Question

I have a list represented by a ui:repeat, where each item is a div with some data. What I want is to show the item detail by clicking on the div.

I made it with a button refreshing the form but can’t make it work with onclick event on panelGroup.

<h:panelGroup styleClass="container" layout="block">
        <ui:repeat value="#{bean.model}" var="item">

            <h:panelGroup styleClass="item_data" layout="block">
                ID: #{item.id}
                <h:commandButton action="#{bean.select}" value="Select item">
                    <f:param name="itemId" value="#{item.id}"/>
                    <f:ajax render="@form"></f:ajax>
                </h:commandButton>
            </h:panelGroup>

            <h:panelGroup styleClass="detail"
                layout="block" 
                rendered="#{item eq bean.selected}">
                value: #{bean.selected.value}
            </h:panelGroup>

        </ui:repeat>
    </h:panelGroup>

Answer 1

If I understand you correctly, you just want to show the detail section without re-rendering the whole form? If so, then wrap it in a component which is always rendered in the HTML DOM tree, give it an id and refer it instead:

<ui:repeat value="#{bean.model}" var="item">
    <h:panelGroup styleClass="item_data" layout="block">
        ID: #{item.id}
        <h:commandButton action="#{bean.select}" value="Select item">
            <f:param name="itemId" value="#{item.id}"/>
            <f:ajax render="detail" />
        </h:commandButton>
    </h:panelGroup>

    <h:panelGroup id="detail">
        <h:panelGroup styleClass="detail"
            layout="block" 
            rendered="#{item eq bean.selected}">
            value: #{bean.selected.value}
        </h:panelGroup>
    </h:panelGroup>
</ui:repeat>

See also:

• Communication in JSF 2.0 – Ajax rendering of content which is by itself conditionally rendered

---

Update: as per the comments, you actually want to invoke JSF ajax action by <h:panelGroup onclick> no, that’s not possible as it doesn’t support onclick attribute. You could use a <div> with jsf.ajax.request() function, but cleaner would be to use a <h:commandLink> with CSS display: block so that it spans the entire div.

    <h:panelGroup styleClass="item_data" layout="block">
        <h:commandLink action="#{bean.select}" value="ID: #{item.id}" styleclass="detailLink">
            <f:param name="itemId" value="#{item.id}"/>
            <f:ajax render="detail" />
        </h:commandLink>
    </h:panelGroup>

with e.g.

.detailLink {
    display: block;
    color: black;
    text-decoration: none;
}