Using the selectItems Tag

Here is the selectManyCheckbox tag from the section Rendering Components for Selecting Multiple Values:

<h:selectManyCheckbox
    id="newsletters"
    layout="pageDirection"
    value="#{cashier.newsletters}">
    <f:selectItems
        value="#{newsletters}"/>
</h:selectManyCheckbox>

The value attribute of the selectItems tag is bound to the newsletters managed bean, which is configured in the application configuration resource file. The newsletters managed bean is configured as a list:

<managed-bean>
    <managed-bean-name>newsletters</managed-bean-name>
    <managed-bean-class>
        java.util.ArrayList</managed-bean-class>
    <managed-bean-scope>application</managed-bean-scope>
    <list-entries>
        <value-class>javax.faces.model.SelectItem</value-class>
        <value>#{newsletter0}</value>
        <value>#{newsletter1}</value>
        <value>#{newsletter2}</value>
        <value>#{newsletter3}</value>
    </list-entries>
</managed-bean>
<managed-bean>
<managed-bean-name>newsletter0</managed-bean-name>
<managed-bean-class>
    javax.faces.model.SelectItem</managed-bean-class>
<managed-bean-scope>none</managed-bean-scope>
<managed-property>
    <property-name>label</property-name>
    <value>Duke’s Quarterly</value>
</managed-property>
<managed-property>
    <property-name>value</property-name>
    <value>200</value>
</managed-property>
</managed-bean>
...

As shown in the managed-bean element, the UISelectItems component is a collection of SelectItem instances. See Initializing Array and List Properties for more information on configuring collections as beans.

You can also create the list corresponding to a UISelectMany or UISelectOne component programmatically in the backing bean. See Writing Bean Properties for information on how to write a backing bean property corresponding to a UISelectMany or UISelectOne component.

The arguments to the SelectItem constructor are:

• An Object representing the value of the item

• A String representing the label that displays in the UISelectMany component on the page

• A String representing the description of the item

UISelectItems Properties describes in more detail how to write a backing bean property for a UISelectItems component.