedSeasons;

    // selectedSeasons getter & setter omitted

    private void defineSeasonsList()
    {
        seasonsList = new ArrayList<HtmlCommandButton>();
        selectedSeasons = new ArrayList<String>();

        try
        {
            hibernate.openTransaction();

            for(Season season:defineSeasonsListFromDataSource()))
            {
                HtmlCommandButton button = new HtmlCommandButton();

                button.setId("season" + season.getStartMonth());
                button.setValue(season.getSeason);
                button.setStyle("background-color: #FFFFFF;");
                button.setPartialSubmit(true);

                seasonsList.add(button);
            }                         
        } 
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            System.out.println("Error defining seasons list: " + e.getMessage());
        }
        finally
        {
            hibernate.commitTransaction();
        }               
    }

    public void updateSeasons(ActionEvent ae)
    {
        HtmlCommandButton selected = (HtmlCommandButton) ae.getComponent();

        if(selectedSeasons.contains(selected.getValue().toString()))
        {
            selectedSeasons.remove(selected.getValue().toString());   
            selected.setStyle("background: #FFFFFF;");
        }
        else
        {
            selectedSeasons.add(selected.getValue().toString());
            selected.setStyle("background: #009DD9; color: #FFFFFF;");
        }
    }
}

OK, so here comes my dilemma(s).

First, I tried to render this markup:

<p>
    <ice:panelGroup>
        <ice:panelSeries id="seasonsList" value="#{bean.seasonsList}" var="season">
                <ice:commandButton binding="#{season}"/>                                        
        </ice:panelSeries>
    </ice:panelGroup>
</p>

And I get this output:

Bad Buttons

So, being frustrated and adventurous, I tried to render this markup to achieve my goal:

<p>
    <ice:panelGroup>
        <ice:panelSeries id="seasonsList" value="#{bean.seasonsList}" var="season">
                <ice:commandButton id="#{season.id}" partialSubmit="true" style="background-color: #FFFFFF" value="#{season.value}" actionListener="#{bean.updateSeasons}"/>                                        
        </ice:panelSeries>
    </ice:panelGroup>
</p>

Which yielded the following stacktrace:

Aug 4, 2009 2:28:11 PM com.sun.faces.lifecycle.Phase doPhase SEVERE: JSF1054: (Phase ID: RENDER_RESPONSE 6, View ID: /phase1.jspx) Exception thrown during phase execution: javax.faces.event.PhaseEvent[source=com.sun.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl@1a477b7] Aug 4, 2009 2:28:11 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve invoke SEVERE: Servlet.service() for servlet Persistent Faces Servlet threw exception java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: #{season.id} at javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.validateId(UIComponentBase.java:549) at javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.setId(UIComponentBase.java:351) at javax.faces.webapp.UIComponentTag.createComponent(UIComponentTag.java:219) at javax.faces.webapp.UIComponentClassicTagBase.createChild(UIComponentClassicTagBase.java:486) at javax.faces.webapp.UIComponentClassicTagBase.findComponent(UIComponentClassicTagBase.java:670) at javax.faces.webapp.UIComponentClassicTagBase.doStartTag(UIComponentClassicTagBase.java:1142) at com.icesoft.faces.component.CommandButtonTag.doStartTag(CommandButtonTag.java:741) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.parser.Parser.executeJspLifecycle(Parser.java:204) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.parser.Parser.executeJspLifecycle(Parser.java:229) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.parser.Parser.executeJspLifecycle(Parser.java:229) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.parser.Parser.executeJspLifecycle(Parser.java:229) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.parser.Parser.executeJspLifecycle(Parser.java:229) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.parser.Parser.executeJspLifecycle(Parser.java:229) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.parser.Parser.executeJspLifecycle(Parser.java:229) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.parser.Parser.executeJspLifecycle(Parser.java:229) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.parser.Parser.executeJspLifecycle(Parser.java:229) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.parser.Parser.executeJspLifecycle(Parser.java:229) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.parser.Parser.executeJspLifecycle(Parser.java:229) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.parser.Parser.executeJspLifecycle(Parser.java:229) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.parser.Parser.parse(Parser.java:162) at com.icesoft.faces.application.D2DViewHandler.renderResponse(D2DViewHandler.java:464) at com.icesoft.faces.application.D2DViewHandler.renderView(D2DViewHandler.java:153) at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.RenderResponsePhase.execute(RenderResponsePhase.java:110) at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.Phase.doPhase(Phase.java:100) at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.render(LifecycleImpl.java:139) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.core.JsfLifecycleExecutor.apply(JsfLifecycleExecutor.java:17) at com.icesoft.faces.context.View$2$1.respond(View.java:47) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.servlet.ServletRequestResponse.respondWith(ServletRequestResponse.java:197) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.servlet.ThreadBlockingAdaptingServlet$ThreadBlockingRequestResponse.respondWith(ThreadBlockingAdaptingServlet.java:36) at com.icesoft.faces.context.View$2.serve(View.java:72) at com.icesoft.faces.context.View.servePage(View.java:133) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.core.SingleViewServer.service(SingleViewServer.java:52) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.common.ServerProxy.service(ServerProxy.java:11) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.servlet.MainSessionBoundServlet$4.service(MainSessionBoundServlet.java:114) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.common.standard.PathDispatcherServer.service(PathDispatcherServer.java:24) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.servlet.MainSessionBoundServlet.service(MainSessionBoundServlet.java:160) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.servlet.SessionDispatcher$1.service(SessionDispatcher.java:42) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.servlet.ThreadBlockingAdaptingServlet.service(ThreadBlockingAdaptingServlet.java:19) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.servlet.EnvironmentAdaptingServlet.service(EnvironmentAdaptingServlet.java:63) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.servlet.SessionDispatcher.service(SessionDispatcher.java:62) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.servlet.PathDispatcher.service(PathDispatcher.java:23) at com.icesoft.faces.webapp.http.servlet.MainServlet.service(MainServlet.java:153) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:128) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109) at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:286) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:845) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:447) at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)

