Getting same instance of `componentType` in composite component on every use

Hi Have this Wierd Issue in which I am using a Composite Component which I wrote and I get values from the previous use of the backing bean of the CC (the componentType bean)

I don't know how to describe this better than just show the code. I'll try to be brief about it and cut the redundant parts: This is the Composite Component definition:

<cc:interface componentType="dynamicFieldGroupList">
   <cc:attribute name="coupletClass" />
   <cc:attribute name="form" default="@form"/>
   <cc:attribute name="list" type="java.util.List" required="true"/>
   <cc:attribute name="fieldNames" type="java.util.List" required="true" />
</cc:interface>

<cc:implementation>
    <h:dataTable value="#{cc.model}" var="currLine">
        <h:column>
            <h:outputText id="inner_control_component" value="Inner Look at currLine:#{currLine}"/>
        </h:column>
    </h:dataTable>
</cc:implementation>

The CC bean defintion:

@FacesComponent(value = "dynamicFieldGroupList")
// To be specified in componentType attribute.
@SuppressWarnings({ "rawtypes", "unchecked" })
// We don't care about the actual model item type anyway.
public class DynamicFieldGroupList extends UIComponentBase implements
        NamingContainer
{

    private transient DataModel model;

    @Override
    public String getFamily()
    {
        return "javax.faces.NamingContainer"; // Important! Required for
                                                // composite components.
    }

    public DataModel getModel()
    {
        if (model == null)
        {
            model = new ListDataModel(getList());
        }

        return model;
    }

    private List<Map<String, String>> getList()
    { // Don't make this method public! Ends otherwise in an infinite loop
        // calling itself everytime.
        return (List) getAttributes().get("list");
    }

}

And the use code:

<ui:repeat var="group" value="#{currentContact.detailGroups}">
    <h:panelGroup rendered="#{not empty group.values}">
        <h:outputText id="controlMsg" value=" list:#{group.values}" /><br/><br/>
        <utils:fieldTypeGroupList list="#{group.values}"
            fieldNames="#{group.fields}" coupletClass="utils" />
    </h:panelGroup>
</ui:repeat>

The text of id controlMsg displays the correct values in #{group.values} while the control output inside the component of id inner_control_component shows the values from the previous use.

The values are correct the first time...

I guess it's a fundemental error in use of a CC bean, otherwise it could be a bug with MyFaces 2.1 (Which I'm using)

Solution

The explanation for this behaviour is simple: there's only one component definied in the view. So there's also only one backing component with one model. Since the model is lazily loaded on first get, the same model is been reused in every iteration of a parent iterating component.

The <ui:repeat> doesn't run during view build time (as JSTL does), but during view render time. So there are physically not as many components in the view as items which are iterated by <ui:repeat>. If you were using <c:forEach> (or any other iteration tag which runs during view build time), then the composite component would have behaved as you'd expect.

You would like to change the way how the datamodel is kept in the backing component. You would like to preserve a separate datamodel for each iteration of a parent iterating component. One of the ways is to replace the model property as follows:

private Map<String, DataModel> models = new HashMap<String, DataModel>();

public DataModel getModel() {
    DataModel model = models.get(getClientId());
    if (model == null) {
        model = models.put(getClientId(), new ListDataModel(getList()));
    }
    return model;
}

Getting same instance of `componentType` in composite component on every use

See also: