Access Another Class' Property Value That is Defined in the faces-config?

Question

I have a private property "dataTransferType" with public getter and setter in the DataFile class. The initial value of the "dataTransferType" is defined in the faces-config.xml file. I want to get the "initial value" of the "dataTransferType" in another class and the compiler does not like the way I access this property.
Here is the snippet of the DataFile class, which shows the declaration and the getter and setter for the property:
public class DataFile implements java.io.Serializable
     private String dataTransferType;
     public DataFile(){}
    public DataFile( String aDataTransferType )
        this.dataTransferType = aDataTransferType;
     public String getDataTransferType()
          return dataTransferType;
     public void setDataTransferType( String dataTransferType )
          this.dataTransferType = dataTransferType;
}Here is the way that the initial value of the "dataTransferPropery" is set in the faces-config.xml file:
<managed-bean>
  <managed-bean-name>dataFile</managed-bean-name>
  <managed-bean-class>propertyBeans.DataFile</managed-bean-class>
  <managed-bean-scope>session</managed-bean-scope>
  <managed-property>
   <property-name>dataTransferType</property-name>
   <property-class>java.lang.String</property-class>
   <value>importFile</value>
  </managed-property>
</managed-bean>Now, in another class FileManagementBean, I first instantiate the DataFile class
private DataFile datafile;and then in the constructor of the FileManagementBean I tried to access the initial value of the property "dataTransferType":
this.recordItems = this.getRecordsList( datafile.dataTransferType );The compiler did not like it at all.
But, if I arbitrary introduced a String in the FileManagementBean:
String defaultSelectedDataTransferType = "importFile";
this.recordItems = this.getRecordsList( defaultSelectedDataTransferType );My code worked as I had expected without any problem.

Answer 1

Thanks for all your attention.
The runtime error is rather strange:
>
javax.servlet.ServletException: javax.faces.FacesException: javax.faces.FacesException: Can't instantiate class: 'actions.DataManagementBean'.. class actions.DataManagementBean : java.lang.NullPointerException
The DataManagementBean is the class that accesses the property "dataTransferType" in the DataFile class. And the initial value of the "dataTransferType" is defined in the faces-config.xml file.
If I arbitrarily introduced a String value in the DataManagementBean:
String defaultSelectedDataTransferType = "importFile"and in the DataManagementBean's constructor, I use this statement:
this.recordItems = this.getRecordsList( defaultSelectedDataTransferType );Things worked as I had expected without problem. But, I think this is not an elegant way of coding it. Because there is a pre-defined value of dataTransferType in the faces-config.xml file, I should access it from there.
But, when I specify:
this.recordItems = this.getRecordsList( datafile.getDataTransferType() );The DataManagementBean cannot even be instantiated!
In my faces-config.xml file, I have:
<managed-bean>
  <managed-bean-name>dataManagementBean</managed-bean-name>
  <managed-bean-class>actions.DataManagementBean</managed-bean-class>
  <managed-bean-scope>session</managed-bean-scope>
  <managed-property>
   <property-name>datafile</property-name>
   <property-class>propertyBeans.DataFile</property-class>
   <value>#{dataFile}</value>
  </managed-property>
</managed-bean>
<managed-bean>
  <managed-bean-name>dataFile</managed-bean-name>
  <managed-bean-class>propertyBeans.DataFile</managed-bean-class>
  <managed-bean-scope>session</managed-bean-scope>
  <managed-property>
   <property-name>dataTransferType</property-name>
   <property-class>java.lang.String</property-class>
   <value>importFile</value>
  </managed-property>
</managed-bean>
......