We have developed this recipe with NetBeans 6.8, JSF 2.0, and GlassFish v3. The JSF 2.0 classes were obtained from the NetBeans JSF 2.0 bundled library.

The secret of our recipe consists in using the onkeyup event for calling a JavaScript function. Here it is the code:

<h:head>
<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
function getInputText(text)
{
alert(text.value);
}
</script>
</h:head>
<h:body>
<h:inputText id="inputId" value=""
onkeyup ="getInputText(this);"/>
</h:body>

When a character is typed in the h:inputText, the onkeyup event is fired and the JavaScript getInputText function is called. This JS function extracts the text from the JSF h:inputText through the received argument. Notice that the this keyword is used.

The code bundled with this book contains a complete example of this recipe. The project can be opened with NetBeans 6.8 and it is named: Getting_a_JSF_inputText_value_from_JavaScript.