The Java EE 5 Tutorial (PDF) - Oracle Software Downloads

This example initializes an array or a List. The type of the corresponding property in the bean
determines which data structure is created. The list-entries element defines the list of values
in the array or List. The value element specifies a single value in the array or List and can
reference a property in another bean. The null-value element will cause the setBooks method
to be called with an argument of null.Anull property cannot be specified for a property whose
data type is a Java primitive, such as int or boolean.
Initializing Managed Bean Properties
Sometimes you might want to create a bean that also references other managed beans so that
you can construct a graph or a tree of beans. For example, suppose that you want to create a
bean representing a customer’s information, including the mailing address and street address,
each of which is also a bean. The following managed-bean declarations create a CustomerBean
instance that has two AddressBean properties: one representing the mailing address, and the
other representing the street address. This declaration results in a tree of beans with
CustomerBean as its root and the two AddressBean objects as children.
customer
com.mycompany.mybeans.CustomerBean
request
mailingAddress
#{addressBean}
streetAddress
#{addressBean}
customerType
New
addressBean
com.mycompany.mybeans.AddressBean
none
Configuring Beans
Chapter 14 • Configuring JavaServer Faces Applications 443