populate selectOneMenu with list containing various type of object

[Maciej Kawczynski]

Is it possible to populate selectOneMenu with list containing various type of objects ?
For example:
List<Object>
and then during submit check what object it parsing ?

[Seetharaman Venkatasamy]

Welcome to JavaRanch Maciej

Typically, we select one from *one kind* of items . so why do you want to select one from a list containing various type of objects ?

Please also look at this class http://download.oracle.com/javaee/6/api/javax/faces/model/SelectItem.html

[Maciej Kawczynski]

Thank you for your answer.

I have to make dropdown with different Object types, because i have
3 objects with almost all various fields, only id, name, price and type are the same.

List<Object> objects = ArrayList<Object>();

OwnCar c1 = new OwnCar();
Airplane a1 = new Airplane();
Airplane a2 = new Airplane();
Airplane a3 = new Airplane();
Bus b1 = new Bus();
Bus b2 = new Bus();
Bus b3 = new Bus();
Bus b4 = new Bus();

objects.add(c1);
objects.add(a1);
objects.add(a2);
objects.add(a3);
objects.add(b1);
objects.add(b2);
objects.add(b3);
objects.add(b4);

i have converter for all objects.

selectOneMenu should look like this:

<h:selectOneMenu value="#{bean.object}" valueChangeListener="#{bean.listener}"
<f:selectItems value="#{bean.objects}" var="o" itemLabel="#{o.name} - #{o.type}" itemValue="#{o}"/>
<a4j:ajax event="change" render="@this"/>
</h:selectOneMenu>

And listener is not firing same like bean.object is not set while change.
Only converter for each object getAsString method is firing.

[Seetharaman Venkatasamy]

I think you are complicated the things. why do you want to set an object as select box value/option ? *browser interpret that object as string*! and when a user select air or car and submit the form then create an appropriate object on server, if you need.
in jsp-->
<h:selectOneMenu binding="#{pc_Welcome.travelModeSelectOneMenu}"/>

//in backing bean
private HtmlSelectOneMenu travelModeSelectOneMenu;

	public HtmlSelectOneMenu getTravelModeSelectOneMenu() 
	{
		if(travelModeSelectOneMenu == null)
		{
			travelModeSelectOneMenu = new HtmlSelectOneMenu();
		}
		List<SelectItem> travelModeSelectOneMenuList = new ArrayList<SelectItem>();
		//here avoid objects, instead use string 
		AirPlan air = new AirPlan();
		Bus bus = new Bus();
		travelModeSelectOneMenuList.add(new SelectItem(air, "air"));
		travelModeSelectOneMenuList.add(new SelectItem(bus, "bus"));
		
		UISelectItems items = new UISelectItems();
		items.setValue(travelModeSelectOneMenuList);
		
		travelModeSelectOneMenu.getChildren().add(items);
		return travelModeSelectOneMenu;
	}

	public void setTravelModeSelectOneMenu(HtmlSelectOneMenu travelModeSelectOneMenu) 
	{
		this.travelModeSelectOneMenu = travelModeSelectOneMenu;
	}

[Seetharaman Venkatasamy]

and as in your example, f:selectItems doesnt have itemLable and itemValue attribute, and instead it has value attribute which expect a collection/single of SelectItem.
additionally, f:selectItem has all the above three attribute but value attribute will take the precedence .

[Maciej Kawczynski]

i resolved my issue, i just create base object TransportOption which has 4 fields like id, name, type, price and objects like Car, Airplane, Bus extends this object. f:selectItems populate List<TransportObtion> and now everything work very well .
Thanks all for your suggestions