In short, this topic is an attempt to add full state to components inside UIData. I'll do a brief resume, so people can understand this one easily.

UIData uses the same component instances to render multiple rows. Suppose this example:

<h:dataTable id="cities" var="city" value="#{country.cities}">
    <h:column>
        <h:outputText value="#{city}" />
    </h:column>
</h:dataTable>

In the component tree it is created this hierarchy:

HtmlDatatable
UIColumn
    HtmlOutputText

If we have 10 cities, the same component is used over and over to render all 10 cities. The reason to do that in this way is keep state as small as possible.

Now let's suppose something like this:

<h:dataTable id="cities" var="city" value="#{country.cities}">
    <h:column>
        <h:inputText value="#{city}" />
    </h:column>
</h:dataTable>

It was changed the output component for an input one. If this table is in a form and the values are submitted, the same component is used to apply request values, validate and apply them to the model (update process). To make this possible, UIData class has some code to preserve this values between phases (using EditableValueHolder interface), so when each phase is processed, all rows are traversed and you get the expected behavior.

Now suppose something more complex: We have a code that use invokeOnComponent to change the style of my inputText. In theory, only one row should change. But in fact, all rows are rendered with the same color. Why? because we use the same component to render all rows, and we don't preserve the children component state between rows.

There is a lot of issues, questions, and side effects related to this issue, but just to put some of them here:

TOMAHAWK-1062 InputTextArea doesn't work properly inside facet DetailStamp
TOMAHAWK-96 Data table Scroller not working the dataTable which was actually contained in other DataTable
https://javaserverfaces-spec-public.dev.java.net/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=153 Problems with UIData state saving

Also, it is well know that one reason why people uses c:forEach in facelets, is because this one create "full" components per each row. It is very easy to find articles on internet.

Now, with jsf 2.0 we have partial state saving, so we have a chance to fix this one once and for all. I tried fix this one per months (maybe years!), but talking with Martin Marinschek on JSFDays, some ideas came out and finally it was found a possibility to fix this one using the existing api and with little changes on the spec.

The proposal is this:

1. Do not call UIComponent.markInitialState() on ComponentTagHandlerDelegate, as ComponentHandler javadoc says, instead call it after PostAddToViewEvent are published on vdl.buildView(). We need to call it from root to nodes, so the parent component is marked first. I know the place where this call comes is from trinidad tag handler, but this call needs to be fixed in a more predictable way.
2. Use an attribute on facesContext to identify when the VDL is marking the initial state (in myfaces there is already an attribute called "org.apache.myfaces.MARK_INITIAL_STATE"). This is necessary to indicate UIData instances that it is time to save the full state of all component children,
3. Allow UIData to hold a map where the key are client ids and the value are the deltas of all components per row. This map should be saved and restored.
4. Change UIData.setRowIndex() to restore and save the component state.

I'll attach a patch on myfaces issue tracker with the algorithm proposed (because it is based on myfaces codebase). It was tested and it works. But note it is necessary to fix the javadoc for UIData.markInitialState(), ComponentHandler and maybe vdl.buildView(), so the intention is propose this change for jsf 2.0 rev A. Note this works only with PSS enabled because without it we don't have a place to notify UIData instances that it is necessary to get the full state. Also, note this patch preserve backward compatibility, because the old way to store/save is applied after the full state is restored.

Really, I have the strong temptation to apply some similar code on myfaces UIRepeat component (because this class is private), but I prefer first ask to EG to know what you guys think about it.

Suggestions are welcome,

regards,

Leonardo Uribe