PropertyNotFoundException on conditionally rendered subclasses in ui:repeat

Question

I have a superclass Person:

public class Person {
    public abstract Type getType();
}

I have 2 subclasses of it:

public class JuridicalPerson extends Person {
    public Type getType() {
        return Type.JP;
    }
    public List<JuridicalBelong> getJuridicalBelongs() {
        return juridicalBelongs;
    }
}

public class NaturalPerson extends Person {
    public Type getType() {
        return Type.NP;
    }
    public List<NaturalBelong> getNaturalBelongs() {
        return naturalBelongs;
    }
}

JuridicalBelong and NaturalBelong have different properties and can't be subclassed.

I have them in a List<Person> which I'd like to present in JSF/Facelets as follows:

<ui:repeat value="#{bean.persons}" var="person">
    <h:panelGroup rendered="#{person.type eq 'JP'}">
        <ui:repeat value="#{person.juridicalBelongs}" var="juridicalBelong">
            ...
        </ui:repeat>
    </h:panelGroup>
    <h:panelGroup rendered="#{person.type eq 'NP'}">
        <ui:repeat value="#{person.naturalBelongs}" var="naturalBelong">
            ...
        </ui:repeat>
    </h:panelGroup>
</ui:repeat>

However, this causes the following exception:

javax.el.PropertyNotFoundException: The class 'com.example.NaturalPerson' does not have the property 'juridicalBelongs'.

How is this possible? As per my rendered condition

<h:panelGroup rendered="#{person.type eq 'JP'}">

it should ignore NaturalPerson, right?

Answer 1

This is caused by a bug in state management of Mojarra's <ui:repeat> which will expose when you use EditableValueHolder components (input fields) inside the <ui:repeat> as well. This is fixed as per issue 3219. The fix is available in Mojarra 2.2.7 and for JSF 2.0/2.1 backported to Mojarra 2.1.29 as per issue 3224. So upgrading to at least that version (or just the latest available as per Mojarra homepage) should do it.

Otherwise, your best bet is to replace <ui:repeat> by <c:forEach>.