How to cast an object in JSF?

Question

I am working on a travel application. A user can have several bookings and a booking can have several components. A component can be either air or hotel. I want to list the user's bookings on the client using JSF datatable.
<h:dataTable var="component" value="#{booking.components}">
Now depending upon the class of component I need to present different information.
My question is how to cast the variable in JSF ?
Thanks

Answer 1

You can use the String value of Object#getClass()#getName() to lookup the classname and evaluate it in the 'rendered' attribute.
Basic example:
package mypackage;
public class Animal {}
package mypackage;
public class Cat extends Animal {}
package mypackage;
public class Dog extends Animal {}
package mypackage;
public class Fish extends Animal {}MyBeanpublic List<Animal> getList() {
    List<Animal> animals = new ArrayList<Animal>();
    animals.add(new Dog());
    animals.add(new Cat());
    animals.add(new Fish());
    return animals;
}JSF<h:dataTable value="#{myBean.list}" var="item">
    <h:column>
        <h:outputText value="It's a Cat" rendered="#{item.class.name == 'mypackage.Cat'}" />
        <h:outputText value="It's a Dog" rendered="#{item.class.name == 'mypackage.Dog'}" />
        <h:outputText value="It's a Fish" rendered="#{item.class.name == 'mypackage.Fish'}" />
    </h:column>
</h:dataTable>As far there is no way to cast objects in JSF.
Edit
If you find it useful, move the classname request to the superclass:
public class Animal {
    public String getType() {
        String className = getClass().getName();
        return className.substring(className.lastIndexOf('.') + 1);
}Which makes life easier without struggling with package names:<h:outputText value="It's a Cat" rendered="#{item.type == 'Cat'}" />
<h:outputText value="It's a Dog" rendered="#{item.type == 'Dog'}" />
<h:outputText value="It's a Fish" rendered="#{item.type == 'Fish'}" />Message was edited by:
BalusC