Displaying a Menu Using the h:selectOneMenu Tag

A component that allows the user to select one value from a set of values can be rendered as a list box, a set of radio buttons, or a menu. This section describes the h:selectOneMenu tag. The h:selectOneRadio and h:selectOneListbox tags are used in a similar way. The h:selectOneListbox tag is similar to the h:selectOneMenu tag except that h:selectOneListbox defines a size attribute that determines how many of the items are displayed at once.

The h:selectOneMenu tag represents a component that contains a list of items from which a user can choose one item. This menu component is also commonly known as a drop-down list or a combo box. The following code snippet shows how the h:selectOneMenu tag is used to allow the user to select a shipping method:

<h:selectOneMenu id="shippingOption"
    required="true"
    value="#{cashier.shippingOption}">
    <f:selectItem
        itemValue="2"
        itemLabel="#{bundle.QuickShip}"/>
    <f:selectItem
        itemValue="5"
        itemLabel="#{bundle.NormalShip}"/>
    <f:selectItem
        itemValue="7"
        itemLabel="#{bundle.SaverShip}"/>
 </h:selectOneMenu>

The value attribute of the h:selectOneMenu tag maps to the property that holds the currently selected item’s value. You are not required to provide a value for the currently selected item. If you don’t provide a value, the first item in the list is selected by default.

Like the h:selectOneRadio tag, the selectOneMenu tag must contain either an f:selectItems tag or a set of f:selectItem tags for representing the items in the list. Using the f:selectItem and f:selectItems Tags describes these tags.