How to skip validation when a specific button is clicked?

Question

I have a form with a validator on one field. I have two h:commandButtons: Ok and Cancel. When I input wrong data and click Cancel, I get a validation message. What must I do that validator don't run when I click cancel?

Answer 1

In case you aren't using ajax, or are still on JSF 1.x, and you really need to invoke a business action in cancel() method (i.e. just reloading the page is insufficient), then your best bet is to add immediate="true" to the button. This way all input fields which don't have immediate="true" will be skipped in processing.

<h:commandButton value="Cancel" action="#{bean.cancel}" immediate="true" />

On JSF 2.x, much better is to submit the form by <f:ajax>, which by default only processes @this instead of @form.

<h:commandButton value="Cancel" action="#{bean.cancel}">
    <f:ajax />
</h:commandButton>

If you want to navigate to another page here, add ?faces-redirect=true to the outcome in the cancel() method.

Or, if you actually don't need to invoke any business action at all, then just use <h:button> wherein you directly specify the (implicit) navigation case outcome.

<h:button value="Cancel" outcome="previouspage" />

This will basically reload the page by a GET request. The <h:button> doesn't exist in JSF 1.x, but you can also just use plain HTML+JS for that.

See also:

• Why was "immediate" attribute added to the EditableValueHolders?
• How to navigate in JSF? How to make URL reflect current page (and not previous one)
• How to let validation depend on the pressed button?