PanelGrid with binding attribute not rendering when event on page fires

Question

I am having a similar issue with my components not being rendered from a dynamic binding attribute as described by this post:http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=671672 but for different reason. I have combed the forum and other sources for a week now, tried numerous variations of this based on suggestions I've read for rendering dynamic components and am unable to find the problem. I would appreciate guidance as I don't know what else to do and I imagine there is something basic about the JSF flow layout or component classes I am not doing correctly.
From a high level, I have a page with two panel groups. The first contains a list of command links (like a menu) that have an actionlistener that populates a list of QueryVariable objects called filterCriteria in the backing bean based on the selection made and then calls a function to update components in the second panel. The second panelGroup contains a panelGrid with a binding attribute that constructs a dynamic set of input fields based on the content of the filterCriteria list. When I first naviagate to this page from another page, the fields are rendered properly. However, if I then select a commandLink from the menu, the panelGrid disappears and is not rendered.
I've stepped through the code in a debugger and my actionlistener is called when I select a command link. However, the binding attribute method is not called at this time, so I added a direct call to it from the action listener. I know the actionlistener is working because I've verified it in the debugger and if I navigate away and come back to the page, then the binding method is called and the new selection is reflected in a rendered panelGrid. Why is it not rendering though when I first select the commandLink and the page is updated. Also, fyi, there is an action method for the commandlinks but it returns null;
FWIW, I'm using MyFaces and Facelets in my application.
Below is my code. This is inside a managed session bean:
JSF Snippet:
<h:panelGrid id="inputVarsTable" columns="3" binding="#{query.table}"/>
     public HtmlPanelGrid getTable() {
          if(table == null)
               table = new HtmlPanelGrid();
          return constructSearchInputTable();               
     public void setTable(HtmlPanelGrid table) {
          this.table = table;
  // Updates table component to reflect filterCriteria
     public HtmlPanelGrid constructSearchInputTable()
          HtmlOutputLabel outLabel;
          HtmlOutputText outText;
          HtmlInputText  inText;
          HtmlMessage message;
          List<UIComponent> children;
          ValueBinding vb;
          FacesContext facesContext = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance();
          UIViewRoot uIViewRoot = facesContext.getViewRoot();
        Application application = facesContext.getApplication();
          children = table.getChildren();
    children.clear();
          try {
               for (int i = 0; i < getFilterCriteria().size(); i++) {
                    QueryVariable var = getFilterCriteria().get(i);
                    String id = "var" + i;
                    //<h:outputLabel for="#{var.name}" styleClass="label">
                    outLabel = new HtmlOutputLabel();               
                    outLabel.setFor(id);
                    outLabel.setStyleClass("label");
                    //  <h:outputText value="#{var.name}" />
                    outText = new HtmlOutputText();
                    outText.setValue(var.getName());
                    outText.setParent(outLabel);
                    outLabel.getChildren().add(outText);
                    outLabel.setParent(table);
                    children.add(outLabel);
                    //<h:inputText id="#{var.name}" value="#{var.value}" required="true" />
                    inText = new HtmlInputText();
                    inText.setId(id);
                    String bind = "#{query.filterValues['" + var.getName() + "']}";
                    inText.setValueBinding("value", application.createValueBinding(bind));
                    if(var.getDefaultValue() == null)
                         inText.setRequired(true);
                    inText.setParent(table);
                    children.add(inText);
                    //<h:message for="#{var.name}" styleClass="errorText"/>
                    message = new HtmlMessage();
                    message.setFor(id);
                    message.setStyleClass("errorText");
                    message.setParent(table);
                    children.add(message);     
          } catch (Exception e) {
               log.error(e);
          return table;
  // Command Link Menu ActionListener
     public void structuredQuerySelection(ActionEvent e) {
          queryType = QueryType.StructuredQuery;
          UICommand cmd = (UICommand) e.getSource();
          filterSelection = (String) cmd.getValue();
          Map<String, SearchRequestCtx> queries = pdp.getGenericMetadata().savedQueries;
          SearchRequestCtx ctx = queries.get(filterSelection);
          filterCriteria = new ArrayList<QueryVariable>();
          filterCriteria.addAll(ctx.getVariables());
          constructSearchInputTable();
     // Command Link Menu Action
     public String selectStructuredQuery()
          return null;
     }BTW, this is my first post and I don't really know how that Duke Dollar thing works but I'm happy to offer some to anyone that can solve this issue for me.
Thanks,
Ken

Answer 1

Glad to hear I am not the only one struggling with this type of issue.
I tried your suggestion but it caused a NoSuchElementException when the page tried to render. Stepping through the code, the init function is always called after my panelGrid is constructed. I even commented out the logic to clear the children and confirmed that in the constructed page, the outputText component that binds to init is the first element on the page - right after the opening body tag. Maybe, JSF doesn't necessarily construct the page in top to bottom order? Also, the exception makes me think that this gets called too late in the lifecycle to work. Were you able to get this to work?
java.util.NoSuchElementException
     at java.util.AbstractList$Itr.next(AbstractList.java:427)
     at com.sun.facelets.FaceletViewHandler.encodeRecursive(FaceletViewHandler.java:515)
     at com.sun.facelets.FaceletViewHandler.renderView(FaceletViewHandler.java:445)
     at org.apache.myfaces.lifecycle.LifecycleImpl.render(LifecycleImpl.java:300)
     at javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet.service(FacesServlet.java:110)
     at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:252)
     at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:173)
     at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:214)
     at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:178)
     at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:482)
     at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:126)
     at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:105)
     at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:107)
     at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:148)
     at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:825)
     at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11Protocol.java:738)
     at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:526)
     at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.runIt(LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:80)
     at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:684)
     at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)Ken