When i call apex:actionSupport I loss all form data

Question

I am facing a strange problem. Actually few of my form fields visibility depends on picklist selected data. for example If i select "Yes" in Previously_Applied__c picklist then "Previously_Applied_When__c" input field should be displayed.

I have implemented the same (have pasted code below) but when i select "Yes" in Previously_Applied__c picklist "Previously_Applied_When__c" input field get displayed but i lost all form data(form fields sets to their default).

Plz suggest me How can i resolve this.

        <apex:pageBlockSection title="Academic Interests" columns="2" collapsible="false" id="academic">            
           <apex:repeat value="{!applicationFields}" var="f">  

           <apex:inputField value="{!applicationDetails[f]}" required="{!OR(f.required,f.dbrequired)}" 
                    rendered="{!(f != 'Previously_Applied__c' && f != 'Previously_Applied_When__c')}" />              


        <apex:pageBlockSectionItem rendered="{!(f == 'Previously_Applied__c')}">
                    <apex:outputLabel value="Have you applied to Utica College before?"/>
                    <apex:actionRegion >
                        <apex:inputField value="{!applicationDetails[f.fieldpath]}" required="{!OR(f.required,f.dbrequired)}">
                             <apex:actionSupport event="onchange"  rerender="academic"/>
                        </apex:inputField>
                    </apex:actionRegion>   
                </apex:pageBlockSectionItem> 

                <apex:pageBlockSectionItem rendered="{!(f == 'Previously_Applied_When__c' && applicationDetails.Previously_Applied__c == 'Yes')}">
                        <apex:outputLabel value="When did you previously apply?" />
                        <apex:inputField required="{!OR(f.required,f.dbrequired)}" value="{!applicationDetails[f]}" />
                </apex:pageBlockSectionItem> 

           </apex:repeat>           
        </apex:pageBlockSection>

Answer 1

You are using an apex:actionRegion and the fields that have their data "lost" on the rerender are outside of the action region.

The server will only process what is within the actionRegion when the onchange triggers an ajax request to the server. If you have fields on the page that the user can change in a section of the page that is rerendered as part of the onchange then you have to include them in the actionRegion so that they are processed. If they aren't included, the server won't know about them and when the section they are in is rerendered it will appear as if they are lost.

Answer 2

Peter and Mathew have explained this better to you and here is my thought. 1. On the onchange event, you are refreshing the whole table which will wipe out all your form data or the values selected by the user. 2. So what you want to do is expand your action region section and put all the input fields inside the action region. 3. Before you render academic, create a handler method in your controller and call that method in your event. On the handler method what ever you call, read all the input values and store them to a list and when you rerender it display it back. I think you need to restructure the page a bit to do this. Thanks Buyan

Answer 3

The issue seems to be occurring because you are rerendering the apex:repeat with rerender="academic" on the apex:actionSupport. When the repeat is rerendered, all of the data within is refreshed (and therefore the data appears to be "lost").

To fix this, there are two options.

1. Save the record before rerendering. You should be able to do this by adding the action="{!save}" (or another action in your controller that saves the record) attribute to the actionSupport.
2. Restructure the page so that you can render only a few fields included in the apex:repeat.