Calling action method from t:selectOneMenu

[Shasi Mitra]

Hi, my requirement is to call an action method and take the user to the next screen as soon as he selects one item from the drop down. Can anyone suggest how to map action method to t:selectOneMenu.

[Bauke Scholtz]

Use Javascript to submit the form on change of the dropdown. Make the action method the default UICommand action of the form (the firstnext h:commandButton of the form).

[Tim Holloway]

Shasi Mitra wrote:Hi, my requirement is to call an action method and take the user to the next screen as soon as he selects one item from the drop down. Can anyone suggest how to map action method to t:selectOneMenu.

The a4j tag library from the JBoss Richfaces project is useful for that. Here's an example:

                        <h:selectOneMenu id="selectCity"
                            styleClass="localeMenu" value="#{setLocation.city}"
                        >
                            <f:selectItem itemValue="null"
                                itemLabel="-- Select --" />
                            <f:selectItems value="#{setLocation.cityList}" />
                            <a4j:support event="onchange" />
                        </h:selectOneMenu>

This example isn't calling an action method, it's setting the "setLocation.city" property immediately. To fire an action, add the "action=" attribute to the a4j:support element just like you would for a commandButton.

The nice thing about this is that you don't have to write any Javacript to get the benefits of AJAX. Also, by selecting elements using the reRender attribute, you can update parts of the page without having to refresh the entire page.