header containing h:link and h:commandLink wont work? - jsf-2

Question

I have this weird situation. I have a jsf 2.0 application, with template pages.
on the header I have some links with h:link to keep the url bookmarkability and h:commandLink that I use to signin and signout.. the problem is when I navigate to a specific page via h:link
let say the url become bla.jsf?uName=dino then once I'm in bla.jsf?uName=dino I click the signout button that should take me to signout.jsf wont work. in stead, it takes me to bla.jsf page without ?uName=dino.
I have no nested h:form and everything seems normal to me. is there any suggestion why its behaving like this ?
I'm sure you are asking if I have h:form on h:commandLink. yes I do have that too.here is my code:
<ui:composition xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
xmlns:p="http://primefaces.prime.com.tr/ui"
xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets">
<div class="floatRight">
<h:form id="firstFormHeader" prependId="false">
<p:autoComplete id="searchInputId" size="40" style="z-index: 20;" value="#{autoComplete.text}" completeMethod="#{autoComplete.complete}"/>
<h:commandButton value="#{label.search}" action="#{autoComplete.getSearchedVideo}" />
<p:watermark for="searchInputId" value="#{label.search}" />
</h:form>
</div>
<div style="z-index: 1;" id="topsection">
<div style="position:relative; bottom:-51px;">
<div id="menu" style="height:37px;" class="title ui-widget-header">
<h:panelGrid border="0" columns="2" style="float: left;">
<h:column>
<h:panelGrid columns="2">
<h:column>
<h:form id="secondFormHeader" prependId="false" >
<h:selectOneMenu id="videoGenereHeaderId" value="#{homePageVideoLoader.videoCategory}" required="true" onchange="submit()" valueChangeListener="#{homePageVideoLoader.getSelectedCatagoryList}">
<f:selectItem id="item0" itemLabel="#{select.category}" itemValue="" />
<f:selectItem id="item1" itemLabel="#{select.animation}" itemValue="23" />
<f:selectItem id="item2" itemLabel="#{select.autos}" itemValue="15" />
<f:selectItem id="item3" itemLabel="#{select.comedy}" itemValue="10" />
<f:selectItem id="item4" itemLabel="#{select.documentary}" itemValue="19" />
<f:selectItem id="item5" itemLabel="#{select.drama}" itemValue="4" />
<f:selectItem id="item6" itemLabel="#{select.education}" itemValue="16" />
<f:selectItem id="item7" itemLabel="#{select.hiphop}" itemValue="5" />
<f:selectItem id="item8" itemLabel="#{select.guragigna}" itemValue="12" />
<f:selectItem id="item9" itemLabel="#{select.news}" itemValue="6" />
<f:selectItem id="item10" itemLabel="#{select.oldies}" itemValue="7" />
<f:selectItem id="item11" itemLabel="#{select.reggae}" itemValue="8" />
<f:selectItem id="item12" itemLabel="#{select.harari}" itemValue="13" />
<f:selectItem id="item13" itemLabel="#{select.oromigna}}" itemValue="14" />
<!-- <f:selectItem id="item7" itemLabel="#{select.entertainment}" itemValue="ent" />
<f:selectItem id="item8" itemLabel="#{select.gaming}" itemValue="gam" />
<f:selectItem id="item9" itemLabel="#{select.health}" itemValue="hea" />
<f:selectItem id="item10" itemLabel="#{select.howto}" itemValue="how" /> -->
<f:selectItem id="item14" itemLabel="#{select.music}" itemValue="3" />
<f:selectItem id="item15" itemLabel="#{select.politics}" itemValue="18" />
<!-- <f:selectItem id="item13" itemLabel="#{select.nonprofit}" itemValue="non" />
<f:selectItem id="item14" itemLabel="#{select.blog}" itemValue="blo" />
<f:selectItem id="item15" itemLabel="#{select.animals}" itemValue="anm" />
<f:selectItem id="item16" itemLabel="#{select.science}" itemValue="sci" />
<f:selectItem id="item17" itemLabel="#{select.sport}" itemValue="spo" />
<f:selectItem id="item18" itemLabel="#{select.travel}" itemValue="tra" /> -->
</h:selectOneMenu>
</h:form>
</h:column>
<h:column>
<h:outputText rendered="#{userAuthentication.userLogged and userAuthentication.user.usersValid}" value="#{label.hello} "/>
<h:link rendered="#{userAuthentication.userLogged and userAuthentication.user.usersValid}" value="#{userAuthentication.user.usersFirst}" outcome="userhome?uName=#{userAuthentication.user.usersUname}">
</h:link>
</h:column>
</h:panelGrid>
</h:column>
</h:panelGrid>
<h:panelGrid border="0" columns="2" styleClass="menuPostion">
<h:column>
<h:link outcome="home" value="#{label.home}" /> |
<h:link outcome="upload" value="#{label.upload}" /> |
<h:form id="thridFormHeader" prependId="false" >
<h:commandLink rendered="#{userAuthentication.userLogged}" value="#{label.signout}" action="#{userAuthentication.doSignOut}" immediate="true"/>
</h:form>
<h:link rendered="#{!userAuthentication.userLogged}" value="#{label.createAccount}" outcome="registration" />
<h:outputText rendered="#{!userAuthentication.userLogged}" value=" | "/>
<h:link rendered="#{!userAuthentication.userLogged}" value="#{label.signin}" outcome="signin" />
</h:column>
<h:column>
<h:form prependId="false" id="languageForm">
<h:selectOneMenu value="#{language.localeCode}" onchange="submit()"
valueChangeListener="#{language.countryLocaleCodeChanged}">
<f:selectItems value="#{language.countriesInMap}" />
</h:selectOneMenu>
</h:form>
</h:column>
</h:panelGrid>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</ui:composition>
The second <h:form> is the one that does not work.
Update: sorry is not working. it is not even going to doSignOut method..
once I reach the page bla.jsf?uName=dino
and see the source code regarding the signout link it shows me
<form id="j_idt31" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded" action="/myapp/content/bla.jsf" method="post" name="j_idt31" target="">
...
and obviously bla.jsf gives me error message because it's waiting for uName to have a value.
why it is doing so? is it a bug ?
Also, you might have noticed that I have h:selectOneMenu that send data to the bean when the value changes, but once I'm on bla.jsf?uName=dino and try to change the value of h:selectOneMenu it wont work for it does not redirected to the bean for some reason so is h:commandLink yet h:link(s) work fine.. how can I can resolve it BalusC.. Thank you so much for taking the time and answering by the way

