Multiple field validation under one form

Question

I have one form and in that form i need to validate multiple inputText fields. Each inputText field has its own button for an input assistance that would later populate that particular inputText field. When i click on one of those buttons the entire page (all fields) gets validated. Does this happen because they are all under one FORM? do we have a better way of doing this and does adding inputHidden after each field fix this? im really new at this JSF. thanks.

Answer 1

If you don't have any required="true" fields, then let your custom validator check which button was pressed by determining the presence of the button in the RequestParameterMap. If your search button has a client ID of for example "formId:searchButtonId", then do something like in the validator:if (FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getRequestParameterMap().containsKey("formId:searchButtonId")) {
    // validate input for search.
}You can even pass the client ID as f:attribute along the UIInput field if you want.
The following two articles aren't strictly what you need, but it might give useful background information:
Action dependent requireness: http://balusc.blogspot.com/2007/12/action-dependent-requireness.html
f:attribute and validator: http://balusc.blogspot.com/2007/12/validator-for-multiple-fields.html