Binding component's instance to bean property

Question

I'm trying to bind a dataTable to an array of objects in a JavaBean. But I don't understand how the UIData object in my JavaBean gets created. I see the "setter" gets called from the binding attribute in the dataTable element, but it's not actually being populated with my data (it gets populated with a UIData object, HtmlDataTable, with 0 rows. But my object has rows).
<h:dataTable id="licenseTable"
             styleClass="Detail"
             binding="#{searchBean.licenseTable}"
             value="#{searchBean.licenses}"
             var="license">
</h:dataTable>In the "searchBean" JavaBean I have the following:
  private UIData licenseTable = null;
  private License[] licenseArray = null;
  public UIData getLicenseTable()
    return licenseTable;
  public void setLicenseTable(UIData table)
    this.licenseTable = table;
  public License[] getLicenses()
    return licenseArray;
  }Do I manually create the UIData object? From the examples I've seen, that doesn't appear to be the case. But I don't see how it works.
Thanks.

Answer 1

I'll try to answer your question, although, to be honest I'm not 100% sure that it will be correct. Perhaps a more experienced poster can correct me if I'm wrong.
I think that local values and component values are the same thing. Model values are the properties of the managed bean. There is a third category, which is submitted values.
- Submitted Values are the values which are read right off the HTTP parameters. In essence, they are the HTTP parameters.
- Local Values (or Component Values) These are the properties of the component. They are set from the submitted value during Apply_Request_Values phase.
- Model Values are the properties of a managed bean. These are set during the Update_Model_Values phase from the local values after being converted and validated during the Process_Validations phase.
I hope that helps, again, I am not completely sure if this is correct.