[richfaces-issues] [JBoss JIRA] (RF-12241) rich:column sortBy attribute expects a value expression not a constant

Fri May 11 02:49:18 EDT 2012

     [ https://issues.jboss.org/browse/RF-12241?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:all-tabpanel ]

Craig Ringer updated RF-12241:
------------------------------

    Description: 
Using a rich:dataTable with a rich:column that has a sortOrder and sortBy set, backed by an ExtendedDataModel implementing Arrangeable, no ArrangeableState is set on the underlying model unless `sortBy' is an EL value expression. If `sortBy' is a constant, the arrangeable state remains null.

The ValueExpression may point to a bean accessor that returns the exact same string value as was provided as a constant. The value expression version will work, the constant one won't. Even if the value expression is simply an EL expression for a string literal it works.

This works:

   sortBy="#{'propname'}"

this silently fails as if sortBy= wasn't present:

   sortBy="propname"

... and that looks like a bug to me.

For example, take the toy code:

{code:xml}
            <h:form id="customerForm">
                <rich:dataTable id="customerTable"
                                var="customer"
                                value="#{customers.model}"
                                rows="50">

                    <!-- Change `sortBy' below to sortBy="propname" and it'll fail, even though the result should be IDENTICAL -->
                    <!-- Use sortBy="#{'propname'}" and it'll work -->
                    <rich:column sortBy="${customers.sortBy}" sortOrder="#{customers.codeSortOrder}" id="code">
                        <f:facet name="header">
                            <h:outputText value="Customer Code"/>
                            <h:outputText value="Sorting: #{customers.codeSortOrder}"/>
                        </f:facet>
                        <h:outputText value="#{customer.code}" />
                    </rich:column>

                    <rich:column id="name">
                        <f:facet name="header">
                            <h:outputText value="Customer Name"/>
                        </f:facet>
                        <h:outputText value="#{customer.name}" />
                    </rich:column>

                </rich:dataTable>

                <rich:dataScroller for="customerTable" />

            </h:form>
{code}

where "customers" is:

{code:title=Customers.java}
@Named
@RequestScoped
public class Customers {

    // "CustomerDataModel" is a JPADataModel<Customer> as per
    //   http://showcase.richfaces.org/richfaces/component-sample.jsf?demo=dataTable&sample=arrangeableModel&skin=blueSky
    // and the nature of the "Customer" entity is irrelevant beyond the fact that it has "name" and "code" properties.
    @Inject
    private CustomerDataModel dataModel;

    private SortOrder codeSortOrder = SortOrder.ascending, nameSortOrder = SortOrder.ascending;

    public CustomerDataModel getModel() {
        return dataModel;
    }

    public String getSortBy() {
        return "propname";
    }

    // blah blah accessors for members omitted for brevity since most IDE-generate them anyway
    // Maybe Java will get real properties one day....
}
{code}

Clearly, #{customers.sortBy} evaluates to the string "propname". Yet if we write:

   sortBy="propname"

no ArrangeableState is set on the backing Arrangeable ExtendedDataModel. Writing the effectively identical:

   sortBy="#{customers.sortBy}"

works, as does:

   sortBy="#{'propname'}"

Try it out on the RichFaces showcase example. I suspect the reason this didn't get caught was that the showcase uses an include to repeat the columns, so it's using a value expression to indirect the constant.

  http://showcase.richfaces.org/richfaces/component-sample.jsf?demo=dataTable&sample=arrangeableModel&skin=blueSky

(Edit: had to change "code" to "propname" because JIRA was getting confused by the curly-braces surrounding the word "code")

  was:
Using a rich:dataTable with a rich:column that has a sortOrder and sortBy set, backed by an ExtendedDataModel implementing Arrangeable, no ArrangeableState is set on the underlying model unless `sortBy' is an EL value expression. If `sortBy' is a constant, the arrangeable state remains null.