h:messages tag display order

Question

From my observations, it seems that messages displayed by the messages tag show up with the messages created first at the end of the list (or table). On the surface, this makes sense --new messages are thrown on the pile, so to speak.  But this is the complete reverse order from how the fields show up on the form. Fields at the top of the form, which are validated first, show up on the bottom of the list. Fields at the bottom of the form, show up first. Not very intuitive for the user.
Here are the options as I see them:
1) write a custom component extending the messages component with the desired sorting behavior
2) abandon the messages component, and code a panelGrid of message components for every field on the form (in the desired order).
3) find a third party component... this seems basic enough so maybe this is already part of myFaces or ADF. So far, I've been getting by with the components included in the RI. Will something this trivial force me to switch?
What are the approaches that I've missed?

Answer 1

Here is an easy solution without having to create a custom component. I have a superclass bean for all of my backing beans with common functionality. In the validate() of my superclass bean I check for any messages to determine navigation and also capture all messages into a list if there are any.
     protected String validate() {
         String result = "success";
         FacesContext context = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
                    if(context.getMessages().hasNext()){
             Iterator i = context.getMessages();
             while(i.hasNext()){
          FacesMessage message = (FacesMessage)i.next();
          errorMessages.add(message.getDetail());
             result = null;
         return result;
     }On the jsp I use JSTL to list the messages.
<span style="width:100%">
     <h:outputText value="#{appBundle.ERR_HEADER}<br/>" escape="false" rendered="#{SelectAccountBean.messages == true}" styleClass="title"/>     
     <c:forEach items="${SelectAccountBean.errorMessages}" var="msg">
          <c:out value="<span class='message'>${msg}</span>" escapeXml="false"/>
     </c:forEach>
     <h:outputText value="<br/>" escape="false" rendered="#{SelectAccountBean.messages == true}"/>          
        </span>Edited by: minicpt on Jul 31, 2008 2:05 PM