Mike Kienenberger wrote:
Are you planning on using ajax components (ie, partial-page refresh), server side submits with each field change, or java-script (preload the data and the logic to manipulate it at page render)?
Mike, Thanks for your suggestions and feedback, they've been very helpful! My current approach is based on doing most of the work on the server side. When a user clicks a select item picker icon next to a text field the whole input form gets submitted. There's a special request parameter that is included in the request to signal that "required" validation should be skipped (similar to how the Optional Validation Framework works). The response view includes a Javascript onload handler that checks if the response is triggered by an select item picker icon click (communicated through backing bean properties included in the view). If the icon was clicked and conversions went fine, Javascript code opens a popup window by submitting a hidden form with a different target frame. A separate view is shown in the popup window which just includes a selectmanylistbox based on which picker icon was clicked. The communication between the parent window's input field and the select item list in the popup window happens via Javascript. Each required input component has its required attribute bound to a backing bean property map. The map getter returns an empty map when validation should be skipped and the actual map normally. Once I managed to fix a few bugs in my component's decode and validation logic this approach appears to be working now (knock, knock). Unfortunately, i was unable to use normal validators for implementing custom "required" validation because validators don't get run for components with empty values. marko
