Immediate="true" causes update="component" to fail

Question

I have a command button (a Cancel button to be specific) that I want to bypass the validation of some components on my page. When I have immediate="true" set on my command button, the update attribute does not work. By "not work" I mean that the values on :centerForm:p_definition do not reset to what they should be. If I select an item from a dropdown or enter data into an input text, the information should disappear when clicking cancel. Setting immediate="false" or leaving it off completely does reset the fields as expected. Here is the definition of the commandbutton I am having trouble with.

<p:commandButton value="Cancel" style="float: right;"
    immediate="true"
    actionListener="#{manageBomPropHandler.doCancel()}"
    update=":centerForm:p_definition"/>

Is that the expected behavior from immediate="true"? If so, how have you gotten around this for cancel buttons?

Answer 1

"Update" will be called/executed at Update Model Value phase. When you set "immediate" attribute to button command, this phase is ignored.See below images for more detail.

          P1: Standard Lifecycle executes Update Model Values phase

          P2: Immediate Lifecycle ignored Update Model Values phase

Answer 2

If may help, there's a already solution for clean input fields with primefaces:

<p:commandButton value="Reset Tag" update="panel" process="@this" style="margin-right:20px;" >
    <p:resetInput target="panel" />
</p:commandButton>

OR

<h:commandButton value="Reset p:ajax" style="margin-right:20px;" >
    <p:ajax update="panel" resetValues="true" />
</h:commandButton>

Source: http://www.primefaces.org/showcase/ui/misc/resetInput.xhtml