You need to understand the JSF request lifecycle. In the request in which your page is rendered, page.globalListingsId can be successfully resolved in some context. Apparently it can't be resolved in any context (session, conversation, event, etc.) when you do the next request and execute the action. The callThisAction(parameter) syntax in the EL is really just a shortcut for a lookup/injection of that "parameter" contextual variable that happens when the action is executed. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4025532#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...