Does "onchange" not work with form submits?

Question

Hello,
I have a simple select menu that I want to behave such that if the user clicks on any menu item, the form automatically submits. So here is the snippet of code:
<h:selectOneMenu id="allUserResidentialFeatures"
value="#{residentialFeaturesDTO.map.allUserResidentialFeatures}"
onchange="document.forms['myForm'].submit()">
<f:selectItems
value="#{utilitiesDelegate.referenceHandlesFromDTOsMap1}"/>
</h:selectOneMenu>
What happens is that if you click on the submit BUTTON, everything works fine: validation and the backing bean action is called, and navigation occurs.
BUT if you click on the MENU above, the form does something I cannot understand: the fields are validated (so it is going to the back end server), but then the form is redisplayed once again - and the backing bean action is NOT called.
Obviously the JSF lifecycle here is being short-circuited - even though I did not put "immediate='true'". But why? Isn't pressing the "submit" button and calling the "submit()" function exactly the same (ignoring the onsubmit event handler difference)?
very confused.. a day has passed on this .. if you can help, thanks.
-A
Message was edited by:
bland999

Answer 1

More information on this problem that I have yet to solve: I implemented a PhaseListener to trace the application during the two submits. There is a difference that I cannot explain:
If the form is submitted using the regular submit button (an h:commandbutton), the application transitions thru all phases normally, and during the INVOKE_ACTION phase, the beforePhase and afterPhase events sandwich the actual invocation to the backingbean action. In other words, I do see the call to the backing bean's action method.
But if the form is submitted using the automatic "onchange" submit() from the select menu, the phases are progressed normally as before BUT the beforePhase and afterPhase events occur with NOTHING between them: the action is not invoked.
Any idea why???
-A
No ideas...?
Message was edited by:
bland999