posted 16 years ago
Two ways are possible. The first one is to alter the display properties by submitting the page and having it update.
The second way is much preferred - attach JavaScript event handlers to manage everything client-side. Response times are much better, but the server won't know what you've done until it gets submitted. And paranoid people may have switched off JavaScript in their browsers, so the page won't work properly.
I prefer a "blended" approach, where JavaScript is the first choice, and hitting the server is done for JavaScript-disabled clients. However, that's double the development work unless you can find some good JSF components pre-written to do that for you.
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.