Updating primefaces dialog content from javascript - jsf-2

Question

Now we put a couple of primefaces dialogs in datatable rows. This worked so far, but I want to move them out of the datatable.
Because there is always only one instance shown to the user of a particular dialog, I thought of updating it's values via Javascript before popping it up to the user. This would be the case for simple dialogs that only contain a couple of components and the information is already available on the client side.
What it used to be so far. (It's in HTML, not JSF, because I don't have the JSF code right now)
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<a onClick="show('dialog');" />
<div id='dialog'> <!-- the dialog -->
<input type="text" name="field" value="value" />
</div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
e.g. what I want to achieve:
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<a onClick="updateDialog('dialog',{'field', 'value'}); show('dialog');" />
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<div id='dialog'> <!-- the dialog -->
<input type="text" name="field" value="value" />
</div>
Do you think it's feasible, or do you think there is already similar solutions out there in the wild? THanks.

Answer 1

Sounds like you want something like this... just make sure, the bean you store the instance to edit in survives the request. Make sure to read about partial processing and partial rendering in the PrimeFaces documentation which you can download for free: http://www.primefaces.org/documentation
<h:form id="tableForm">
<p:datatable value="#{carBean.cars}" var="car" ...>
<p:column>
<p:commandButton value="edit" action="#{carBean.edit(car)}" process="#this" update=":editForm" oncomplete="PF('carDialog').show();"/>
</p:column>
...
</p:datatable>
</h:form>
<h:form id="editForm">
<p:dialog widgetVar="carDialog" rendered="#{carBean.carToEdit ne null}">
<p:inputText value="#{carBean.carToEdit.brand" placeholder="brand" ... />
...
</p:dialog>
</h:form>