This may be just a JSF question, but Shale may somehow aid in the solution, so here it goes:
-- Web App Let's say that we have several instances of the following components in a view: Component A (Ca) is backed by bean A (Ba) Component B (Cb) is backed by bean B (Bb) Component C (Cc) is backed by bean C (Bc) Besides that, the following relationship exists between the components (and beans indirectly): Ca (1x N) Cb (1 x N) Cc. So, when some action (or event) is executed on an instance of Ca, I would like all instances of Bb associated with the instance of Ca that triggered the event, to have some method executed. The execution of the method in Bb would also trigger the execution of another method in all instances of Bc associated with the instance of Bb that has just been executed. To give a more concrete example, say that component A is a search box component, component B is a search result component, and component C is a component that would should some aspects of a search result, like statistics. My view could have one instance of the search box component, two or more instances of the search result component, each one searching a different search domain (like internet and intranet), and I could have one or more "statistics" component associated with each search result component. When the user submits a new search, both search results must be notified and execute the search, which in turn would trigger an event in the statistical component, which would use the search result to gather its data. What's the best technique to implement that in JSF? Would Shale provide any mechanism to make that easier to accomplish? -- Portlets Now, let us assume that I want to deploy the above scenario in a portlet environment, so that: Portlet A has Component A Portlet B has Component B Portlet C has Component C. The portal administrator may add or remove the portlets at any time and I can have several instances of each portlet, and somehow I must keep the relationship described in the previous example. So, now I want the portlets to communicate with each other, like I wanted components and backing beans to communicate in the previous example. Since the JSR 168 doesn't provide inter-portlet communication, maybe JSF (or Shale) could help in providing such mechanism, through components. Could I use in this case the same mechanism developed in the previous example, given the fact that the portlet lifecycle may be dynamic? Best regards, Marcio
