org.apache.myfaces.custom.globalId
Class GlobalId

java.lang.Object
  javax.faces.component.UIComponent
      javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase
          org.apache.myfaces.custom.globalId.GlobalId

All Implemented Interfaces:

javax.faces.component.NamingContainer, javax.faces.component.StateHolder

public class GlobalId
extends javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase
implements javax.faces.component.NamingContainer

A simple container-component that causes its child components to render a clientId value without any prefix.

Important: this component works only when run in a JSF-1.2 (or later) environment. When run in a JSF-1.1 environment it will not cause an error, but will instead act like a NamingContainer itself, ie will add its own id to the child component's clientId.

Every JSF component has a "clientId" property; when the component is rendered, many components output this as part of the rendered representation. In particular, when rendering HTML, many components write an "id" attribute on their html element which contains the clientId. The clientId is defined as being the clientId value of the nearest NamingContainer ancestor plus ":" plus the component's id.

The prefixing of the parent container's clientId is important for safely building views from multiple files (eg using Facelets templating or JSP includes). However in some cases it is necessary or useful to render a clientId which is just the raw id of the component without any naming-container prefix; this component can be used to do that simply by adding an instance of this type as an ancestor of the problem components. This works for all JSF components, not just Tomahawk ones.

Use of this component should be a "last resort"; having clientIds which contain the id of the ancestor NamingContainer is important and useful behaviour. It allows a view to be built from multiple different files (using facelets templating or jsp includes); without this feature, component ids would need to be very carefully managed to ensure the same id was not used in two places. In addition, it would not be possible to include the same page fragment twice.

Ids are sometimes used by Cascading Style Sheets to address individual components, and JSF compound ids are not usable by CSS. However wherever possible use a style class to select the component rather than using this component to assign a "global" id.

Ids are sometimes used by javascript "onclick" handlers to locate HTML elements associated with the clicked item (document.getById). Here, the onclick handler method can be passed the id of the clicked object, and some simple string manipulation can then compute the correct clientId for the target component, rather than using this component to assign a "global" id to the component to be accessed.

This component is similar to the "forceId" attribute available on many Tomahawk components. Unlike the forceId attribute this (a) can be used with all components, not just Tomahawk ones, and (b) applies to all its child components.

Note that since JSF1.2 forms have the property prefixId which can be set to false to make a UIForm act as if it is not a NamingContainer. This is a good idea; the form component should probably never have been a NamingContainer, and disabling this has no significant negative effects.

Field Summary

static java.lang.String	COMPONENT_FAMILY
static java.lang.String	COMPONENT_TYPE

Fields inherited from interface javax.faces.component.NamingContainer

SEPARATOR_CHAR

Constructor Summary

GlobalId()

Method Summary

java.lang.String	getContainerClientId(javax.faces.context.FacesContext facesContext)
java.lang.String	getFamily()

Methods inherited from class javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase

addFacesListener, broadcast, decode, encodeBegin, encodeChildren, encodeEnd, findComponent, getAttributes, getChildCount, getChildren, getClientId, getFacesContext, getFacesListeners, getFacet, getFacets, getFacetsAndChildren, getId, getParent, getRenderer, getRendererType, getRendersChildren, getValueBinding, isRendered, isTransient, processDecodes, processRestoreState, processSaveState, processUpdates, processValidators, queueEvent, removeFacesListener, restoreAttachedState, restoreState, saveAttachedState, saveState, setId, setParent, setRendered, setRendererType, setTransient, setValueBinding

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Field Detail

COMPONENT_FAMILY

public static final java.lang.String COMPONENT_FAMILY

See Also:

Constant Field Values

COMPONENT_TYPE

public static final java.lang.String COMPONENT_TYPE

See Also:

Constant Field Values

Constructor Detail

GlobalId

public GlobalId()

Method Detail

getFamily

public java.lang.String getFamily()

Specified by:

getFamily in class javax.faces.component.UIComponent

getContainerClientId

public java.lang.String getContainerClientId(javax.faces.context.FacesContext facesContext)