Question

I have a table in a database which is used for storing application configuration data.

This is the table structure – it’s very simple example:

SessionTTL             MaxActiveUsers         
---------------------- ---------------------- 
30                     787                    

I want to display the table data in this way:

<table border="1">
   <tr>
     <td>SessionTTL</td>
     <td>30</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
     <td>MaxActiveUsers</td>
     <td>787</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
     <td>option</td>
     <td>value</td>
   </tr>
   <tr>
     <td>option</td>
     <td>value</td>
   </tr>
</table> 

I tried to display the data using this JSF code and this Java code, but the result was not what I want:

              <h:dataTable id="books"
                         columnClasses="list-column-center,
                         list-column-right, list-column-center,
                         list-column-right" headerClass="list-header"
                         rowClasses="list-row" styleClass="list-
                         background" value="#{DashboardController.getDashboardList()}" var="store">   
                <h:column>
                      <h:outputText  value="Session Timeout"/>
                      <h:outputText  value="Maximum Logged Users"/>
                </h:column>
                <h:column>                       
                      <h:outputText value="#{store.sessionTTL} minutes"/>
                      <h:outputText value="#{store.maxActiveUsers}"/>
                </h:column>

            </h:dataTable> 




public List<Dashboard> getDashboardList()throws SQLException{

        List<Dashboard> list = new ArrayList<Dashboard>();

        if(ds == null) {
                throw new SQLException("Can't get data source");
        }

        Connection conn = ds.getConnection(); 

        if(conn == null) {
                throw new SQLException("Can't get database connection");
        }

        PreparedStatement ps = conn.prepareStatement("SELECT * from GLOBALSETTINGS");

        try{
            //get data from database        
            ResultSet result = ps.executeQuery();
            while (result.next()){
                Dashboard cust = new Dashboard();
                cust.setSessionTTL(result.getString("SessionTTL"));
                cust.setMaxActiveUsers(result.getString("MaxActiveUsers"));
                list.add(cust);
            }
        }
        catch(Exception e1){
            // Log the exception.
        }
        finally{
            try{
                ps.close();
                conn.close();
            }
            catch(Exception e2){
                // Log the exception.
            }
        }
        return list; 
    }

How I can display the data the way I want?

Best wishes

Answer 1

You must not assign the get method with the parenthesis. You must use a List attribute from your managed bean.

value="#{DashboardController.getDashboardList()}" //WRONG!

Your managed bean should look like this:

public class DashboardController {
    private List<Dashboard> lstDashboard;
    public DashboardController() {
        try {
            lstDashboard = getDashboardList();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            //log the exception or something else...
        }
    }
    //getter and setter...
    public List<Dashboard> getLstDashboard() {
        return this.lstDashboard;
    }
    public void setLstDashboard(List<Dashboard> lstDashboard) {
        this.lstDashboard = lstDashboard;
    }
    //your other methods here...
}

Second, you set the design of every column in your table, not the design of the rows. You’re setting 1 column with 2 values and another column with the real output.

Fixing your datatable code:

<h:dataTable id="books"
    columnClasses="list-column-center,
        list-column-right, list-column-center,
        list-column-right" headerClass="list-header"
        rowClasses="list-row"
    styleClass="list-background"
    value="#{DashboardController.lstDashboard}"
    var="store">   

    <h:column>
        <f:facet name="header">
            <h:outputText value="Session Timeout" />
        </f:facet>
        <h:outputText value="#{store.sessionTTL} minutes"/>
    </h:column>
    <h:column>                       
        <f:facet name="header">
            <h:outputText value="MaxActiveUsers" />
        </f:facet>
        <h:outputText value="#{store.maxActiveUsers}"/>
    </h:column>

</h:dataTable> 

@BalusC is the StackOverflow JSF expert. He has a very nice example about using JSF DataTable in his blog entry.