RichTable dynamic column support with sorting

Question

I have a table of data that has a list of custom properties which is dynamic. They could be text, integer, etc. I would like to display each custom property as a column in the table with the static list of properties as follows:
Name Data Date CustomProp1 CustomProp2
dataname some data 10/10/2010 my prop1 12345
Since properties are dynamic, my collection for the table does not have a fixed set of columns.
Before I get too far, has anyone had experience doing this such that the columns can be sorted and modified and are not part of a static list? For example, can I somehow override the sort function or what would I put for sortProperty for the column?
So far I plan on my table being a collection of my data object, then when defining the columns, use a foreach to get the list of custom columns...for the data, I would call a custom tag function that gets the value for the property / row pair (not sure if this will work or if there's a better way)...however, I'm stuck on sorting for sure.
Any help appreciated.
Thanks,
Kris

Answer 1

Frank,
Okay, you confirmed my plan. For displaying the dynamic column data, can I add a hashtable to the table's model as follows, sounds like this could work:
<af:forEach ...>
<af:column>
<af:outputText value="#{tablevar.hashTable[foreachvar]}"> </af:outputText>
</af:column>
</af:forEach>
At least this is what I'm going to try...
Actually, my first roadblock is what to put into the sortable property or is there a way for me to override and use my own method for sort?:
<af:column sortable="true" sortProperty="">
</af:column>
Thank you,
Kris
Edited by: KrisFromOhio on Dec 3, 2008 1:37 PM