Input validation in datatable

Question

Hi all,
I have a datatable displaying some records and allowing for each record to press a link to to something with that line. I am however facing problems with the field validation. Here's what I have:
<t:dataTable style="width: 100%" id="tfopts" binding="#{quoteOptions.freeFormOptionTable}" value="#{quoteOptions.unselectedFreeFormOptions}" var="option">
     <t:column width="70%">
          <h:inputText style="width: 98%" value="#{option.description}" />
     </t:column>
     <t:column style="white-space:nowrap" width="15%">
          <h:inputText style="width: 100%" value="#{option.catalogPrice}">
               <f:convertNumber/>
          </h:inputText>
     </t:column>
     <t:column style="white-space:nowrap" width="15%">
          <a4j:commandLink action="#{quoteOptions.addFreeFormOption}" value="#{msg.options_addoption}" reRender="selopts,tfopts" />
     </t:column>
</t:dataTable>Now, I need to make sure that the description is not empty when hitting the commandLink. I have tried by setting the required attribute, but then it's set for all rows, which I do not want.
Alternatively I approached it via Javascript, but it occurred to me that I don't know the id of the field on the row where the commandlink is clicked.
Can anyone help me out with this?
Thanks

Answer 1

tombatore wrote:
Now, I need to make sure that the description is not empty when hitting the commandLink. I have tried by setting the required attribute, but then it's set for all rows, which I do not want.This should work:required="#{!empty param['formId:dataTableId:rowId:commandLinkId']}"The 'rowId' part can be obtained from UIData#getRowIndex().
Alternatively I approached it via Javascript, but it occurred to me that I don't know the id of the field on the row where the commandlink is clicked.Make use of the 'this' reference and pass the commandlink element itself as argument to the JS function.
onclick="foo(this)"
function foo(element) {
    var id = element.id;
    // You can do substring and/or replace here and then get element by id from document.
}