Dynamically Turning Off Validation

Question

I am using several h:inputTextArea's backed by an HtmlInputTextarea's in my page. The 'required' attributes are set to 'true'. The page also has a command button ('backBtn') that takes the user to the previous JSF page.
The problem is that because of the validation, the user cannot go 'back' unless all the inputTextArea's have data.
Is it possible to disable validation dynamically? I have tried this code ... :public String backBtn_action() {
    // User event code here...
     disableValidation = true;
     return "back";
protected void beforeProcessValidations() {
     if (disableValidation) {
         firstNameTF.setRequired(false);
protected void afterProcessValidations() {
     if (disableValidation) {
         disableValidation = false;
} ... but it does not work. The validation error still occurs.
This issue is a significant hurdle in my application. Any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Simply set the "immediate" property to true (by
y checking its checkbox in the property sheet), and
your backBtn_action() will be called during Apply
Request Values phase instead of waiting until Invoke
Application. What is more important, this will also
cause Process Validations, Update Model Values, and
Invoke Application to be skippedThank you, this is enlightening. I think I see what my issue really is (see below).
-- which is exactly
what you want for something like a "Back Button".
If your application needs a Cancel button, you would
want to do the same sort of thing, because the user
is saying "please throw away the values I have
entered on this form", so validation would not be
desireable.At least in my case, I see a fundamental difference between Back and Cancel. While Cancel should throw away the data, I need Back to save the state of user input. This way when the user returns to the page (i.e., goes 'forward' again), the components are populated with previous input (he does not have to enter data into ten text fields again). However, as I understand it, for the data to be saved between pages UpdateModelValues must be called, but this phase is skipped when 'immediate' is true. ('Immediate=true' works for Cancel because if the user returns to the page, you want a blank slate).
So far, am I understanding correctly? Assuming that I am, I tried this approach:
Using 'Immediate=true' for the backBtn, I tried to manually set values in the bean value-bound to the textfield (since UpdateModelValues is not called to do this for me). This should save the state of the component to be redisplayed:public String backBtn_action() {
    // User event code here...
    getPresenterBean().setFirstName(
        (String)getFirstNameTF().getValue());
        return "back";
}This does not work - upon returning to the page after going Back, the textfield is empty (perhaps the action is called to early in ApplyRequestValues for this to work?).
This problem is real road block in time sensitive project. Any further help would be much appreciated.