SelectOneMenu disables itself after facesMessage

Question

Hello All,
I have been working this for a while now and not really sure how to get around it. I have a SelectOneMenu populated with selectItems inside a form. The required attribute is set to true and the requiredMessage attribute is set to "Please select a position". The form elements (including the selectOneMenu) is nested inside a rich:modalPanel.
What happens is that since the selectOneMenu is required the messages fire--the expected behavior BUT the selectOneMenu for some reason also disables itself. Now, I am thinking that this "disabled" quality of the selectOneMenu has something to do with the component loosing it value and/or selectItems values--not sure though. The applicable code is listed below:
<rich:modalPanel id="groupsAddPanel" width="500" height="450" style="background-color: #EEEECB;" 
binding="# {membersHandler.addNewMembers}">
                <f:facet name="header">
                    <h:panelGroup>
                        <h:outputText id="groupsAddPanelHeaderText"
                                      value="#{membersHandler.addMembersHeaderLabel}"/>
                    </h:panelGroup>
                </f:facet>
                <f:facet name="controls">
                    <h:panelGroup>
                        <h:graphicImage value="/images/close.png"
                                        style="cursor:pointer" id="hidelinkAddGroups"/>
                        <rich:componentControl for="groupsAddPanel"
                    attachTo="hidelinkAddGroups"
                                                operation="hide" event="onclick"/>
                    </h:panelGroup>
                </f:facet>                          
                <a4j:region id="groupsAddRegion">
                    <a4j:form id="groupsAddForm" ajaxSubmit="true" rendered="true" status="groupAddStatusId" >
                        <h:panelGroup id="groupsAddPanelGroup" rendered="true" >
                            <table cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="0" id="addGroupsTable"
                                   style="background-color: #EEEECB;" >
                                <tr>
                                    <td class="groupsTdLables">
                                        <h:outputText id="posLblGroupsAddForm" value="Position: "/>
                                    </td>
                                    <td colspan="3" class="addGroupsInputs">
                                        <h:selectOneMenu id="positionDropDown"                                                         
                                                         valueChangeListener="#{membersHandler.positionSelected}"
required="true"
                                                         requiredMessage=" Please select a position!"
                                                         value="#{membersHandler.dirtyMembers.srpMemLuId}"
                                                         binding="#{membersHandler.membPosHtmlSelectOneMenu}">
                                            <f:selectItems value="#{membersHandler.generalSelectItem}"
                                                           binding="#{membersHandler.membPosSelectItems}"/>
                                            <a4j:support event="onchange" reRender="positionDropDown"/>
                                        </h:selectOneMenu>                                       
                                    </td>
                                </tr>
                            </table>                  
                            <h:panelGrid id="groupsAddPanelButtonsPanelGrid" columns="3" style="text-align:center; width:100%;">
                                <a4j:commandButton id="saveLinkAddGroupsPanel"  value="#{srpBundle.hlinkSave}" 
                                                   styleClass="buttons01" status="groupAddStatusId"
                                                   rendered="true" action="#{membersHandler.saveNewRow}"
                                                   onclick="this.value='Processing...'; this.disabled=true;"
                                                   oncomplete="windowclose();">
                                    <a4j:support event="onclick" reRender="addGroupsTable"/>
                                </a4j:commandButton>
                                <rich:spacer id="blankspaceId" width="200px;" />
                                <a4j:commandButton id="cancelLinkAddGroupsPanel"  value="#{srpBundle.hlinkCancel}"
                                                   styleClass="buttons01" status="groupAddStatusId"
                                                   rendered="true" reRender="facStudRotcForm" immediate="true">
                                    <rich:componentControl id="richCmptCntrlCancelAddGroupsPanel" for="groupsAddPanel"                          attachTo="cancelLinkAddGroupsPanel"      
                    operation="hide" event="onclick"/>
                                </a4j:commandButton>
                            </h:panelGrid>
                        </h:panelGroup>
                    </a4j:form>
                    <a4j:status id="groupAddStatusId" startText="One Moment Please..."
               stopText="Ready!" style="text-align: center; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold;"/>
                </a4j:region>
                <rich:messages id="richMessagesBaseForm2"
                               binding="#{membersHandler.htmlRichMessages}"
                               style="text-align: left"
                               passedLabel="Data is allowed to be stored."
                               layout="list">
                    <f:facet id="richMessagesBaseFormFacetHeader" name="header">
                        <h:outputText id="baseFormOutPutText" value="Entered Data Status:"></h:outputText>
                    </f:facet>
                    <f:facet  id="richMessagesBaseFormFacetPassed" name="passedMarker">
                        <h:graphicImage id="baseFormImagePassed" value="/images/passed.gif"/>
                    </f:facet>
                    <f:facet  id="richMessagesBaseFormFacetError" name="errorMarker">
                        <h:graphicImage id="baseFormImageError" value="/images/error.gif"/>
                    </f:facet>
                </rich:messages>
</rich:modalPanel>I didn't see a need to post the valueChangeListern method because according to my debugger I never get there. The require=true attribute
doesn't let the valueChangeListerner fire.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

place your select one menu in Ajax enable ajaxouputpanel and assign id to that component and re render the ajaxoutputpanel i hope it will resolve your problem.
AjaxOutputPanel
like the code.
<a4j:outputPanel layout="block" id="positionDropDown">
<h:selectOneMenu  valueChangeListener="#{membersHandler.positionSelected}"
required="true"
                                                         requiredMessage=" Please select a position!"
                                                         value="#{membersHandler.dirtyMembers.srpMemLuId}"
                                                         binding="#{membersHandler.membPosHtmlSelectOneMenu}">
                                            <f:selectItems value="#{membersHandler.generalSelectItem}"
                                                           binding="#{membersHandler.membPosSelectItems}"/>
                                            <a4j:support event="onchange" reRender="positionDropDown"/>
                                        </h:selectOneMenu>
</a4j:outputPanel>Edited by: [email protected] on Sep 16, 2008 11:55 PM