Error msg for UIComponent and correct style/icons for associated label

Question

I am using the "error(UIComponent component, String summary)" method on a page bean to set an error message for a specific UI component from a submit event handler, which is great because that shows an error message next to the component that caused the problem in the first place. For instance, if I get a data integrity error such as duplicate key from the data layer, I can use this approach to tell the user which UI component is causing the problem.
However, the "error" method does not set the error icon and the correct style (e.g. bold and red) for any associated labels in the same way a validator does. Does anyone know a way to achieve this from an action event handler. Keep in mind that I am referring to errors such as data integrity errors which can only be detected when you are already running the action event handler, which means the validation phase has already been done.

Answer 1

Error(), fatal(), info() and warn() issue FacesMessages that get picked up by the MessageGroup component.
By adding in the uicomponent you can target the facesMessage so that it gets picked up by the Message component associated with the field causing the error.
But, to get the label to show the error as well, you need to throw a validationError. See this tutorial for more informaiton:
http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/javatools/jscreator/learning/tutorials/2/customvalidator.html
Lark