Dynamically Populate a Panel Dashboard in a Fragment

Question

I am working with a customized Panel Dashboard in a fragment (jsff).  The user can customize the dashboard (re-order panel boxes, define number of columns, add/remove panel boxes, etc.) and our goal is to persist these customizations so they are available across different sessions.  To achieve this, I created several database tables for these customizations and tied them to the user table.  When the user opens the application, the dashboard fragment is the first fragment to display.  I am loading the information from the database then constructing the Panel Dashboard.  The dashboard starts out with a static set of Panel Boxes (as seen in main_dashboard.jsff below), then based on the data, I re-order them and set rendered equal to false for panel boxes which the user removed.
My problem is I need to do this before the page is rendered.  To do this, I am calling the customization method from the constructor of my backing bean.  The RichPanelDashboard which I bind the UI Component to is not yet available.  I have tried several things which did not work, including:
- Adding the @PostConstruct annotation to my customization method.
- Pulling the component from the View Root: RichPanelDashboard mainDashboard = ( RichPanelDashboard )FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getViewRoot().findComponent( "mainDash" );
- Added a "preRenderComponent" event to the page: <f:event type="preRenderComponent" listener="#{main_dashboard.setupCustomDashboard}"/> (after a web search, it appears the f:event tag is not supported in ADF Fragments).
I've encountered this problem in the past with different UI Components.  Most notably, I needed to populate a SelectOneListBox before the page is rendered.  I solved the problem by adding a <f:selectItems> child to the <af:selectOneListBox> and setting the value of that tag to a List of SelectItems in my backing bean and populating that list on bean instantiation.  Is there a similar option for a Panel Dashboard and a List of Panel Boxes?  The thought of using an <af:forEach> tag had crossed my mind to populate the panel dashboard with panel boxes, but as you can see in my code below, I am already using <af:forEach> to dynamically populate the first panel box with command links.  Unless there is a way to dynamically populate a panel dashboard with dynamically populated panel boxes in the fragment, I don't think the for each approach will work (there doesn't appear to be a way to dynamically populate the panel boxes with UI components in the backing bean either).
Sample code is below.  Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
main_dashboard.jsff
{code}
                <af:panelDashboard id="mainDash" columns="2" rowHeight="250px" styleClass="AFStretchWidth"  inlineStyle="height:1000px;"
                                   dropListener="#{main_dashboard.handleReorder}" binding="#{main_dashboard.panelDashboard}">
                    <!--f:event listener="#{main_dashboard.setupCustomDashboard}" type="preRenderComponent"/-->
                    <af:panelBox id="openedBox" text="Recently Opened">
                        <af:componentDragSource/>
                        <af:forEach var="item" items="#{main_dashboard.openedCommandLinks}">
                            <af:commandLink text="#{item.text}" partialSubmit="true"
                                            actionListener="#{main_dashboard.editorFiredFromDashboard}"/>
                        </af:forEach>
                    </af:panelBox>
                    <af:panelBox id="editedBox" text="Recently Edited">
                        <af:componentDragSource/>
                        <af:outputText value="Recently Edited" id="ot2"/>
                    </af:panelBox>
                    <af:panelBox id="openCPsBox" text="My Open Config Packages">
                        <af:componentDragSource/>
                        <af:outputText value="My Open Config Packages" id="ot3"/>
                    </af:panelBox>
                    <af:panelBox id="testBox" text="Test Panel Box">
                        <af:componentDragSource/>
                        <af:outputText value="For Testing Purposes Only" id="ot4"/>
                    </af:panelBox>
                </af:panelDashboard>
{code}
MainDashboardBackingBean (main_dashboard)
{code}
    private RichPanelDashboard panelDashboard;
    public MainDashboardBackingBean() {
        setupCustomDashboard();
    // Using @PostConstruct annotation did not work
    // @PostConstruct
    public void setupCustomDashboard() {
        // Set custom column count
        Integer selectedColumnCount = customDashboardDcl.getColumnCount();
        // Pulling from FacesContext did not work
        // RichPanelDashboard mainDashboard = ( RichPanelDashboard )FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getViewRoot().findComponent( "mainDash" );
        // mainDashboard.setColumns( selectedColumnCount );
        // Null Pointer happens here
        panelDashboard.setColumns( selectedColumnCount );
        // Create the new ordered list
        if( customDashboardMap != null ) {
            List<String> reorderedIdList = new ArrayList<String>( customDashboards.size() );
            for( Integer key : customDashboardMap.keySet() ) {
                String customId = customDashboardMap.get( key );
                for( UIComponent currChild : panelDashboard.getChildren() ) {
                    String currId = currChild.getId();
                    if( customId == currId ) {
                        reorderedIdList.add( currId );
                        break;
            // Unused Panel Boxes must still be added, but not rendered
            for( UIComponent currChild : panelDashboard.getChildren() ) {
                String currId = currChild.getId();
                if( !reorderedIdList.contains( currId ) ) {
                    currChild.setRendered( false );
                    reorderedIdList.add( currId );
            // Apply the changes
            ComponentChange change = new ReorderChildrenComponentChange( reorderedIdList );
            change.changeComponent( panelDashboard );
        AdfFacesContext.getCurrentInstance().addPartialTarget( panelDashboard );
    public RichPanelDashboard getPanelDashboard() {
        return panelDashboard;
    public void setPanelDashboard(RichPanelDashboard panelDashboard) {
        this.panelDashboard = panelDashboard;
{code}

Answer 1

Hi,
I did actually populate my panelDashboard with a forEach over a list of dashboard items.
          <af:panelDashboard id="pd1" columns="2" rowHeight="#{pageFlowScope.myDashboard.rowHeight}"
                             binding="#{pageFlowScope.myDashboard.dashboard}"
                             dropListener="#{pageFlowScope.myDashboard.move}">
            <af:forEach items="#{pageFlowScope.myDashboard.dashboardItems}"
                        var="panels">
                <af:panelBox text="#{panels.localizedTitel}"
                             id="${panels.id}" background="medium" showDisclosure="false">
                  <af:region value="#{panels.regionTaskflow}"
                             id="r2"/>
                  <af:componentDragSource/>
                </af:panelBox>
            </af:forEach>
          </af:panelDashboard>
All my panels are rendered as regions that are dynamically filled with single page task flows which are bound to the page containing the dashboard.
My DashboardItem class creates the RegionModel from the task flow binding
        public RegionModel getRegionTaskflow() {
            String regionBinding = "#{bindings." + taskflow + ".regionModel}";
            RegionModel model = (RegionModel)JSFUtils.resolveExpression(regionBinding);
            return model;
I don't know if that's a good practice but it works.
Hope that helps,
Achim