Question

I have to display a two dimensional table with a great number of columns and rows and the two dimensions are not fixed. Using JSF2 dataTable there is the constraint that the number of colums cannot be dynamic: each coloumn must have the proper jsf tag .
Is there a way to insert the columns programmatically as for the rows in the dataTable?
Also panelGrid does not suit because you have to specify and write all the tags by hand.
I prefer not to use javascript to create such a component, I would like to exploit JSF2 as much as possible.

Answer 1

The standard JSF component set does not have such a component where it would be logically named <h:columns>. There exist however 3rd party component libraries which have such a component. For example, Tomahawk with <t:columns> and PrimeFaces with <p:columns>. The Tomahawk components doesn’t generate any additional look’n’feel, so this is perfect if you want full control over CSS yourself. The PrimeFaces one generates a customizeable look’n’feel with help of CSS themeroller framework, so this is perfect if you want to utilize themeroller to manage look’n’feel.

Here’s an example of how you could use Tomahawk’s <t:columns>, copied and slightly changed from its tag documentation:

<t:dataTable value="#{bean.rows}" var="row">
    <t:columns value="#{bean.columns}" var="column">
        <f:facet name="header">
            <h:outputText value="#{column.name}"/>
        </f:facet>
        <h:outputText value="#{row[column.name]}"/>
    </t:columns>
</t:dataTable>