Question

I have a backing bean, and I’d like to load up a few lists when the bean is instantiated, so that the list may be used in a dropdown.

Is there a method that only gets called when the bean is first made?

Answer 1

You could use a static initializer:

static {
   //set up lists
}

Or if they aren’t static lists then an initializer block:

{
   //set up lists
}

Tutorial here.

EDIT* Remember that these backing beans are just POJOs and work like any other Java object. You can set up faces-config.xml like such:

<managed-bean-class>mymanagedBean.ConstructorName</managed-bean-class>

Personally I find it easier to just us an initializer block. That’s what they are for.