How to add Ajax4jsf support to custom JSF component?

[Daniel Lechner]

Hi!

I just created a new JSF component, which consists of two input fields. One for the date input and one for the time.
The Renerer-Class is quite nice:

writer.startElement("div", null);
writer.writeAttribute("id", clientId, null);
writer.startElement("input", calendarVis);
writer.writeAttribute("type", "text", null);
writer.writeAttribute("name", clientId + DATE, null);
writer.writeAttribute("value", calendarVis.getDateConverter().getAsString(context, component, calendarVis.getValue()), "value");
writer.endElement("input");
        
if ((Boolean)component.getAttributes().get(VisCalendarTag.ATTR_SHOWTIME)) {
  writer.startElement("input", calendarVis);
  writer.writeAttribute("type", "text", null);
  writer.writeAttribute("name", clientId + TIME, null);
  writer.writeAttribute("value", calendarVis.getTimeConverter().getAsString(context, component, calendarVis.getValue()), "value");
  writer.endElement("input");
}
writer.endElement("div");

Everything works fine so far and I can use the component in my xhtml-file:

<vis:calendar value="#{bean.testCalendar}" showTime="#{true}" />

When I send the form, the converters convert the input and the backing bean is updated. It works like expected.

But now, I want to add support for a4j to enable something like this:

<a4j:region>
  <vis:calendar value="#{bean.testCalendar}" showTime="#{true}" >
    <a4j:support event="onchange" reRender="calendarDisplay"/>
  </vis:calendar>
</a4j:region>

When the user changes the input of one of the input fields, the backing-bean has to be updated and the calendarDisplay, displaying the selected date, should be updated as well.

But how can I do that? First of all: how can I fire an event like "onchange", so that the a4j-Tag is working and the reRender is done? Do I have to do something else to update the backing bean (before), when the input changes?

Many thanks in advance for your answers!