Submit data-table in JSF / Primefaces? - database

Question

I am working on a web application using jsf/ primefaces, netbeans and tomcat.
I have a datatable with some values loaded in from another table and some editable fields. My question is, after the user has edited this table how do i submit the whole table so it can be stored in a database, in a new table?
<h:form id="form" prependId="false">
<h3>All of your Paddocks</h3>
<p:dataTable var="paddock" value="#{paddock.getfromPaddock()}" editable="true">
<p:ajax event="rowEdit" listener="#{paddock.onRowEdit}" />
<p:ajax event="rowEditCancel" listener="#{paddock.onRowCancel}" />
<p:column headerText="Id">
<h:outputText value="#{paddock.idPaddock}" />
</p:column>
<p:column headerText="Name">
<h:outputText value="#{paddock.name}" />
</p:column>
<p:column headerText="Area">
<h:outputText value="#{paddock.area}" />
</p:column>
<p:column headerText="Enter Grass Weight">
<p:cellEditor>
<f:facet name="output"><h:outputText value="0" /></f:facet>
<f:facet name="input"><p:inputText id="modelInput" value="0" style="width:100%"/></f:facet>
</p:cellEditor>
</p:column>
<p:column style="width:32px">
<p:rowEditor />
</p:column>
</p:dataTable>
<h:commandButton value="Log" action="#{paddock.add}" />
</h:form>
Note that the only editable column is the grass column.

Answer 1

First of all, there are two main mistakes which may have undesired side effects:
<h:form ... prependId="false">
Never use prependId. Remove the whole attribute.
<p:dataTable var="paddock" value="#{paddock.getfromPaddock()}">
You should give var a different name than the managed bean. E.g. paddockItem.
As to the concrete question, your other mistake is here:
<p:inputText id="modelInput" value="0" />
You didn't bind the input value to the model. So JSF won't be able to update the model with the submitted values anyway.
Fix it accordingly, e.g.:
<p:inputText id="modelInput" value="#{paddockItem.grass}" />
In the submit method, it'll be right away there in the model.
You should only make absolutely sure that you aren't interacting with the database in the getter method of the <p:dataTable value>, otherwise you will be overwriting the model on every iteration round, hereby basically trashing the submitted values until the last row before the submit method is hit. The strange method name behind the data table value value="#{paddock.getfromPaddock()}" namely suggests that you're doing that. If it were a real property, the average starter would just have used value="#{paddock.fromPaddock}" or so.
See also:
How and when should I load the model from database for h:dataTable