JSF 2.2 [usage pitfall] - Counting the children of a composite component

Suppose that you have a composite component that accepts children via the <cc:insertChildren/> tag. Sometimes you may need to render a certain message when the list of children is empty, and for this you may think of writing a composite component implementation, as shown in the following code:

<!-- IMPLEMENTATION -->

<cc:implementation>

 <div id="#{cc.clientId}">

  <ul>

   <cc:insertChildren/>

   <h:panelGroup rendered="#{cc.childCount == 0}">

    The list of names is empty!

   </h:panelGroup>

  </ul>

 </div>

</cc:implementation>

Now if the composite component is used as follows, you may think that the message The list of names is empty! will be rendered:

<t:iccc/>

Well, you are right! But, the same message, next to the list content, will be rendered when the component is used as follows:

<t:iccc>

 <li>Mike</li>

 <li>Andrew</li>

</t:iccc>

In order to solve this issue, you can use the following code:

<cc:implementation>

 <div id="#{cc.clientId}">

  <ul>

   <cc:insertChildren/>

    <c:if test="#{cc.childCount == 0}">

     The list of names is empty!

    </c:if>

  </ul>

 </div>

</cc:implementation>