JSF Tutorial - JSF Form ComboBox Example

The following sections show how to create HTML combobox from JSF.

The h:selectOneMenu tag renders an HTML input element of the type "select" with size not specified.

The following JSF tags

<h:selectOneMenu value="#{userData.data}">
   <f:selectItem itemValue="1" itemLabel="Item 1" />
   <f:selectItem itemValue="2" itemLabel="Item 2" />                   
</h:selectOneMenu>

are rendered into the following HTML code.

<select name="j_idt6:j_idt8">  
   <option value="1">Item 1</option>
   <option value="2">Item 2</option>
</select>

Tag Attributes

Attribute	Description
id	id for the tag
binding	Reference to the component used in a backing bean
rendered	A boolean value; false would suppress rendering
styleClass	Cascading stylesheet (CSS) class name
value	value binding
valueChangeListener	A method binding that responds to value changes
converter	Converter class name
validator	Class name of a validator attached to the component
required	A boolean; if true, marks the tag as required
accesskey	gives focus to an element
accept	Comma-separated list of content types for a form
accept-charset	Comma- or space-separated list of character encodings for a form.
alt	Alternative text for nontextual elements such as images
border	Pixel value for an element's border width
charset	Character encoding for a linked resource
coords	Coordinates for an element whose shape is a rectangle, circle, or polygon
dir	Direction for text. Valid values are ltr (left to right) and rtl (right to left).
disabled	Disabled state of an input element or button
hreflang	Base language of a resource specified with the href attribute;
lang	Base language of an element's attributes and text
maxlength	Maximum number of characters for text fields
readonly	Read-only state of an input field
style	Inline style information
tabindex	Numerical value specifying a tab index
target	The name of a frame in which a document is opened
title	A title used for accessibility. Browsers typically create tooltips for the title's value
type	Type of a link; for example, stylesheet
width	Width of an element
onblur	Event handler for losing focus
onchange	Event handler for value changes
onclick	Event handler for Mouse button clicked over the element
ondblclick	Event handler for Mouse button double-clicked
onfocus	Event handler for element received focus
onkeydown	Event handler for Key pressed
onkeypress	Event handler for Key pressed and released
onkeyup	Event handler for Key released
onmousedown	Event handler for Mouse button pressed
onmousemove	Event handler for mouse moved
onmouseout	Event handler for mouse left
onmouseover	Event handler for mouse moved onto
onmouseup	Event handler for mouse button released
onreset	Event handler for form reset
onselect	Event handler for Text selected
immediate	Process validation early in the life cycle

Hardcoded ComboBox

The following code is from demo.xhtml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"   
      xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
      xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core">
    <h:body>
      <h:form>
      Hard-coded with "f:selectItem" : 
       <h:selectOneMenu value="#{user.favItem}">
         <f:selectItem itemValue="A" itemLabel="Coffee A" />
         <f:selectItem itemValue="B" itemLabel="Coffee B" />
         <f:selectItem itemValue="C" itemLabel="Coffee C" />
       </h:selectOneMenu>
    
    <br /><br />
      
      <h:commandButton value="Submit" action="result" />
    <h:commandButton value="Reset" type="reset" />

      </h:form>
      
    </h:body>
</html>

The following code is from result.xhtml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"   
      xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html">
<h:body>
  <p>user.favItem : #{user.favItem}</p>
</h:body>
</html>

The following code is from UserBean.java.

package com.java2s.common;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.bean.SessionScoped;
 
@ManagedBean(name="user")
@SessionScoped
public class UserBean implements Serializable{
  public String favItem = "Black";
  public String getFavItem() {
    return favItem;
  }

  public void setFavItem(String f) {
    this.favItem = f;
  }
}

Download Form_ComboBox_Hardcode.zip

ComboBox Generated By Map

The following code is from UserBean.java.

package com.java2s.common;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.bean.SessionScoped;
 
@ManagedBean(name="user")
@SessionScoped
public class UserBean implements Serializable{
  public String favItem;
  public String getFavItem() {
    return favItem;
  }

  public void setFavItem(String favItem) {
    this.favItem = favItem;
  }
  //Generated by Map
  private static Map<String,Object> value;
  static{
    value = new LinkedHashMap<String,Object>();
    value.put("Item A", "A"); //label, value
    value.put("Item B", "B");
    value.put("Item C", "C");
  }
  
  public Map<String,Object> getFavItemValue() {
    return value;
  }  
}

The following code is from demo.xhtml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"   
      xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
      xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core">
    <h:body>
      <h:form>
      Generated by Map :
       <h:selectOneMenu value="#{user.favItem}">
         <f:selectItems value="#{user.favItemValue}" />
       </h:selectOneMenu>
    
    <br /><br />
      
      <h:commandButton value="Submit" action="result" />
    <h:commandButton value="Reset" type="reset" />

      </h:form>
      
    </h:body>
</html>

The following code is from result.xhtml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"   
      xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html">
<h:body>
  <p>User Selected : #{user.favItem}</p>
</h:body>
</html>

Download Form_ComboBox_Generated_By_Map.zip

ComboBox Inner Item

The following code is from demo.xhtml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"   
      xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
      xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core">
    <h:body>
      <h:form>
      Generated by Object array and iterate with var :
       <h:selectOneMenu value="#{user.favItem}">
         <f:selectItems value="#{user.itemValue}" var="c" itemLabel="#{c.itemLabel}" itemValue="#{c.itemValue}" />
       </h:selectOneMenu>
    <br /><br />
      <h:commandButton value="Submit" action="result" />
    <h:commandButton value="Reset" type="reset" />
      </h:form>
    </h:body>
</html>

The following code is from result.xhtml.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"   
      xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html">
<h:body>
  <p>Selected: #{user.favItem}</p>
</h:body>
</html>

The following code is from UserBean.java.

package com.java2s.common;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
import javax.faces.bean.SessionScoped;
 
@ManagedBean(name="user")
@SessionScoped
public class UserBean implements Serializable{
  public String favItem;
  public String getFavItem() {
    return favItem;
  }
  public void setFavItem(String f) {
    this.favItem = f;
  }
  //Generated by Object array
  public static class Item{
    public String itemLabel;
    public String itemValue;
    
    public Item(String l, String v){
      this.itemLabel = l;
      this.itemValue = v;
    }
    public String getItemLabel(){
      return itemLabel;
    }
    public String getItemValue(){
      return itemValue;
    }
  }
  public Item[] itemList;
  public Item[] getItemValue() {
    itemList = new Item[3];
    itemList[0] = new Item("Item A", "A");
    itemList[1] = new Item("Item B", "B");
    itemList[2] = new Item("Item C", "C");
    return itemList;
  }  
}

Download Form_ComboBox_Innter_Item.zip

To RUN

Copy the generated WAR file from the target folder to Tomcat deployment folder and run Tomcat-Install-folder/bin/startup.bat.

After Tomcat finish starting, type the following URL in the browser address bar.

http://localhost:8080/simple-webapp/demo.xhtml