Am I trying to do something that I shouldn't be doing?

Is there a better way to accomplish this goal?

If more information is necessary I'd be happy to provide it.

Thanks in advance, my friends.

UPDATE:

So I tried changing the seasonsList collection from List to List and rendering some different markup, like so:

<p>
    <ice:panelGroup>
        <ice:panelSeries value="#{bean.seasonsList}" var="season">
                <ice:commandButton partialSubmit="true" style="background-color: #FFFFFF" value="#{season}" actionListener="#{Phase1EventBean.updateSeasons}"/>                                        
        </ice:panelSeries>
    </ice:panelGroup>
</p>

And changing the defineSeasonsList() method to:

public void defineNationalSeasonsList()
{
    try
    {
        seasonsList = new ArrayList<String>();
        selectedSeasonsList = new ArrayList<String>();

        hibernate.openTransaction();

        for(UedaNationalDates season:hibernate.getList(new UedaNationalDates(), QueryFactory.getUedaNationalSeasons(hibernate.getHibSession())))
        { 
            nationalSeasonsList.add(season.getSeason());
        }       
    } 
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        System.out.println("Error defining nationalMeasurementPeriods: " + e.getMessage());
    }
    finally
    {
        hibernate.commitTransaction();
    }               
}

This actually renders all the buttons I would like to see, and adds them correctly to the selectedSeasonsList in my backing bean when I click on them, and removes them from it when I click again.

However, on the UI, every button appears to be toggled when I click just the one button. For example, when I click on 2009-2010, this is what I see:

All Selected

Solution

<ice:commandButton binding="#{season}"/>

The binding attribute must be bound to a bean property of type UIComponent. It is used where you want the framework to give you a reference to the component in a backing bean or to provide an instance from the backing bean). See section 3.1.5 of the JSF 1.2 spec for more details.

<ice:commandButton id="#{season.id}"
   partialSubmit="true"
   style="background-color: #FFFFFF"
   value="#{season.value}"
   actionListener="#{Phase1EventBean.updateSeasons}"/>

The id attribute cannot be dynamic - JSF will take care of ensuring its uniqueness on the client using the clientId (read this for more detail).

EDIT:

However, on the UI, every button appears to be toggled when I click just the one button.

I am guessing that ice:panelSeries does not store the component state of every row as some repeating controls do (e.g. dataTable). Remember, there is only one button instance, even if it is encoded/decoded once per "row".

I've never used ICEfaces, but I suggest binding to beans similar to this:

public class Bean {

  private final List<SelectionBean> seasonsList = Arrays.asList(
      new SelectionBean("Spring"), new SelectionBean("Summer"),
      new SelectionBean("Autumn"), new SelectionBean("Winter"));

  public List<SelectionBean> getSeasonsList() { return seasonsList; }

  public static class SelectionBean {

    private String season;
    private boolean selected;

    public SelectionBean() {}
    public SelectionBean(String season) { this.season = season; }

    public String getSeason() { return season; }
    public void setSeason(String season) { this.season = season; }

    public String toggle() {
      System.out.println("toggle " + season);
      selected = !selected;
      return null;
    }

    public String getStyle() {
      return selected ? "background-color: yellow" : "background-color: blue";
    }
  }
}

I've pared the logic down to the bare minimum, but hopefully you get how to modify the logic to put the hibernate support back in. Your component would then become something like this:

<ice:panelSeries value="#{bean.seasonsList}" var="item">
  <ice:commandButton partialSubmit="true"
     style="#{item.style}"
     value="#{item.season}"
     action="#{item.toggle}"/>                                        
</ice:panelSeries>

So, for each item in your list, all the binding goes back to the one piece of state (a SelectionBean instance) and you don't try to store any non-declarative state on the component itself.

I try to use action over actionListener when I can - it keeps JSF stuff out of the POJOs.