JSF 2 Update Component Outside of Form and Outside of Facelet

Question

I have a form in the <ui:insert name="content" /> When I save the data with a p:commandButton I can update the form and things within the <ui:insert name="content" />. But I am having trouble figuring out how to update components in the <ui:include src="/sections/menus/topMenu.xhtml"/>

Inside the topmenu I have a subview for a panel with links that get rendered depending on whether a person is logged in or not. when they are logged in I show their username. If I update the user name in the content part of the template, I want to update the ui so that the name in the menu also updates without a page refresh. But that is a fallback I can use too. Refresh the page after update. But would rather not. I'll post more code if you want but trying to keep it to a minimum to start.

  <h:body>
    <div id="wrap">
      <div title="Container">
          <ui:include src="/sections/base/header.xhtml"/>
        </div><!-- End of Banner -->

        <div id="baseTemplateTopMenu" title="Menu">
          <ui:include src="/sections/menus/topMenu.xhtml"/>
        </div><!-- End of Menu -->

        <div id="sbt_contentbody"> 

            <div title="Left Column">
              <ui:include src="/sections/base/leftsidebar.xhtml"/>
            </div> <!-- End of Left Column -->
            <div title="Content Column">
              <ui:insert name="content" />
            </div><!-- End of Centre Column -->
            <div title="Right Column">
              <ui:include src="/sections/base/rightsidebar.xhtml"/>
            </div><!-- End of Right Column -->

        </div>
        <div id="footer" title="Footer" class ="container">
          <ui:include src="/sections/base/footer.xhtml"/>
        </div><!-- End of Footer -->

      </div><!-- End of Container -->
  </h:body>

Below is the p:commandButton that saves the user info

<p:commandButton id="id_SubmitUserInfoPrefs"
                    value="Update"
                    action="#{userPreferences.updateUserInfo()}" styleClass="bottom_margin_2em top_margin_2em">
    <f:ajax execute="@form" render="@form :topMenuLoginView:topMenuLoginForm" />
<!-- tried adding 'update=":"topMenuLoginView:topMenuLoginForm"' as well. -->

Below is in the menu part of the template.

<f:subview id="topMenuLoginView">
    <h:form id="topMenuLoginForm" prependId="false">
        <ul>
            <h:panelGroup id="loginPanel" rendered="#{!user.loggedIn}">
                <li><h:outputLink value="javascript:void(0)" onclick="topMenuLoginDialog.show()" 
                                    title="login" styleClass="loginpanelclass">Log In</h:outputLink></li>
                <li><h:link value="Register" outcome="/registration/register.xhtml" /></li>
            </h:panelGroup>
            <h:panelGroup id="logoutPanel" rendered="#{user.loggedIn}">
                <li><h:link value="#{user.nickname}" outcome="#{navigationprops.userprefs}" /> </li>
                <li><p:commandLink action="#{webAuthenticationBean.logout}" 
                                    update=":topMenuLoginView:topMenuLoginForm">
                        Logout
                    </p:commandLink>
                </li>
            </h:panelGroup>
        </ul>
    </h:form>
</f:subview>

Answer 1

to Update Component Outside of Form

<p:gmap center="36.890257,30.707417" zoom="13" type="ROADMAP" 
                style="width:600px;height:400px"
                model="#{mapBean.simpleModel}"
                onPointClick="handlePointClick(event);"
                widgetVar="cliMap" fitBounds="true"
                id="map">
            <p:ajax event="overlaySelect" listener="#{mapBean.onMarkerSelect}"  />
        </p:gmap>

        <p:dialog widgetVar="dlg" showEffect="fade">
            <h:form prependId="false" id="formnew">
                <h:panelGrid columns="2">
                    <f:facet name="header">
                        <p:outputLabel value="New Point"/>
                    </f:facet>
                    <h:outputLabel for="title" value="Title:" />
                    <p:inputText id="title" value="#{mapBean.title}" />

                    <f:facet name="footer">
                        <p:commandButton value="Add" actionListener="#{mapBean.newPoint()}" update=":map" oncomplete="markerAddComplete()" />
                        <p:commandButton value="Cancel" onclick="return cancel()" />
                    </f:facet>
                </h:panelGrid>
                <h:inputHidden id="Nlat" value="#{mapBean.lat}"  />
                <h:inputHidden id="Nlng" value="#{mapBean.lng}" />

            </h:form>
        </p:dialog>

i used update=":map" to update the google map out of the form Using Primefaces

Answer 2

The general idea of referring to an element by ID is as following:

Lets say we've got an element <p:commandButton>.

When the element is given no id JSF generates one:

<button name="j_idt191" id="j_idt191" ....

If an element is nested in a container element like a form, JSF prefixes the ID with the ID of the form:

JSF:

<h:form>
    <p:commandButton/>
</h:form>

HTML:

<form id="j_idt48">
    <button name="j_idt48:j_idt191" id="j_idt48:j_idt191" ....
</form>

When there is an element in another container you need to reference from the root element. This can be done using a ":" in front of the ID. Here is an example:

<p:commandButton id="button1" update=":form:button2" ...

<h:form id="form">
    <p:commandButton id="button2" update=":button1" ...
</h:form>

If you're not sure what ID JSF has assigned to your element, use something like FireBug to inspect the element and discover it's ID.

As far as your code, I don't think <f:subview> is generating a container element, thus you need to reference topMenuLoginForm using update=":topMenuLoginForm".

---

That being said, if you want to update an element using AJAX, use the update attribute. See my example above.