Access custom service method

Question

in a jsf backing bean, i'm getting a reference to the application module (in order to call a custom service method and pass in parameters) in the following way:
FacesContext fc = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
ValueBinding vb = fc.getApplication().createValueBinding("#{data.LoginServiceDataControl.dataProvider}");
LoginService service = (LoginService)vb.getValue(fc);
I find myself rewriting this code over and over to get a reference to the application module. Researching this to find a better way, I saw a thread that suggested using the following code:
MyAM appModule = (MyAM) getBindings().getDataControl().getApplicationModule();
I've added the oracle.binding.BindingContainer bindings property to my backing bean, along with getters/setters. However, when i call getBindings(), I do not see getDataControl() as an option with the code insight dialog that pops up. Can someone tell me a clean/efficient way to access a custom service method and pass in appropriate parameters from a backing bean? Thanks.

Answer 1

Jammer,
It is not best practice to use the second way you suggest.
If you are repeating writing code like that, the best thing is to create a helper class.
For example, I use the helper class that I posted here:
http://radio.weblogs.com/0118231/stories/2006/12/18/sourceForMyFavoriteElHelperClass.html
Using that class, I do what you're doing with one line like this:
  LoginService ls = (LoginService)EL.get("#{data.LoginServiceDataControl.dataProvider}}");Alternatively, if you will be doing this a lot in your backing beans, one thing you can consider is creating yourself a base class for all your backing beans to inherit from that can contain helper methods to simply their individual code.
For example, if you had a class like:
public class MyBackingBeanBase {
  protected LoginService getLoginService() {
    return (LoginService)EL.get("#{data.LoginServiceDataControl.dataProvider}}");
}Then any one of your backing beans for a specific page can extend this class and simply call getLoginService() to have typesafe access to the LoginService interface.