Question

I am facing a problem that I could not find any resolution for…
I have a selectManyChoice component like this:

<af:selectManyChoice value="#{bindings.my_VO1.inputValue}" 
                     label="myLabel" id="smc1"
                     binding="#{pageFlowScope.myBean.myMultiSelection}"
                     autoSubmit="true">
  <f:selectedItems value="#{bindings.my_VO1.items}" id="si1"/>
</af:selectManyChoice>

For getting out the values, I tested using 2 buttons like this:

<af:commandButton text="First Button" 
                  id="cb1" 
                  action="#{pageFlowScope.myBean.saveSelection}>
  <af:fileDownloadActionListener method="#{pageFlowScope.myBean.exportReport}"/>
</af:commandButton>

And:

<af:commandButton text="Second Button" 
                  id="cb2" 
                  action="#{pageFlowScope.myBean.saveSelection}/>

The second button could successfully get the selected values and print them out to the screen. However, the first button could not. It would always throw a NullPointerException when i tried to call myMultiSelection.getValue(), at this line of code:

public String saveSelection() {
    if (myMultiSelection.getValue() != null) {

The only difference between them is the fileDownloadActionListener tag. I wonder if that tag was affecting the inner works of the first button…However, I still need that tag, since the purpose of the button is to generate a pdf file based on the selected values, and have the browser download that file. Can anybody point me to the right direction?

Answer 1

You can try it this way :
Use your second button and in his actionlistener you just call the fileDownloadActionListener. That way you know for sure if the selected value is correct.

Example : http://adfwithejb.blogspot.be/2012/08/calling-affiledownloadactionlistener_2.html

Edit:
Instead of using JS to call the actionlistener you can do it this way:

Add these to your page :

<af:commandButton text="Hidden Button" binding="#{pageFlowScope.myBean.btnHiddenButton}"
                  id="cb1" visible="false">
  <af:fileDownloadActionListener method="#{pageFlowScope.myBean.exportReport}"/>
</af:commandButton>

<af:commandButton text="Visible Button" 
                  id="cb2" 
                  action="#{pageFlowScope.myBean.saveSelection}/>

Then in your bean, go to the saveSelection method and do some stuff the get your correct data.
After that add this :

ActionEvent event = new ActionEvent(btnHiddenButton);
event.queue();  

This will trigger the hidden button without pressing it. (make sure you have a binding of course)