Question about Custom tags, Listeners, and Struts

[Jay Dilla]

I'm new to struts and custom tags, but implemented a solution where right click options are added to folders in a tree. It's working in every part of the application that uses that tree except one , where the frame also holds another tree component.
I verified that the options are being added on tree construction but after the tree is constructed nothing happens when I right click, as if the option is being removed immediately after being added. I did debugged this in JS and it appears as if this snippet from a custom tag may be getting called twice :

listeners: {
		contextmenu: function(node, e){
			cm.render(e, new app.uiAdapter.Tree(node.getOwnerTree()), [ node ], getExtJsContextMenuNodeType, new MenuGenerator(node.ui.getAnchor()));
		},

This is the jsp code that triggers the custom tag call:

<c:if test="${ showRecSelTree }">
                <widget:tree widgetId="recentlySelectedTree"
                             url="componentTree/tree.do?method=getNodes&outputType=json"
                             collapseUrl="componentTree/tree.do?method=collapseNode&outputType=json"
                             nodePath="${ recSelNodePath }"
                             disableReload="${ true }"
                             allowDrag="true"
                             allowMultiSelect="true"
                             showLoadCursor="${ false }"
                             title="${ recSelTreeTitle }"/>
                </c:if>

and this is the struts xml that places the right click component into the tree:

<logic:iterate id="menuItem" name="contextMenu_menuItems"><item name='<bean:write name="menuItem" property="internalName" />' style='<bean:write name="menuItem" property="style" />' icon='<bean:write name="menuItem" property="icon" />' label='<bean:write name="menuItem" property="label" />' action='<bean:write name="menuItem" property="action" />'/></logic:iterate>
		<logic:iterate id="menuItemJS" name="contextMenu_menuItemsJS">
			<jsItem cmNodeType='<bean:write name="menuItemJS" property="nodeType" />' name='<bean:write name="menuItemJS" property="name" />' allowsMultiNodes='<bean:write name="menuItemJS" property="allowsMultiNodes" />'>

My question is how can i trace where the second call is coming from? I don't quite understand how the listener is being called. The

[ node ]

inside of the cm.render method is null the second time around and the reason why my right click components are not present when i right click.
My theory is that node object is being reset when the 2nd tree (which doesn't have right click options) is being created in the frame.
Is there a possibility that this is an AJAX or JS issue? (I'm also green to those tech as well)
Any ideas?

[Joe Ess]

Is there a possibility that this is an AJAX or JS issue? (I'm also green to those tech as well)

Certainly. It sounds like there are some JavaScript variables that get overwritten if you have more than one instance of the tree on the page but trying to narrow it down from there, seeing as how you have snippets of a custom tag, Struts tags, STL tags and... is that jQuery? scattered around I don't think I can figure it out from here. My advice to you is: IsolateTheProblem. Strip the code to the bare minimum (i.e. if you think the problem is in JavaScript, remove all the Struts and AJAX) and get up to speed on JavaScript and/or jQuery. The better you understand the problem, the better question you can ask and the more help we can be.
Who wrote this custom tree widget? Perhaps they can shine some light on how it behaves.

[Jay Dilla]

Joe Ess wrote:

Certainly. It sounds like there are some JavaScript variables that get overwritten if you have more than one instance of the tree on the page.

This is what i'm thinking. cm.render is a js method that's expecting a node array full of information about the tree/folders. After the tree gets built it must be getting called again with the null array passed. I guess my question is what could be calling the listener again? Basically what kind of string search should i do in my code base? The JEE 5 tutorial talks about custom tags and listener events but not in the context of Struts or interacting with JS (from what I can see). There is no page refresh going on as far as i know after the tree is built so it must be getting removed right after i step through it on the js side some how.

The person that built this is not here and the architect/only guy strong in JS on our team left right when I begun implementing this feature.