a4j: outputPanel ReRender does not work

I have a an a4j:outputPanel that is rendered based on some boolean condition:

<a4j:outputPanel id="someDisplayRegion" rendered="#{doc.ready &amp;&amp someClass.someBooleanMethod}"> 
    // bunch of stuff //
</a4j:outputPanel>

Then on the same .xhtml page, I have a drop-down menu and selecting one of its options should reRender the above region:

<rich:dropDownMenu>                                         
    <f:facet name="label">                                            
        <a4j:commandLink styleClass="btn-pulldown">                                             
            <span><h:outputText value="Export"></h:outputText></span>                                                       
            <span class="opener"></span>                                              
        </a4j:commandLink>                                        
    </f:facet>                                              

    <rich:menuItem  submitMode="none">                                                 
        <s:link                                                 
            rendered="#{someOtherBooleanMethod}"                                    
            value="#exportDoc"                                              
            action="#{runSomething.exportDoc()}"                                                
            reRender="someDisplayRegion"                                                
            target="downloadfile"                                                
       ><s:conversationId /></s:link>                                          
    </rich:menuItem>                                                                                 
</rich:dropDownMenu>

However, when 开发者_Go百科I click on the menu item from the drop-down menu, it does not go into someClass.someBooleanMethod and thus, does not re-render someDisplayRegion. Am I doing something wrong?

Consider this point of the RichFaces documentation:

As with most Ajax frameworks, you should not attempt to append or delete elements on a page using RichFaces Ajax, but should instead replace them. As such, elements that are rendered conditionally should not be targeted in the render attributes for Ajax controls. For successful updates, an element with the same identifier as in the response must exist on the page. If it is necessary to append code to a page, include a placeholder for it (an empty element).

So add a wrapper around your outputPanel and target the wrapper in the reRender attribute.

<a4j:outputPanel id="wrapper">
    <a4j:outputPanel id="someDisplayRegion" rendered="#{doc.ready && someClass.someBooleanMethod}"> 
        // bunch of stuff //
    </a4j:outputPanel>
</a4j:outputPanel>


<s:link reRender="wrapper" [...] />

s:link doesn't have reRender attribute, it's only available on RichFaces components.

rich:menuItem and s:link aren't the best of friends. (especially not in earlier version of RichFaces).

Is there a specific reason why you want to use s:link here ?

Putting the action and the reRender on the menuItem itself should work fine.

I don't understand why you think clicking on the menu item should go into someClass.someBooleanMethod and not into runSomething.exportDoc(). At what point are doc.ready and someClass.someBooleanMethod being set to true? You might put a debugging statement in your code that verifies these are being set to true. If they are set to true and your a4j:outputPanel is still not rendering then you have a problem. I use the s:link as you do here and it works, but I remember having to fiddle with it. Make sure the action fired in the s:link returns a String. "actions" have to return strings that can be used for navigation though in my case the page navigates to itself (like yours).