Ok, this is the ugly but working solution that doesn't require me to refactor all the views and managed beans. In short: I added a hidden input field that would store the id of the element to delete in the modal form. In the datatable all I do is setting the value of the hidden input field once the button is clicked and fire the modal. The modal is then filled with the just updated value.
My simplified modal:
<div id="myModal">
<h:form id="myForm">
<h:inputHidden value="#{bean.elementIdInModal}" id="elementIdInModal"/>
<a data-dismiss="modal">Close</a>
<h:commandLink action="#{bean[actionToPerform]}">Confirm</h:commandLink>
</h:form>
</div>
My simplified dataTable:
<h:dataTable id="myDataTable" value="#{bean.elementList}" var="element">
<h:column>
<f:facet name="header">Actions</f:facet>
<h:link styleClass="call-modal"
onclick="$('#myForm\\:elementIdInModal').val(#{element.id})">
Delete
</h:link>
</h:column>
</h:dataTable>
My simplified ManagedBean:
@ManagedBean(name = "bean")
@RequestScoped
public class ElementClassBean {
private long elementIdInModal; // Ommiting getters and setters
public void actionToPerform() {
MyBusinessLogicModel.getInstance().deleteElement(elementIdInModal);
}
}