Ability to programmatically control a JSF tag outside the JSP?

Question

Hi All,
I created my own JSF component (a small grid) and I would like to know if it's possible to programatically control it outside my JSP.
For example let's say that I have the following snippet of code in my JSP:
<mytag:grid id="grid1"/>
Is it possible to access "grid1" in my controller (or somewhere else) and do something like that:
grid1.addcolumn ("column1") --> my UI component has an addColumn method.
grid1.addcolumn ("column2")
// loop through the column and set the width
for (int i=0; i<grid1.columns.count;i++) {
grid1.columns.width="200px"
Thanks for your help and Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Answer 1

It is also possible to create a web application with Faces
independent of JSP. We (the Faces team) have done some prototypes
in this area. For example, you can programmatically do something
like this for rendering:
// Render the response content for an individual component
protected void renderResponse(FacesContext context,
UIComponent component) throws IOException {
component.encodeBegin(context);
if (component.getRendersChildren()) {
component.encodeChildren(context);
} else {
Iterator kids = component.getChildren();
while (kids.hasNext()) {
renderResponse(context, (UIComponent) kids.next());
component.encodeEnd(context);
In one of our prototypes we've also used XUL (in replace of JSP) to
describe a Faces page.
Cheers,
-roger