Commandtoolbarbutton enabling/disabling based on tree node selection

Question

i am using the tree tag to generate a set of nodes and every node is a command link.... i have a set of commandtoolbarbuttons on top of the tree... the functionality i am trying to obtain is on press of the tree node( i.e, command link ) the commantoolbarbuttons are enabled or disabled.. on press of link i am able to get the tree node selected in the backing bean, and also i am setting some variables for the "disabled" attribute of commandtoolbarbutton. The problem i am facing here is i have a partialtrigger attribute in the commandtoolbarbutton pointing to the commandlink id. But the partial trigger is unable to identify the command link id outside the tree. And i cannot put the commandtoolbar buttons inside the tree...
Can anyone please let me know how can i resolve this?? or is there anyother approach??
The source code is as mentioned below...
<af:panelGroupLayout layout="horizontal" halign="right">
<f:facet name="separator">
<af:spacer width="5px"/>
</f:facet>
<af:toolbox id="mainTab_box" >
<af:toolbar id="mainTab_bar">
<af:spacer width="80"/>
<af:commandToolbarButton icon="/resources/images/new_ena.png" partialSubmit="true"
shortDesc="New" id="ctb1_mainTab" disabled="#{nodeSelectionHandler.createToolbar}" partialTriggers="cl1"/>
<af:commandToolbarButton icon="/resources/images/update_ena.png" partialSubmit="true"
shortDesc="Update" id="ctb2_mainTab" disabled="#{nodeSelectionHandler.editToolbar}" partialTriggers="cl1"/>
<af:commandToolbarButton icon="/resources/images/delete_ena.png" partialSubmit="true"
shortDesc="Delete" id="ctb3_mainTab" disabled="#{nodeSelectionHandler.cancelToolbar}" partialTriggers="cl1"/>
<af:commandToolbarButton icon="/resources/images/importIcon.png" partialSubmit="true"
shortDesc="Import" id="ctb4_mainTab" disabled="#{nodeSelectionHandler.exportToolbar}" partialTriggers="cl1"/>
<af:commandToolbarButton icon="/resources/images/exportIcon.png" partialSubmit="true"
shortDesc="Export" id="ctb5_mainTab" disabled="#{nodeSelectionHandler.importToolbar}" partialTriggers="cl1"/>
</af:toolbar>
</af:toolbox>
</af:panelGroupLayout>
<af:panelGroupLayout layout="scroll">
<af:tree var="node"
value="#{browserTreeModel}"
id="browsertree" inlineStyle="min-width:200px;min-height:400px;width:100%;height:100%"
rowSelection="single" clientComponent="true" contentDelivery="immediate"
>
<f:facet name="nodeStamp">
<af:panelGroupLayout id="pgl10">
<af:image id="nodeIcon"
inlineStyle="margin-right:3px; vertical-align:middle; height:16px; width:16px;"
shortDesc="directory icon" rendered="#{node.destination != null}"
source="#{node.destination}"/>
<af:commandLink text="#{node.text}"
id="cl1"
disabled="false" partialSubmit="true"
actionListener="#{nodeSelectionHandler.selectionPerformed}" >
<f:attribute name="nodeId" value="#{node.id}"/>
<f:attribute name="operation" value="#{node.associatedOperation}"/>
</af:commandLink>
</af:panelGroupLayout>
</f:facet>
</af:tree>
</af:panelGroupLayout>

Answer 1

With apologies, you're not aware of ELUtils class devised by Steve Muench:
package view;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.faces.el.MethodBinding;
import javax.faces.el.ValueBinding;
public class ELUtils {
  public static boolean test(String booleanExpr) {
    return Boolean.TRUE.equals(get(booleanExpr));
  public static String getAsStringWithDefault(String expr, String defaultExpr) {
    return (String)getWithDefault(expr, defaultExpr);
  public static String getAsString(String expr) {
    return (String)get(expr);
  public static Integer getAsInteger(String expr) {
    return (Integer)get(expr);
  public static Object get(String expr) {
    FacesContext fc = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
    ValueBinding vb = fc.getApplication().createValueBinding(expr);
    return vb.getValue(fc);
  public static Object getWithDefault(String expr, String defaultExpr) {
    Object exprVal = get(expr);
    return exprVal != null ? exprVal : get(defaultExpr);
  public static void set(String expr, String value) {
    Object valToSet = value;
    if (isELExpr(value)) {
      valToSet = get(value);
    set(expr, valToSet);
  public static void set(String expr, Object value) {
    FacesContext fc = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
    ValueBinding vb = fc.getApplication().createValueBinding(expr);
    vb.setValue(fc, value);
  private static boolean isELExpr(Object o) {
    if (o instanceof String) {
      String str = (String)o;
      str.trim();
      return str.startsWith("#{") && str.endsWith("}");
    return false;
  public static Object invokeMethod(String expr, Class[] paramTypes, Object[] params) {
    FacesContext fc = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
    MethodBinding mb = fc.getApplication().createMethodBinding(expr, paramTypes);
    return mb.invoke(fc, params);
  public static Object invokeMethod(String expr, Class paramType, Object param) {
    return invokeMethod(expr, new Class[] { paramType }, new Object[] { param });
}Try that.
CM.