Filter values in f:selectItems in JSF/Primefaces

Question

I have bilateral One to Many Relationship in a JSF + JPA application. I want to list out only filtered items from the list in the view. Doing it in the controller is difficult a

Answer 1

The PrimeFaces <p:selectOneListbox> actually hides the <select><option> and generates a <div><ul><li> which allows you much more CSS styling freedom.

You can just make use of itemDisabled attribute and then use CSS to set disabled items to display: none.

<p:selectOneListbox ...>
    <f:selectItems value="#{investigationItemController.currentInvestigation.reportItems}" 
        var="ri" itemLabel="#{ri.name}" itemValue="#{ri}"
        itemDisabled="#{not ri.retired and ri.ixItemType eq 'Value'}" />
</p:selectOneListbox>

with this CSS

.ui-selectlistbox-item.ui-state-disabled {
    display: none;
}

As to your failed attempt with <ui:repeat>; it failed because the <f:selectItem> is evaluated during view build time, not during view render time. However, the <ui:repeat> runs during view render time. During that moment the <f:selectItem> is nowhere available in the component tree. It's supposed to be attached to an UISelectOne/UISelectMany parent during view build time.

JSTL runs during view build time, like <f:selectItem>, so using JSTL <c:forEach> for the loop and <c:if> for the conditional building (not rendering!) should do it as well:

<p:selectOneListbox ...>
    <c:forEach items="#{investigationItemController.currentInvestigation.reportItems}" var="ri">
        <c:if test="#{not ri.retired and ri.ixItemType eq 'Value'}">
            <f:selectItem itemLabel="#{ri.name}" itemValue="#{ri}" />
        </c:if>
    </c:forEach>
</p:selectOneListbox>

You only need to take into account that this breaks view scoped beans when using a Mojarra version older than 2.1.18.

See also:

• JSTL in JSF2 Facelets... makes sense?