OverviewSince 3.3 The ace:selectMenu component is an advanced selection component that behaves similarly to the <select> HTML element and provides a number of additional advantages like ajax support, ARIA support, label positions, Themeroller support and more flexibility in rendering the list. Option items are defined either by <f:selectItem> and <f:selectItems> tags or by using a custom facet to define a custom way of rendering the options, which can contain graphics and additional text, while separating that from the actual value of the option item.
Getting StartedIn its simplest form, an ace:selectMenu component only requires to have some options defined and to bind its value to a property in a backing bean. <ace:selectMenu value="#{bean.category}"> <f:selectItem itemValue="a" itemLabel="Category A" /> <f:selectItem itemValue="b" itemLabel="Category B" /> <f:selectItem itemValue="c" itemLabel="Category C" /> <ace:ajax /> </ace:selectMenu> It is also possible to define how the list is to be rendered and to include arbitrary components in it. In order to do this, the listValue, listVar and itemValue attributes must be defined, as well as a facet named 'row', which will define the way the list is rendered. <ace:selectMenu value="#{bean.color}" listValue="#{bean.colors}" listVar="color" itemValue="#{color.hexValue}"> <f:facet name="row"> <h:graphicImage value="#{color.imgPath}" /> <h:outputText value="#{color.name}" /> </f:facet> <ace:ajax /> </ace:selectMenu>
Attributes
The value specifies a bean property to which the value of this component is bound to. The listVar attribute specifies a variable name to use for referencing each data object in the list when the rendering is done via a facet. The listValue attribute specifies the list of data objects that contains all possible options when the rendering is done via a facet. The itemValue attribute is a ValueExpression that specifies the property of the data object to use as the value of the item for this component if it gets selected. This only applies when listvar is used and the rendering is done by means of a facet. Client Behavior Events
JavaScript APIsICEfaces 3.xThe client side component object is exposed through the global variable name specified in the widgetVar attribute. ICEfaces 4+The "widgetVar" attribute on the ACE components has been removed in ICEfaces 4 and in its place a new "ice.ace.instance()" client JavaScript object lookup API has been introduced. The reason for this change is to enable lazy-initialization of the ACE component JavaScript objects to improve runtime performance and reduce browser memory use. var widget = ice.ace.instance('frm:componentId);
Keyboard and ARIA SupportFull ARIA support. Arrow keys supported to navigate options up and down. Keyboard acceleration supported (after typing a character the first item that starts with such character is highlighted). The following ARIA roles are supported: select, option. Facet RenderingIt is possible to customize the way in which the option items are displayed by means of the 'row' facet. You can add any arbitrary content, and if some of that content is only there for presentation purposes and is not part of the value string, you can use the ui-selectmenu-item-ignore CSS class to ignore that text. In the example below, a color box is created with CSS, and an underscore character is used only to give some width to the box; since this character is not part of the value string, we add the ui-selectmenu-item-ignore CSS class to it. <ace:selectMenu id="selectTextColor" value="#{selectMenuFacetBean.textColor}" listVar="color" listValue="#{selectMenuFacetBean.textColors}" itemValue="#{color.hexValue}" label="Select text color: " labelPosition="top"> <f:facet name="row"> <h:panelGrid columns="3" width="100%" columnClasses="col50,col25,col25"> <h:outputText value="#{color.name}" /> <h:outputText value="" /> <!-- color box --> <h:outputText value="_" style="display:inline-block;width:20px;color:#{color.hexValue};background-color:#{color.hexValue};border:1px #000 solid;" styleClass="ui-selectmenu-item-ignore"/> </h:panelGrid> </f:facet> <ace:ajax execute="@this" render="@all" /> </ace:selectMenu> LabelsThis component supports built-in labels. The text specified in the label attribute will be rendered next to the main input field of this component. The position specified by labelPosition will determine where this label is going to be rendered; the possible values are left, right, top, bottom, none and inField (to render the label in the field itself). Required IndicatorThe requiredIndicator attribute specifies the text to be displayed next to the main input field when this component is marked as required. When, this component is not marked as required, then the text specified in the optionalIndicator is going to be rendered. The indicatorPosition attribute determines where this indicator text is going to the rendered; the possible values are left, right, top, bottom, labelLeft, labelRight, and none. Required StylingThen this component is marked as required, the main input field receives the CSS class ui-state-required, otherwise, it receives the CSS class ui-state-optional. When this component is marked as invalid by the app, it will be rendered with the CSS class ui-state-error. These CSS classes can be used to add custom styling to this component, in order indicate its current state in a more visual way. CSS ClassesThe following markup represents the basic HTML structure of the component and the CSS classes it uses. <!-- Root container --> <div class="ui-selectmenu ui-widget [user defined classes]"> <!-- Value area --> <a class="ui-widget-content ui-corner-all ui-selectmenu-value "> <!-- Selected value display area --> <span class="ui-inputfield ui-widget-content ui-corner-left ui-state-optional" style="[user defined styles]"></span> <!-- Down arrow button --> <div class="ui-state-default ui-corner-right ui-selectmenu-button"> <div></div> <div class="ui-icon ui-icon-triangle-1-s"></div> </div> </a> <!-- List of options --> <div class="ui-selectmenu-list"> <div> <div class="ui-widget-content"> <!-- Option label, visible to user --> <span class="ui-selectmenu-item-label">Option label</span> <!-- Actual option value (hidden) --> <span class="ui-selectmenu-item-value">Option value</span> </div> </div> </div> </div> Additionally, the ui-selectmenu-item-ignore class name can be added when using the component in facet mode to components and elements that are rendered for display purposes but that are not part of the value that is submitted to the server. Known IssuesNone. |
SelectMenu
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