JSF Validation Error: Value is not valid

Question

I know this seems to be a common one, but I'm lost with it. Occurs on clicking the Add button in assessment.jsf. Anyway, I've attached what I think are the relevant sections.

FWIW, AssessmentType.equals() isn't triggered when I debug.

Thanks in advance.

j_idt38:j_idt47:j_idt48: Validation Error: Value is not valid

assessment.xhtml:

        <h:form>
            <h:selectOneMenu value="#{assessmentBean.assessmentField}">
                <f:selectItems value="#{assessmentBean.assessment.type.fields}" />
            </h:selectOneMenu>

            <h:commandButton value="Add" action="#{assessmentBean.doAddField}">
                <f:param name="assessmentId"
                    value="#{assessmentBean.assessment.id}" />
            </h:commandButton>
        </h:form>

assessment.jsf:

<form id="j_idt38:j_idt47" name="j_idt38:j_idt47" method="post" action="/jsf-web/edit/assessment.jsf" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded"> 
<input type="hidden" name="j_idt38:j_idt47" value="j_idt38:j_idt47" /> 
<select name="j_idt38:j_idt47:j_idt48" size="1">    <option value="1">Presenting Condition</option> 
    <option value="2">Problem Duration</option> 
</select> 
<script type="text/javascript" src="/jsf-web/javax.faces.resource/jsf.js.jsf?ln=javax.faces"></script>
<input type="submit" name="j_idt38:j_idt47:j_idt50" value="Add" onclick="mojarra.jsfcljs(document.getElementById('j_idt38:j_idt47'),{'j_idt38:j_idt47:j_idt50':'j_idt38:j_idt47:j_idt50','assessmentId':'1'},'');return false" /><input type="hidden" name="javax.faces.ViewState" id="javax.faces.ViewState" value="3431661972220941645:6952134510589038883" autocomplete="off" /> 
</form> 

AssessmentType.java:

import java.util.List;

import javax.persistence.CascadeType;
import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.FetchType;
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue;
import javax.persistence.GenerationType;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.OneToMany;
import javax.validation.constraints.NotNull;

import lombok.Data;

import org.hibernate.envers.Audited;

@Audited
@Data
@Entity
public class AssessmentType implements Comparable<AssessmentType> {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    private Long id;

    @NotNull
    private String name;

    @OneToMany( fetch=FetchType.EAGER, cascade = {CascadeType.PERSIST, CascadeType.MERGE}, targetEntity=AssessmentField.class )
    private List<AssessmentField> fields;

    @Override
    public int compareTo(final AssessmentType o) {
        return getId().compareTo(o.getId());
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return getName();
    }
}

AssessmentFieldConverter.java

import javax.faces.component.UIComponent;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.faces.convert.Converter;
import javax.faces.convert.FacesConverter;
import javax.naming.InitialContext;
import javax.naming.NamingException;

import com.htu.fizio.api.AssessmentFieldManager;
import com.htu.fizio.domain.AssessmentField;

@FacesConverter(forClass = AssessmentField.class)
public class AssessmentFieldConverter implements Converter {

    AssessmentFieldManager<AssessmentField> assessmentFieldManager;

    @SuppressWarnings({ "unchecked", "rawtypes" })
    @Override
    public Object getAsObject(FacesContext ctx, UIComponent component, String value) {
        try {
            final InitialContext ic = new InitialContext();

            assessmentFieldManager = (AssessmentFieldManager) ic.lookup("fizio/AssessmentFieldManagerImpl/local");

            return assessmentFieldManager.find(Long.valueOf(value));
        } catch (NamingException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public String getAsString(FacesContext ctx, UIComponent component, Object value) {
        return String.valueOf(((AssessmentField) value).getId());
    }
}

AssessmentBean.java

    import java.util.List;

    import javax.annotation.PostConstruct;
    import javax.ejb.EJB;
    import javax.faces.bean.ManagedBean;
    import javax.faces.bean.ManagedProperty;
    import javax.faces.bean.SessionScoped;

    import lombok.Getter;
    import lombok.Setter;

    import com.htu.fizio.api.AssessmentManager;
    import com.htu.fizio.domain.Assessment;
    import com.htu.fizio.domain.AssessmentField;
    import com.htu.fizio.domain.AssessmentFieldValue;
    import com.htu.fizio.jsf.faces.FacesUtil;

...    

@PostConstruct
public void init() {
    if (FacesUtil.containsKey("assessmentId")) {
        final Long id = Long.parseLong(FacesUtil.get("assessmentId"));

        assessment = assessmentManager.find(id);
    } else {
        assessment = new Assessment();
    }
}

    public String doAddField() {
        final AssessmentFieldValue value = new AssessmentFieldValue();

        value.setField(assessmentField);
        value.setValue("");

        assessment.getFieldValues().add(value);

        assessmentManager.save(assessment);

        return "/edit/assessment";
    }

Edit:

Just noticed this when debugging, is it a likely suspect?:

Daemon Thread [HandshakeCompletedNotify-Thread] (Suspended (exception ConcurrentModificationException)) 
    HashMap$EntryIterator(HashMap$HashIterator<E>).nextEntry() line: 793    
    HashMap$EntryIterator.next() line: 834  
    HashMap$EntryIterator.next() line: 832  
    SSLSocketImpl$NotifyHandshakeThread.run() line: 2214    

Answer 1

Validation Error: Value is not valid

To the point, this error means that the selected item does not match any of the items available in the list. I.e. the object represented by the selected item value has never returned true on its equals() call with any of the available select items.

There are only two causes for this problem:

1. The equals() method of the object type in question is broken.
2. The contents of the list of items is different during the validations phase of the form submit request than as it was during the render response phase of the initial request to display the form.

Since the first seems to be properly implemented -as per the comments-, the only cause left is the second. Assuming that you're nowhere doing business logic in a getter method, an easy test is to put the #{assessmentBean} in the session scope. If it works, then the data (pre)loading logic of the list of select items is definitely wrong.

Answer 2

The validation is failing because after your converter converts the String representation of AssessmentType back to an object, JSF iterates over the existing values (assessmentBean.assessment.type.fields) and compares this recently converted object with all those existing ones.

Since you did not implement Object#equals for AssessmentType, it will default to an object identity comparison (roughly spoken, the memory address of your object) , which will of course fail.

The solution is thus to either implement Object#equals, or let the converter get the object from assessmentBean.assessment.type.fields instead of from AssessmentTypeManager.

Answer 3

I think I've resolved this, at least, I've moved on to the next error!

Despite posting reams of code I'd not posted the full xhtml in which there were multiple and nested form tags. Just the one form seems to allow passing the assessmentId parameter which in turn allows the AssessmentBean to then populate the List of AssessmentFields for the assessment type correctly.

Thanks for all the help.