Initially selected items in p:selectCheckboxMenu showing object reference instead of value

Question

Good day. In my project, I have a List of custom objects which I use in my PrimeFaces p:selectCheckboxMenu. I use a converter for this class. The dropdown looks great and if I select an item from the list, the "chips" display correctly. However, if I load the selected list on initialization, the selected "chip" shows a class reference (com.test.Characteristic@56e76bff) instead of the value of the object. I would expect it to show the return value of getAsString from the converter. What am I doing wrong?

On to the code for this: The custom object

    public class Characteristic {
    public Characteristic() {
        super();
    }
    private String key;
    private String value;
    private String type;

    public Characteristic(String key, String value, String type) {
        this.key = key;
        this.value = value;
        this.type = type;
    }

    public void setKey(String key) {
        this.key = key;
    }

    public String getKey() {
        return key;
    }

    public void setValue(String value) {
        this.value = value;
    }

    public String getValue() {
        return value;
    }

    public void setType(String type) {
        this.type = type;
    }

    public String getType() {
        return type;
    }
}

The Converter:

    @FacesConverter(value = "characteristicConverter")
    public class CharacteristicConverter implements Converter {
        public Object getAsObject(FacesContext fc, UIComponent uic, String value) {
            return new Characteristic("testKey", value, "testType");
        }

        public String getAsString(FacesContext fc, UIComponent uic, Object object) {
            if (object == null) {
                return "";
            }
            if (object instanceof Characteristic) {
                Characteristic cha = (Characteristic) object;
                String name = cha.getValue();
                System.out.println("In the converter. Returning " + name);                
                return name;
            } else {
                throw new ConverterException(new FacesMessage(object + " is not a Characteristic"));
            }
        }
    }

The System.out.prinln's in the converter display this when run:

In the converter. Returning char1value

In the converter. Returning char2value

In the converter. Returning char3value

In the converter. Returning char1value

The Bean:

@ManagedBean(name = "checkboxView")
public class CheckboxView {

    private List<Characteristic> allChars;
    private List<Characteristic> selectedChars;

    @PostConstruct
    public void init() {

        allChars = new ArrayList<Characteristic>();
        allChars.add(new Characteristic("char1key","char1value","test"));
        allChars.add(new Characteristic("char2key","char2value","test"));
        allChars.add(new Characteristic("char3key","char3value","test"));
        selectedChars = new ArrayList<Characteristic>();
        selectedChars.add(new Characteristic("char1key","char1value","test"));
    }

    public void setAllChars(List<Characteristic> allChars) {
        this.allChars = allChars;
    }

    public List<Characteristic> getAllChars() {
        return allChars;
    }

    public void setSelectedChars(List<Characteristic> selectedChars) {
        this.selectedChars = selectedChars;
    }

    public List<Characteristic> getSelectedChars() {
        return selectedChars;
    }
}

The page:

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html" xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
      xmlns:p="http://primefaces.org/ui">
    <h:head></h:head>
    <h:body>
        <h:form>
            <p:selectCheckboxMenu id="multiple" value="#{checkboxView.selectedChars}" label="Characteristics"
                                  multiple="true" filter="true" filterMatchMode="startsWith"
                                  converter="characteristicConverter">
                <f:selectItems value="#{checkboxView.allChars}" var="cha" itemLabel="#{cha.value}" itemValue="#{cha}"/>
            </p:selectCheckboxMenu>
        </h:form>
    </h:body>
</html>

Does not using a filter make a difference? or not using multiple but e.g. the updateLabel? And what is your PF version? — Kukeltje
@Kukeltje PrimeFaces version 6.1. I removed "filter" and "filterMatchMode" and I got the same string "com.test.Characteristic@56e76bff". If I remove multiple, it puts the value of label in the spot instead. I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by updateLabel... — Sam Donato
@Kukeltje I looked at the docs and added updateLabel="true" and I got the same bad result. — Sam Donato
Can you (just for testing this issue) try 6.2 (good thing to always to, try the latest) — Kukeltje

Kukeltje Kukeltje · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-01T13:16:33

I suspect it has to do with comparing the Characteristics in the list with the pre-selected one (since in the visual list it is not selected either and it would most likely fail with an h:selectManyCheckbox as well). You can try changing

@PostConstruct
public void init() {

    allChars = new ArrayList<Characteristic>();
    allChars.add(new Characteristic("char1key","char1value","test"));
    allChars.add(new Characteristic("char2key","char2value","test"));
    allChars.add(new Characteristic("char3key","char3value","test"));
    selectedChars = new ArrayList<Characteristic>();
    selectedChars.add(new Characteristic("char1key","char1value","test"));
}

to

@PostConstruct
public void init() {

    allChars = new ArrayList<Characteristic>();
    Characteristic char1 = new Characteristic("char1key","char1value","test");
    Characteristic char2 = new Characteristic("char2key","char2value","test");
    Characteristic char3 = new Characteristic("char3key","char3value","test");
    allChars.add(char1);
    allChars.add(char2);
    allChars.add(char3);


    selectedChars = new ArrayList<Characteristic>();
    selectedChars.add(char1);
}

So the selected 'char1' is object wise identical to the one in the list. But even better would be to try to implement the equals and hash of the Characteristic explicitly.

Initially selected items in p:selectCheckboxMenu showing object reference instead of value

1 Answers