p:selectOneMenu not calling setter on form submit - jsf-2

Question

I'm kinda new to JSF and primefaces and I'm running into a very annoying problem.
I'm making a very basic application to learn a bit more about primefaces. I have a simple form that has several textual input fields, two datepickers and one dropdown (selectOneMenu).
Everything works all values are put in the backing bean when I submit the form, except for the value from the dropdown menu. The setter for that item is never called. And the application does not call the public void saveNewActivity(ActionEvent evt) method on the controller as defined on the commandbutton. When I however remove or comment out the dropdown menu in html it does call that method (but the field for the dropdown menu is obviously null).
I've been trying things for nearly two days, and still can't get this to work properly.
I have the following code (snippets):
My html/jsf code
<div id="newActivitycontent">
<h:form id="newActivityForm">
<h:messages id="messages"/>
<table>
<tr>
<td>Gebruiker:</td>
<td><p:selectOneMenu value="#{plannedActivityController.newActivity.organiser}}"
converter="#{userConverter}">
<f:selectItem itemLabel="Kies een gebruiker" itemValue=""/>
<f:selectItems value="#{plannedActivityController.users}" var="user"
itemLabel="#{user.firstname} #{user.lastname}" itemValue="#{user}"/>
</p:selectOneMenu></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Titel:</td>
<td><p:inputText value="#{plannedActivityController.newActivity.name}"/></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Beschrijving:</td>
<td><p:inputText value="#{plannedActivityController.newActivity.desctription}"/></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Startdatum:</td>
<td><p:calendar value="#{plannedActivityController.newActivity.startDateDate}"/></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Einddatum:</td>
<td><p:calendar value="#{plannedActivityController.newActivity.endDateDate}"/></td>
</tr>
</table>
<p:commandButton id="btnSaveNewActivity" value="Opslaan"
actionListener="#{plannedActivityController.saveNewActivity}"
update=":overviewForm:activityTable messages"/>
<p:commandButton id="btnCancelNewActivity" value="Annuleren"
actionListener="#{plannedActivityController.cancelNewActivity}" onclick="hideAddNewUI()"
update=":overviewForm:activityTable" type="reset" immediate="true"/>
</h:form>
</div>
The controller that is used by that code:
#Named
#SessionScoped
public class PlannedActivityController implements Serializable {
#Inject
private ApplicationModel appModel;
#Inject
private SessionModel sessionModel;
#Inject
private ActivityMapper activityMapper;
#Inject
private UserMapper userMapper;
private ActivityBean newActivity;
private ActivityBean selectedActivity;
private List<ActivityBean> activities;
private List<UserBean> users;
public PlannedActivityController() {
}
#PostConstruct
public void onCreated() {
convertActivities();
onNewActivity();
users = userMapper.mapToValueObjects(appModel.getUsers());
}
public void convertActivities() {
List<PlannedActivity> originalActivities = appModel.getActivities();
this.activities = activityMapper.mapToValueObjects(originalActivities);
}
public void onRowEditComplete(RowEditEvent event) {
System.out.println("row edited : " + event.getObject());
//TODO: save changes back to db!
}
public void onRowSelectionMade(SelectEvent event) {
System.out.println("row selected : " + event.getObject());
selectedActivity = (ActivityBean)event.getObject();
}
//Activity crud methods
public void onNewActivity() {
newActivity = new ActivityBean();
newActivity.setId(new Date().getTime());
}
public void saveNewActivity(ActionEvent evt) {
PlannedActivity newAct = activityMapper.mapToEntity(newActivity);
if(newAct != null) {
appModel.getActivities().add(newAct);
}
convertActivities();
}
public void cancelNewActivity() {
//TODO: cleanup.
}
public void deleteSelectedActivity() {
if(selectedActivity != null) {
activities.remove(selectedActivity);
appModel.setActivities(activityMapper.mapToEntities(activities));
convertActivities();
} else {
//TODO: show error or information dialog, that delete cannot be done when nothing has been selected!
}
}
//Getters & Setters
public ApplicationModel getAppModel() {
return appModel;
}
public void setAppModel(ApplicationModel appModel) {
this.appModel = appModel;
}
public SessionModel getSessionModel() {
return sessionModel;
}
public void setSessionModel(SessionModel sessionModel) {
this.sessionModel = sessionModel;
}
public ActivityMapper getActivityMapper() {
return activityMapper;
}
public void setActivityMapper(ActivityMapper activityMapper) {
this.activityMapper = activityMapper;
}
public UserMapper getUserMapper() {
return userMapper;
}
public void setUserMapper(UserMapper userMapper) {
this.userMapper = userMapper;
}
public ActivityBean getNewActivity() {
return newActivity;
}
public void setNewActivity(ActivityBean newActivity) {
this.newActivity = newActivity;
}
public ActivityBean getSelectedActivity() {
return selectedActivity;
}
public void setSelectedActivity(ActivityBean selectedActivity) {
this.selectedActivity = selectedActivity;
}
public List<ActivityBean> getActivities() {
return activities;
}
public void setActivities(List<ActivityBean> activities) {
this.activities = activities;
}
public List<UserBean> getUsers() {
return users;
}
public void setUsers(List<UserBean> users) {
this.users = users;
}
}
My activitybean:
public class ActivityBean implements Serializable {
private Long id = 0L;
private String name;
private String desctription;
private UserBean organiser;
private Calendar startDate;
private Calendar endDate;
public Long getId() {
return id;
}
public void setId(Long id) {
this.id = id;
}
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public String getDesctription() {
return desctription;
}
public void setDesctription(String desctription) {
this.desctription = desctription;
}
public UserBean getOrganiser() {
return organiser;
}
public void setOrganiser(UserBean organiser) {
this.organiser = organiser;
}
public Calendar getStartDate() {
return startDate;
}
public void setStartDate(Calendar startDate) {
this.startDate = startDate;
}
public Date getStartDateDate() {
if(this.startDate == null) {
return null;
}
return this.endDate.getTime();
}
public void setStartDateDate(Date startDate) {
if(this.startDate == null) {
this.startDate = new GregorianCalendar();
}
this.startDate.setTime(startDate);
}
public String getStartDateString() {
if(this.startDate == null) {
return null;
}
return startDate.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH) + "/" + startDate.get(Calendar.MONTH) + "/" + startDate.get(Calendar.YEAR) + "";
}
public Calendar getEndDate() {
return endDate;
}
public void setEndDate(Calendar endDate) {
this.endDate = endDate;
}
public Date getEndDateDate() {
if(this.endDate == null) {
return null;
}
return endDate.getTime();
}
public void setEndDateDate(Date endDate) {
if(this.endDate == null) {
this.endDate = new GregorianCalendar();
}
this.endDate.setTime(endDate);
}
public String getEndDateString() {
if(this.endDate == null) {
return null;
}
return endDate.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH) + "/" + endDate.get(Calendar.MONTH) + "/" + endDate.get(Calendar.YEAR) + "";
}
#Override
public boolean equals(Object o) {
if (this == o) return true;
if (o == null || getClass() != o.getClass()) return false;
ActivityBean that = (ActivityBean) o;
if (id != null ? !id.equals(that.id) : that.id != null) return false;
return true;
}
#Override
public int hashCode() {
return id != null ? id.hashCode() : 0;
}
}
My userbean:
public class UserBean {
private Long id;
private String username;
private String firstname;
private String lastname;
private String email;
private String phone;
public Long getId() {
return id;
}
public void setId(Long id) {
this.id = id;
}
public String getUsername() {
return username;
}
public void setUsername(String username) {
this.username = username;
}
public String getFirstname() {
return firstname;
}
public void setFirstname(String firstname) {
this.firstname = firstname;
}
public String getLastname() {
return lastname;
}
public void setLastname(String lastname) {
this.lastname = lastname;
}
public String getEmail() {
return email;
}
public void setEmail(String email) {
this.email = email;
}
public String getPhone() {
return phone;
}
public void setPhone(String phone) {
this.phone = phone;
}
#Override
public boolean equals(Object o) {
if (this == o) return true;
if (o == null || getClass() != o.getClass()) return false;
UserBean userBean = (UserBean) o;
if (id != null ? !id.equals(userBean.id) : userBean.id != null) return false;
return true;
}
#Override
public int hashCode() {
return id != null ? id.hashCode() : 0;
}
}
And the converter used by the selectOneMenu:
#Named
public class userConverter implements Converter{
#Inject
private PlannedActivityController activityController;
#Override
public Object getAsObject(FacesContext facesContext, UIComponent uiComponent, String s) {
for (UserBean user : activityController.getUsers()) {
if(user.getId().toString().equals(s)) {
return user;
}
}
return null;
}
#Override
public String getAsString(FacesContext facesContext, UIComponent uiComponent, Object o) {
if(o instanceof UserBean) {
UserBean user = (UserBean)o;
return user.getId().toString();
}
return "";
}
}

