How to programatically select text for editing in an af:inputText control?

Question

Hello, I am new to jdeveloper 11.1.1.3.0 and have searched and searched for info. I must be using the wrong terms as I cannot find any info or example on how to programatically select text for editing in an inputText field.
My request is to change an existing app so when the user presses a button, control should go to the inputText control (this part works, see existing backing bean code from another developer below) but automatically select the text within for editing by the user (saving the user from having to select the text first before editing).
Backing bean code to set the focus to an inputText field:
* sets the cursor to the given component id
* @param  componentId of item on page
  public void setFocusOnUIComponent(String componentId) {
    FacesContext facesContext = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
    ExtendedRenderKitService service =
      Service.getRenderKitService(facesContext, ExtendedRenderKitService.class);
    UIComponent uiComponent = facesContext.getViewRoot().findComponent(componentId);
    service.addScript(facesContext,
      "Component = AdfPage.PAGE.findComponentByAbsoluteId('" + componentId + "'); Component.focus();");
  } I hope this isn't a dumb question and would appreciate it if someone can steer me in the right direction.
Thank you for any info,
Gary

Answer 1

Hi,
not a dumb question at all. Before answering it, here some comments on the code you pasted in your question
1. UIComponent uiComponent = facesContext.getViewRoot().findComponent(componentId);
This code line is not used at all in your method. So it seems you can get rid of it
2. "Component = AdfPage.PAGE.findComponentByAbsoluteId('" + componentId + "'); Component.focus();");
I suggest to change it to
"var component = AdfPage.PAGE.findComponentByAbsoluteId('" + componentId + "'); component.focus();");
as it is better coding practice to have variable names starting with a lower case letter and being flagged with the "var" identifier
For pre-selecting text in an an input component, there is no API available in ADF Faces, which means you need to reach out to the rendered HTML ouput. To access the markup for the rendered component, you can try
var markup = AdfRichUIPeer.getDomContentElementForComponent(component)
If this markup returns the HTML input component then you can use JavaScript you find on the Internet to select the area of it. If it does not return the input component then you may have to use
document.getElementById(componentId+'::content')
Note however that working directly with generated HTML output bears the risk that your code breaks when - for whatever reason - the ADF Faces component rendering changes in the future
Frank
Frank