Best practice for backing bean population? (also, ActionListener RANT)

Hello,
I am about 3/4 of the way through development of a small to medium size JSF application. Sometimes I really like JSF, but much of the time I am left puzzled or frustrated for hours trying to find workarounds to JSF's bugs/glitches and design flaws.
For example, early on, I was impressed with how easily it was to invoke a method from a page using an actionlistener. Now that I'm actually building things with JSF, the actionlistener funtionality still seems cool, but incredibly half baked. I find myself using request parameters LIKE CRAZY to work around the fact that JSF doesnt support passing parameters directly to backing bean methods. This feels awkward and wrong considering the fact that JSF is intended to abstract the HTTP underpinnings. To add insult to injury, I often have to iterate through ALL of the request parameters looking for one that has an id with an ending matching my desired property name (since JSF appends it's own crap to the beginning). I don't like doing things in a hacky way. This seems very hacky, and I feel dirty doing it.
So, my first question is, what is the best practice for populating backing beans??? How do others accomplish this. I can think of several other approaches, but none feel less hacky.
Second, are there plans in the next spec (please say there are) to allow parameters to be passed to backing bean methods? If not, WHY THE HECK NOT?
Even though JSF expert group people have been conspicuously absent from this forum of late, I'd really appreciate responses from you as well.
Thank you for your thoughts.

Hi BrownBear,
I've been using JSF for about 6 months now and I'd be glade to help as much as I can.
Concerning parameters, I'm not sure what your issue is but I use the f:param tag to pass them. If you could post an example of what you are trying to do, I could see exactly what your issue is. Maybe the f:param can't help you.
As for best practice for populating backing beans, I personaly try to let JSF do as much as possible. For example, if I have a backing bean with five properties, I make sure that they all are on the JSP page the bean serves. If one of the property is just there as an Id like, lets say, a Person ID (DB row key), then I put it on my JSP page as a hidden input field. I do the same with the properties that only for display, if I want them to be back in my bean when request comesback.
Hope this help some how. Please, feel free to ask specific questions related to your specific problem and I monitor this post and trnasfer to you the ;little JSF experience I have.
I'm pretty happy with JSF as it is but it sure needs improvements. :) What the heck, it's version 1.01 after all, and the next release should be a great one with the integration of JSTL.
Cheers

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    instead of 'Select Print Preview'). You have to edit them.
    8) PC training syntax: Buttons and hyperlinks should normally
    be 'click'; selections from drop down boxes or file lists are
    normally 'select': Captivate sometimes mixes them up. Instructions
    should always be written in the correct order: eg. Good: Click
    'File', Select 'Print Preview'; Bad: Select 'Print Preview' from
    the 'File Menu'. Button names, hyperlinks, selections are normally
    written in bold
    9) Instruction syntax: should always be written in an active
    voice: eg. 'Click Options to open the printer menu' instead of
    'When the Options button is clicked on, the printer menu will open'
    10) Break all modules into chapters. Frame each chapter with
    a chapter slide. It's also a good idea to show the Index page
    before each chapter slide with a progress indicator (I use an
    animated arrow to flash next to the name of the next chapter), I
    use a start button rather a 'next' button for the start of each
    chapter. You should always have a module overview with the purpose
    of the course and a summary slide which states what was covered and
    they have complete the module.
    11) Put a transparent click button somewhere on each slide.
    Set the properties of the click box to take the learner back to the
    start of the current chapter by pressing F2. This allows them to
    jump back to the start of their chapter at any time. You can also
    do a similar thing on the index pages which jumps them to another
    chapter.
    12) Recording video capture: best to do it at normal speed
    and be concious of where your mouse is. Minimise your clicks. Most
    people (until they start working with captivate) are sloppy with
    their mouse and you end up with lots of unnecessarily slides that
    you have to delete out. The speed will default to how you recorded
    it and this will reduce the amount of time you spend on changing
    timings.
    13) Captions: My rule of thumb is minimum of 4 seconds - and
    longer depending on the amount of words. Eg. Click 'Print Preview'
    is 4 seconds, a paragraph is longer. If you creating knowledge
    based modules, make the timing long (eg. 2-3 minutes) and put in a
    next button so that the learner can click when they are ready.
    Also, narration means the slides will normally be slightly longer.
    14) Be creative: Capitvate is desk bound. There are some
    learners that just don't respond no matter how interactive
    Captivate can be. Incorporate non-captivate and desk free
    activities. Eg. As part of our OHS module, there is an activity
    where the learner has to print off the floor plan, and then wander
    around the floor marking on th emap key items such as: fire exits;
    first aid kit, broom and mop cupboard, stationary cupboard, etc.
    Good luck!

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