JSF - Using different instances of ManagedBean for same view in Primefaces wizard

Question

I'm developing a web application with JSF 2.1 and Primefaces 5.1 in the front-end. I have a page that allows me to manage players (players.xhtml). In that page I include another one (search_players.xhtml) that defines the search functionality (it has the input fields and the dataTable showing the players):

• players.xhtml

<ui:composition xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
    xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
    xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
    xmlns:p="http://primefaces.org/ui"
    xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
    template="resources/templates/template.xhtml">

    <ui:define name="contextual_content">
        <ui:include src="resources/snippets/search_players.xhtml"/>

        <p:commandButton id="add_player_button_id" value="#{msgs.add}" onclick="PF('dlg').show();" />

        ...
    </ui:define>
</ui:composition>

• search_players.xhtml

<ui:composition xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
    xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
    xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
    xmlns:p="http://primefaces.org/ui"
    xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core">

    <h:form id="search_player_form_id">
        <p:panelGrid columns="3">
            <h:panelGroup layout="block" >
                #{msgs.id}: <p:inputText value="#{playersBean.id}" styleClass="search_input_text" />
            </h:panelGroup>
            ...
        </p:panelGrid>

        <p:dataTable id="players_table_id" var="player" value="#{playersBean.players}" rowKey="#{player.id}" paginator="true"
            paginatorTemplate="{CurrentPageReport}  {FirstPageLink} {PreviousPageLink} {PageLinks} {NextPageLink} {LastPageLink} {RowsPerPageDropdown}"
               rowsPerPageTemplate="5,10,15" selectionMode="single" selection="#{playersBean.player}">
            ... 
        </p:dataTable>
    </h:form>

</ui:composition>

As a backing bean, I have a ViewScoped managed bean that has the list of players to populate the table, the placeholders for the input fields and the selected player (from the table).

• PlayersBean.java

@ManagedBean
@ViewScoped
public class PlayersBean implements Serializable {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;    
    private static final Logger logger =  LogManager.getLogger(PlayersBean.class);

    /* List to populate table */
    private List<DtoPlayer> players;

    /* Placeholders */
    private BigDecimal id;
    ...

    /* Selected player*/
    private DtoPlayer player;

    @EJB
    private PlayersService playersService;

    @EJB
    private StartupBean startupBean;

    public PlayersBean() {
        logger.entry();
    }

    @PostConstruct
    public void init() {
        ...
    }

    public void searchPlayers() {
        ...
    }

    public void createPlayer() {
        ...
    }

    // getters and setters
}

Everything works fine here.

Now I want to have a page (similar to players.xhtml) that allows the management of configurations (configurations.xhtml). Creating a configuration involves a set of steps, for which I have created a wizard. In two of those steps, users have to choose a player (the source and the destination) - that's why I have the snippet for searching players defined in a separated .xhtml, to be able to reuse it now.

• configurations.xhtml

<ui:composition xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
    xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
    xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"
    xmlns:p="http://primefaces.org/ui"
    xmlns:f="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"
    template="resources/templates/template.xhtml">

    <ui:define name="contextual_content">

       <p:commandButton id="add_configuration_button_id" value="#{msgs.add}" onclick="PF('dlg').show();" />

        <p:dialog header="#{msgs.add_configuration}" widgetVar="dlg" closeOnEscape="true" width="1050" height="600" minWidth="1050" minHeight="600">
            <h:form id="create_configuration_form_id">
                <p:wizard id="create_configuration_wizard" styleClass="wizard" widgetVar="wiz" flowListener="#{configurationsBean.handleFlow}">
                    <p:tab ...>
                        ...
                    </p:tab>
                    <p:tab id="create_configuration_wizard_player_source_tab" title="#{msgs.source}">
                        <f:subview id="player_source">
                            <ui:include src="resources/snippets/search_players.xhtml"/>
                        </f:subview>
                    </p:tab>
                    <p:tab id="create_configuration_wizard_player_destination_tab" title="#{msgs.destination}">
                        <f:subview id="player_destination">
                            <ui:include src="resources/snippets/search_players.xhtml"/>
                        </f:subview>
                    </p:tab>
                    ...
                    <p:tab id="create_configuration_wizard_confirm" title="#{msgs.confirm}">
                        <p:panel header="#{msgs.confirm}">
                            ...
                            <p:commandButton id="save_configuration_button_id" value="#{msgs.save}" action="#{configurationsBean.createConfiguration}" onclick="PF('dlg').hide();" update=":search_configuration_form_id:configurations_table_id" />
                        </p:panel>
                    </p:tab>
                </p:wizard>
             </h:form>
        </p:dialog>
    </ui:define>    
</ui:composition>

And for this page, I follow the same approach as with players: I have a ViewScoped managed bean. This one injects references to 2 instances of PlayersBean (the source and destination).

• ConfigurationsBean.java

@ManagedBean
@ViewScoped
public class ConfigurationsBean implements Serializable {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;    
    private static final Logger logger =  LogManager.getLogger(ConfigurationsBean.class);

    /* List to populate table */
    private List<DtoConfiguration> configurations;

    /* Placeholders  */
    private BigDecimal id;
    ...

    @ManagedProperty(value="#{playersBean}")
    private PlayersBean playersSourceBean;

    @ManagedProperty(value="#{playersBean}")
    private PlayersBean playersDestinationBean;

    @EJB
    private ConfigurationsService configurationsService;

    @EJB
    private StartupBean startupBean;

    public ConfigurationsBean() {
        logger.entry();
    }

    @PostConstruct
    public void init() {
        ...
    }

    public void searchConfigurations() {
        ...
    }

    public void createConfiguration() {
        try {
            logger.entry();
            logger.info(this.playersSourceBean == this.playersDestinationBean ? "same player" : "different players");
            ...
    }

    public String handleFlow(FlowEvent event) {
        String currentStepId = event.getNewStep();
        logger.info("CurrentStepId: " + currentStepId);
        return event.getNewStep();
    }

    // getters and setters
}

And now the problem arises. The wizard gets created correctly but both source and destination player steps use the same PlayersBean instance. So I select the source player in the "Source Player" step, and when I step to the "Destination Player", the player in the table is already selected. In the end, when I submit, I can see that the source and destination players are the same. But I want to have 2 different instances! How can I solve this problem?

PS: In case you need to know any project configuration (like web.xml, faces-config.xml) let me know.