Question

What is the difference between the selectitem and selectitems tags in jsf?

Answer 1

The difference is exactly what you would expect. The selectitem tag adds a single item to the HTML list while selectitems adds multiple items.

From JSF Core Tag Reference:

SelectItem:

The SelectItem tag adds a child UISelectItem component to the component associated with the enclosing tag. In the HTML renderkit, this creates a single element. It can be used with any of the select tags in the JSF HTML tag library. The body content of this tag must be empty.

Example:

<h:selectOneMenu id='list1'>     <f:selectItem itemLabel='Option 1' itemValue='1'></f:selectItem> </h:selectOneMenu> 

HTML Output:

<select id='list1' name='list1' size='1'>     <option value='1'>Option 1</option> </select> 

SelectItems:

The SelectItems tag adds a child UISelectItems component to the component associated with enclosing tag. You can use this tag to set a list of objects in your domain model as the options for a select component. The body content of this tag must be empty.

Example:

<h:selectManyListbox id='list'>     <f:selectItems value='#{optionBean.optionList}'></f:selectItem> </h:selectManyListbox> 

HTML Output:

<select id='list' name='list' multiple='true' size='-2147483648'>     <option value='1'>Option 1</option>     <option value='2'>Option 2</option>     <option value='3'>Option 3</option> </select>