CommandButton doesn't invode the function in backing bean.

Question

I have a jsp page which contains three buttons, and based on a session level state, only one shown at the beginning. Once this button is clicked, the other two are shown and the first one is hidden.
When the first button (add) is clicked, the other two are shown correctly. But when I clicked any one of them, none of their backing bean methods are called. I checked the log, no exception.
Then I tried to show all buttons at begining, and click them. Both backing bean methods are invoked.
Did I miss something in the life cycle of JSF?
Here is the part of jsp page:
<h:commandButton action="#{manageBranches.doAddBranches}" image="/images/add.gif" rendered="#{!manageBranches.isAdd}"
styleClass="toolbaricon" title="#{messages['branches.dropdown.add.branches']}"
onmouseover="swapImage( this, 'add.gif', 'add_down.gif' );"
onmouseout="swapImage( this, 'add.gif', 'add_down.gif' );" />
<h:commandButton action="#{manageBranches.doEditBranches}" image="/images/edit_icon.gif" rendered="#{manageBranches.isAdd}"
styleClass="toolbaricon" title="#{messages['branches.dropdown.edit.branches']}"
onmouseover="swapImage( this, 'edit_icon.gif', 'edit_icon_down.gif' );"
onmouseout="swapImage( this, 'edit_icon.gif', 'edit_icon_down.gif' );" immediate="true" />
<h:commandButton action="#{manageBranches.doSaveBranches}" image="/images/save.gif" rendered="#{manageBranches.isAdd}"
styleClass="toolbaricon" title="#{messages['branches.dropdown.save.branches']}"
onmouseover="swapImage( this, 'save.gif', 'save_down.gif' );"
onmouseout="swapImage( this, 'save.gif', 'save_down.gif' );" />
Here are corresponding backing bean methods:
     public String doAddBranches()
          Logger.logEnterPublic(MY_CLASS, "doAddBranches()");
          setIsAdd(true);
          return null;
     public String doSaveBranches()
          Logger.logEnterPublic(MY_CLASS, "doSaveBranches()");
          String forward = null;
          if(addedBranchIds ==null || addedBranchIds.length()==0)
MessageFactory.addErrorMessage( null, "branches.selectAtLeastOneBranch", null );
this.successMsg = false;
return forward;
          else
               String[] branchIdArray = addedBranchIds.split(":");
          this.successMsg = true;
          //TODO: add save logic
          return forward;
     public String doEditBranches()
          Logger.logEnterPublic(MY_CLASS, "doEditBranches()");
          String forward = null;
          setIsAdd(false);
          return forward;
The add button worked fine. But when save and edit button were shown and add button was hidden. Both save and edit button can't access the backing bean methonds. I put a break point on the constructor of the backing bean, it WAS accessed!
Very confusing!
Thanks for any helps.
jm.

Answer 1

Ok, I'm not 100% on this, but it's something you can try. In your action methods, you often return null when you want the page to just be reloaded. I believe in JSF, returning null and returning a string that represents the same page is quite different. I think this is because the component tree will get re-initialized when you return a proper string. It's quite possible that you need to have the component tree re-initialized for everything to work properly.
Therefore, whenever you want to reload "pageA" then return an abbreviation called "A" (or whatever you want). In your faces-config.xml set up a rule that when outcome "A" is received (while on pageA) then load pageA.jsp.
Hope that makes some sense! Let me know if it works.
CowKing