Answer 1

The problem is here. Look closer. This is invalid EL syntax.
value="#{plannedActivityController.newActivity.organiser}}"
This should however have thrown a PropertyNotWritableException on submit something like this:
javax.el.PropertyNotWritableException: /test.xhtml #25,39 value="#{plannedActivityController.newActivity.organiser}}": Illegal Syntax for Set Operation
at com.sun.faces.facelets.el.TagValueExpression.setValue(TagValueExpression.java:136)
at javax.faces.component.UIInput.updateModel(UIInput.java:822)
at javax.faces.component.UIInput.processUpdates(UIInput.java:739)
at javax.faces.component.UIForm.processUpdates(UIForm.java:281)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.processUpdates(UIComponentBase.java:1244)
at javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.processUpdates(UIComponentBase.java:1244)
at javax.faces.component.UIViewRoot.processUpdates(UIViewRoot.java:1223)
at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.UpdateModelValuesPhase.execute(UpdateModelValuesPhase.java:78)
at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.Phase.doPhase(Phase.java:101)
at com.sun.faces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.execute(LifecycleImpl.java:118)
at javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:593)
This exception should have been logged to the server log. By default this will however not end up in an error page for the enduser because JSF/PrimeFaces have by default no form of feedback to enduser in case of exceptions which are thrown during ajax requests. You should however be able to see it in actual ajax response body in webbrowser's builtin HTTP traffic monitor.
The JSF utility library OmniFaces offers a FullAjaxExceptionHandler for the very problem of total absence of feedback on exceptions during ajax requests. You may find it useful. When I tried to recreate your problem, I was been presented a clear error page so that I don't need to dig in server log or HTTP traffic monitor for clues.