Extending Richfaces components

Question

I'm looking to override the functionality of some Richfaces components (mostly the extendedDataTable).

Could somebody provide a thorough example of any component they extended, with code examples?

I know the below thread describes how to do it, but a code example would be hugely beneficial.

Extend Richfaces components - for example customize Datatable component for specific implementation

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Ok.....I've been trawling the internet and doesn't seem to be a whole lot of clear step by step simple examples of this. Seem to be the case here too :(

I have managed to put together the following so far:

I've created a custom ExtendedDataTableRenderer renderer as follows:

package com.test;

import java.io.IOException;

import javax.faces.component.UIComponent;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import org.richfaces.renderkit.html.ExtendedDataTableRenderer;

public class HtmlExtendedDataTableRendered extends ExtendedDataTableRenderer
{
     @Override
     public void encodeBegin(FacesContext context, UIComponent component) throws IOException
     {
               System.out.println("------- in HtmlExtendedDataTableRendered init() -----");

                    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
                    super.encodeBegin(context, component);
     }
}

And added the following to my faces-config.xml as follows:

<render-kit>
     <renderer>
          <component-family>org.richfaces.ExtendedDataTable</component-family>
          <renderer-type>org.richfaces.ExtendedDataTableRenderer</renderer-type>
          <renderer-class>com.test.HtmlExtendedDataTableRendered</renderer-class>
     </renderer>
</render-kit>

When I hit a page that has an entendedDataTable component this seems to be working (It is prining the test code to the console).

Now I also extended the HtmlExtendedDataTable class as follows:

package com.test;

import java.io.IOException;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import org.richfaces.component.html.HtmlExtendedDataTable;

public class customExtendedDataTable extends HtmlExtendedDataTable {
    /*
     * The renderer type for this component.
    */
    public static final String RENDERER_TYPE = "com.test.HtmlExtendedDataTableRendered";

    public customExtendedDataTable() {

         System.out.println("------- in customExtendedDataTable init() -----");

         setRendererType(RENDERER_TYPE);
    }

   @Override
    public String getFamily() {
        return customExtendedDataTable.RENDERER_TYPE;
    }


   @Override
   public boolean groupIsExpanded(int index)
   {
        System.out.println("------- in groupIsExpanded -----");

        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        return super.groupIsExpanded(1);
   }

   @Override
   public void encodeBegin(FacesContext context) throws IOException
   {
        System.out.println("------- in encodeBegin -----");

        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        super.encodeBegin(context);
   }
}

Nothing is been printed to the console from within this class when I enter a page that has the extendedDataTable component.

Could anybody provide me with some help as to why this is not working please?

Thanks

Answer 1

You've only definied the renderer in faces-config.xml, but you have definied the component nowhere. It has to go in the faces-config.xml as well:

<component>
    <component-type>customExtendedDataTable</component-type>
    <component-class>com.test.customExtendedDataTable</component-class>
</component>

And don't forget to add a getter getComponentType() to your custom component which returns the same value as is been definied in <component-type>.

Further you need to create a tag file as well so that you can use it in your view. It is not so that you can substitute the code of an existing rich:extendedDataTable. You've got to use my:extendedDataTable for example. Creating a taglib.xml is pretty clumsy, I can't write it down from top of head (yet? ;) ), so here are some links which should help you in the right direction:

• JSF component development
• JSF component writing checklist
• JSF component with all event handlers

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Unrelated to the concrete problem, classnames should really start with uppercase.