I think you misunderstood. We're not suggesting that you have to use <h:dataTable>. You're free to use your own custom component if dataTable is not doing it for you.
The suggestion is that you look at how h:dataTable is implemented in the MyFaces code. There are basic concepts in there that you can use for your own custom coponent. The main thing is that in dataTable, you iterrate over the data, not the rows. The rows get added by the component's renderer. In the JSP you just say what goes in the columns and the rows will be generated as the data is being iterrated over. I'm relatively new to JSF so I can't give you the specifics but I did learn a little about it when I was implementing forceId so that it could work on components contained in tables, etc. Just check out the source code and follow along. It will be a good exercise in understanding some of the more complicated behind-the-scenes aspects of JSF. No need to panic and drop JSF ;-) You will definitely be able to do what you need with what is available. sean On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 12:08:46 -0800 (PST), Ray Clark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thanks for your response. > > I don't think that I can use h:dataTable for my > situation. We have pages that have JSTL ifs around > the rows so that the rows only show up sometimes based > on the data in the list. For instance, if I want an > <hr> tag when a control break occurs. I didn't want > to put smarts in the renderer to check the data in the > list that was specified. So if I could get the row > tag to work then I could use the standard rendered > attribute on the row for this. That makes the > component generic and simple, and yet makes the custom > tags powerful enough to produce any type of table that > needs to be generated. > > In addition to the rows only being rendered sometimes, > what about multi line column headings? I couldn't get > that to work with the h:dataTable because the facet > tag didn't seem to want to render the second tag. > > Not to mention that the dataTable tag doesn't support > rowspan and colspan which I need to emulate the tables > that we produce at work. > > So I'd like to get the row tag to work if I can. If I > can't find a way around this then JSF is out for us. > > I can't believe that there isn't a way to do this > somehow. > > Thanks for your thoughts. > > Ray > > --- Martin Marinschek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > that is exactly the problem - use the specific JSF > > iterator tags > > (specification: h:dataTable, MyFaces Implementation > > additionally: > > x:dataList) when doing iterations; else you run into > > problems all > > over... > > > > regards, > > > > Martin > > > > > > > > On Mon, 17 Jan 2005 12:00:52 -0500, Sean Schofield > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I'm not sure about the specifics of your custom > > component so its hard > > > to say. One thing that looks strange to me > > though, is your use of a > > > "row" tag. Typically you do not need such a tag. > > In <h:dataTable> > > > for instance, you only specify the columns and the > > component > > > automatically generates the rows as it iterrates > > over the data. > > > > > > sean > > > > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > The all-new My Yahoo! - What will yours do? > http://my.yahoo.com >
