Prevent data in h:inputTextArea from being submitted

[B Nirvan]

I am using h:inputTextArea which is populated in the backing bean. The textArea is only for displaying data so I made it readOnly. The problem is that when the form is posted back, the textArea data also gets posted to the server (which I am trying to somehow avoid). The reason for avoiding posting of textArea data is that it is too large to be posted and given the default post size , "java.lang.IllegalStateException: Post too large" is thrown when the form is submitted.

How do I avoid posting of textArea data when the form is submitted?

regards,
Nirvan.

[Dieter Quickfend]

If it's outside the form you're submitting, it won't be posted. disabled="true" will also exclude it from submit.

[B Nirvan]

Dieter,
The textArea is inside the form, as I am populating it from backing bean. Making it disabled results in the content being greyed out and hence very difficult to read.

thanks and regards,
Nirvan.

[Dieter Quickfend]

Hello B,


the textarea doesn't need to be inside the form to populate it from the backing bean.

EDIT: little example of two ways to do it: without the JSF component and with the JSF component

<!-- standard example. You should probably pick this. --> <textarea cols="50" rows="10">${manBean.thisText}</textarea> <!-- example in a separate form.. just put it in a different form and nothing will complain :) --> <h:form><h:inputTextarea id="lala" value="${manBean.thisText}" /></h:form>

[Tim Holloway]

textArea is an input control, so it's not surprising that it's input even when readonly.

Use an outputText control instead and use CSS to set its width/height to a size that suits you. And draws a textArea-style frame around the text if you want that too.

[B Nirvan]

Dieter Quickfend wrote:
<!-- standard example. You should probably pick this. --> <textarea cols="50" rows="10">${manBean.thisText}</textarea>

Dieter,
I never thought of using textArea that way. Thanks for that trick. I have implemented it.

regards,
Nirvan.

[Tim Holloway]

I started to mention that one as well, but didn't think it offered anything that a pure JSF solution couldn't. I'd forgotten that TextArea scrolls, though. You can do that with a <div> as well, and by extension, a JSF panel control, but it's more work, perhaps.

For best results, however, wrap any raw HTML with the f:verbatim tag.

[Dieter Quickfend]

You're very welcome! Just wanted to add one more thing:

You should know that EL-script is unsafe to use in the way I showed it, if it is unprocessed input from the user. It's no problem if you are using your own text, but if you use that textarea to output user-submitted text, know that it exposes your users to cross-site scripting.


Regards,


Dieter

[B Nirvan]

Dieter,
I am using the textArea to display some messages to the user. These messages come from a text file on the server . These messages have nothing to do with the user input. So I believe, that it wouldn't cause problems related to cross-site scripting (although I don't know much about that term).

regards,
Nirvan