Question

I want to know how do I get a column selection

I have the following datatable

<p:dataTable id="DataTable" value="#{dataTable.selecDataModel}" var="test" scrollable="TRUE" scrollHeight="500" styleClass="day-column2" selectionMode="single" >
    <p:column headerText="Column1" footerText="Column1" width="450">
        <h:outputText value="Test1" />
    </p:column>
    <p:column headerText="Column2" footerText="Column2" width="450">
        <h:outputText value="Test2" />
    </p:column>
 </p:dataTable>

The p:ajax only support row selection, if I would like to know which column is selected, how do I get the same.

Answer 1

You can find out the index of the selected column with jQuery and send it to server as an ajax event

here is a way:

first add an inputText above the table (make it hidden)

<h:inputText id="mySelectedColumnId" value="#{myBean.mySelectedColumnField}" style="display:none">
    <f:ajax listener="#{myBean.myListener}"></f:ajax>
</h:inputText>

and the following js code to bind clicking on the table and triggering click on the h:inputText which will trigger listened on the server

jQuery(document).delegate("#yourTableID td", "click", function (event) {//bind every click on any td in the table
    var columnNumber = jQuery(this).index();//get index of clicked row
    jQuery("#mySelectedColumnId").val(columnNumber); //set value in the inputtext
    jQuery("#mySelectedColumnId").change(); //this will trigger the ajax listener
});

---

Update

What I actually meant was the following structure:

<h:outputScript name="js/newjavascriptfile.js" target="head" />

.
.
.
.

<h:form prependId="false">
     <h:inputText id="mySelectedColumnId" value="#{myBean.mySelectedColumnField}" style="display:none">
         <f:ajax listener="#{myBean.myListener}"></f:ajax>
     </h:inputText>
     <p:dataTable id="DataTable"....
.
.
.
.

and inside the js (place it inside js folder inside resources folder in the root of your web app folder Resources (Library) In JSF 2.0) file place

jQuery(window).load(function () {
     jQuery(document).delegate("#yourTableID td", "click", function (event) {//bind every click on any td in the table
        var columnNumber = jQuery(this).index();//get index of clicked row
        jQuery("#mySelectedColumnId").val(columnNumber); //set value in the inputtext
        jQuery("#mySelectedColumnId").change(); //this will trigger the ajax listener
    });
});