Answer 1

The <h:commandLink> is nested inside a <h:form> whose HTML-generated <form action> URL defaults to the current request URL. It's basically a link which uses JavaScript to submit that form. As the form's action defaults to the current request URL, you don't see a change in the request URL. Technically, it's working perfectly fine.
If you want to change the request URL after submit, then you need to send a redirect. You can do that by adding faces-redirect=true parameter to the outcome value:
public String doSignOut() {
FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().invalidateSession();
return "signout?faces-redirect=true";
}
Or when you're still using the old fashioned <navigation-case> in faces-config.xml, then you need to add a <redirect /> entry.

Answer 2

with the help of great BalusC I was able to find my solution. my code was not working because it was menubar so every time the page changes the header or the menubar stay the same which means the form wont be changed.
I do not know why but rather than using h:link I used h:commandLink with combination of f:setPropertyActionListener to send the uName, then on the server side I did this
public String goToUserHomePage(){
methodNM = CLASS_NAME+".goToUserHomePage()";
log.info("in " + methodNM);
System.out.println("in " + methodNM);
System.out.println("in " + methodNM+"-------------------------"+user.getUsersUname());
return "userhome?uName="+user.getUsersUname()+"&faces-redirect=true";
}
by doing so every links whether with h:commandLink or h:link works fine