In JSF, <h:selectBooleanCheckbox /> tag is used to render a single HTML input element of “checkbox” type.
//JSF...
<h:selectBooleanCheckbox value="#{user.rememberMe}" /> Remember Me
//HTML output...
<input type="checkbox" name="j_idt6:j_idt8" /> Remember Me
While <h:selectManyCheckbox /> tag is used to render a set of HTML input element of type “checkbox”, and format it with HTML table and label tags.
//JSF...
<h:selectManyCheckbox value="#{user.favNumber1}">
<f:selectItem itemValue="1" itemLabel="Number1 - 1" />
<f:selectItem itemValue="2" itemLabel="Number1 - 2" />
<f:selectItem itemValue="3" itemLabel="Number1 - 3" />
</h:selectManyCheckbox>
//HTML output...
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<input name="j_idt6:j_idt10" id="j_idt6:j_idt10:0" value="1" type="checkbox" />
<label for="j_idt6:j_idt10:0" class=""> Number1 - 1</label></td>
<td>
<input name="j_idt6:j_idt10" id="j_idt6:j_idt10:1" value="2" type="checkbox" />
<label for="j_idt6:j_idt10:1" class=""> Number1 - 2</label></td>
<td>
<input name="j_idt6:j_idt10" id="j_idt6:j_idt10:2" value="3" type="checkbox" />
<label for="j_idt6:j_idt10:2" class=""> Number1 - 3</label></td>
<td>
</tr>
</table>
JSF 2.0 example
Here’s a JSF 2.0 example to show the use of “h:selectBooleanCheckbox” and “h:selectManyCheckbox” tags.
h:selectBooleanCheckbox
Render a single checkbox, and wire it with a boolean property.
h:selectManyCheckbox
Render a group of checkboxes and populate the data in different ways :
- Hardcoded value in “
f:selectItem” tag. - Generate values with an Array and put it into “
f:selectItems” tag. - Generate values with a Map and put it into “
f:selectItems” tag. - Generate values with an Object array and put it into “
f:selectItems” tag, then represent the value with “var” attribute.
1. Backing Bean
A backing bean to hold the submitted checkboxes values.
package com.mkyong;
import java.util.Arrays;
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{
public boolean rememberMe;
public String[] favNumber1;
public String[] favNumber2;
public String[] favNumber3;
public String[] favNumber4;
//getter and setter methods...
public String getFavNumber1InString() {
return Arrays.toString(favNumber1);
}
//Generated by Array
public String[] getFavNumber2Value() {
favNumber2 = new String[5];
favNumber2[0] = "Number2 - 1";
favNumber2[1] = "Number2 - 2";
favNumber2[2] = "Number2 - 3";
favNumber2[3] = "Number2 - 4";
favNumber2[4] = "Number2 - 5";
return favNumber2;
}
public String getFavNumber2InString() {
return Arrays.toString(favNumber2);
}
//Generated by Map
private static Map<String,Object> number3Value;
static{
number3Value = new LinkedHashMap<String,Object>();
number3Value.put("Number3 - 1", "1"); //label, value
number3Value.put("Number3 - 2", "2");
number3Value.put("Number3 - 3", "3");
number3Value.put("Number3 - 4", "4");
number3Value.put("Number3 - 5", "5");
}
public Map<String,Object> getFavNumber3Value() {
return number3Value;
}
public String getFavNumber3InString() {
return Arrays.toString(favNumber3);
}
//Generated by Object array
public static class Number{
public String numberLabel;
public String numberValue;
public Number(String numberLabel, String numberValue){
this.numberLabel = numberLabel;
this.numberValue = numberValue;
}
public String getNumberLabel(){
return numberLabel;
}
public String getNumberValue(){
return numberValue;
}
}
public Number[] number4List;
public Number[] getFavNumber4Value() {
number4List = new Number[5];
number4List[0] = new Number("Number4 - 1", "1");
number4List[1] = new Number("Number4 - 2", "2");
number4List[2] = new Number("Number4 - 3", "3");
number4List[3] = new Number("Number4 - 4", "4");
number4List[4] = new Number("Number4 - 5", "5");
return number4List;
}
public String getFavNumber4InString() {
return Arrays.toString(favNumber4);
}
}
2. JSF Page
A JSF page to demonstrate the use “h:selectBooleanCheckbox” and “h:selectManyCheckbox” tags.
<?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>
<h1>JSF 2 checkboxes example</h1>
<h:form>
<h2>1. Single checkbox</h2>
<h:selectBooleanCheckbox value="#{user.rememberMe}" /> Remember Me
<h2>2. Mutiple checkboxes</h2>
1. Hard-coded with "f:selectItem" :
<h:selectManyCheckbox value="#{user.favNumber1}">
<f:selectItem itemValue="1" itemLabel="Number1 - 1" />
<f:selectItem itemValue="2" itemLabel="Number1 - 2" />
<f:selectItem itemValue="3" itemLabel="Number1 - 3" />
<f:selectItem itemValue="4" itemLabel="Number1 - 4" />
<f:selectItem itemValue="5" itemLabel="Number1 - 5" />
</h:selectManyCheckbox>
<br />
2. Generated by Array :
<h:selectManyCheckbox value="#{user.favNumber2}">
<f:selectItems value="#{user.favNumber2Value}" />
</h:selectManyCheckbox>
<br />
3. Generated by Map :
<h:selectManyCheckbox value="#{user.favNumber3}">
<f:selectItems value="#{user.favNumber3Value}" />
</h:selectManyCheckbox>
<br />
4. Generated by Object with var :
<h:selectManyCheckbox value="#{user.favNumber4}">
<f:selectItems value="#{user.favNumber4Value}" var="n"
itemLabel="#{n.numberLabel}" itemValue="#{n.numberValue}" />
</h:selectManyCheckbox>
<br />
<h:commandButton value="Submit" action="result" />
<h:commandButton value="Reset" type="reset" />
</h:form>
</h:body>
</html>
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>
<h1>JSF 2 checkboxes example</h1>
<h2>result.xhtml</h2>
<ol>
<li>user.rememberMe : #{user.rememberMe}</li>
<li>user.favNumber1 : #{user.favNumber1InString}</li>
<li>user.favNumber2 : #{user.favNumber2InString}</li>
<li>user.favNumber3 : #{user.favNumber3InString}</li>
<li>user.favNumber4 : #{user.favNumber4InString}</li>
</ol>
</h:body>
</html>
3. Demo
When “submit” button is clicked, link to “result.xhtml” page and display the submitted checkboxe values.
How to checked checkbox’s value by default?
h:selectBooleanCheckbox
The value of “f:selectItem” tag is checked if the boolean value is set to true. In above example, if you set boolean property “rememberMe” to true :
@ManagedBean(name="user")
@SessionScoped
public class UserBean{
public boolean rememberMe = true;
//...
The “rememberMe” checkbox value is checked by default.
h:selectManyCheckbox
The values of “f:selectItems” tag are checked if it matched to the “value” of “h:selectManyCheckbox” tag. In above example, if you set favNumber3 to {“1″,”3″} :
@ManagedBean(name="user")
@SessionScoped
public class UserBean{
public String[] favNumber3 = {"1","3"};
//...
The “favNumber3″ checkboxes, “Number 1″ and “Number 3″ values are checked by default.