Generating unique ID attributes in datatable with JSF2 and IceFaces2

Question

I'm trying to use a code which looks like :

<ice:dataTable id="revisionDocuments" value="#{agendaBean.agenda.revisionsDocuments}" var="revision">
    <ice:column>
        <ice:inputText value="#{revision.sequenceAdresse}" id="revisionSequenceAdresse#{revision.index}" />
    </ice:column>

I'd like to have a different id for my form fields. The revision object do contains an "index" field, representing the index of the object in the List. I want to see it appears in the id. However, nothing happens. The #{revision.index} expression is never interpreted (getIndex() on the revision object is never called).

You'll tell me JSF already make something that looks like :

revisionDocuments:0:revisionSequenceAdresse
revisionDocuments:1:revisionSequenceAdresse
revisionDocuments:2:revisionSequenceAdresse

True, but this affect only the clientId generated in the HTML. The UIComponent representing the form fields (in the ViewRoot from FacesContext) have all the same "id" AND "clientId" (yes, event if the HTML contains "revisionDocuments:0:revisionSequenceAdresse", the "clientId" you will find in ViewRoot is revisionDocuments:revisionSequenceAdresse).

Someone can help with my try ?

Thank you very much, any help will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The component IDs are to be determined during view build time, not during view render time. The #{revision} is not available during view build time, so it always evaluates empty. Basically, you need to bind it to #{agendaBean} or something else which is already in the scope during the view build time. The component ID is specific to the component itself, not to its generated HTML output. You can't assign multiple different IDs to physically the one and same component.

But you actually don't need to fiddle around this approach. Your concrete problem for which you thought that this is the solution is already answered in your previous question: JSF2 + IceFaces 2 - Retrieve UIComponent from ViewRoot.