Even if we fix your problem, this construct
<p:inputText value="#{guestList.hasSelected() ? '' : guestList.selectedGuest.name}">
is not ever going to work. It needs to reference a model property, not an empty string.
You’d best just reuse the edit form and let the create button precreate an empty entity. This would simplify a lot in the view side. It’d be more easy if the entity has an @Id property which is only present when it’s persisted in the database.
Here’s a kickoff example:
<h:form id="entitiesForm">
<p:dataTable id="entitiesTable" value="#{bean.entities}" var="entity">
<p:column>#{entity.foo}</p:column>
<p:column>#{entity.bar}</p:column>
<p:column>
<p:commandButton id="edit" value="Edit"
process="@this" action="#{bean.edit(entity)}"
update=":entityDialog" oncomplete="PF('entityDialog').show()" />
<p:commandButton id="delete" value="Delete"
process="@this" action="#{bean.delete(entity)}"
update=":entitiesForm:entitiesTable" />
</p:column>
</p:dataTable>
<p:commandButton id="add" value="Add"
process="@this" action="#{bean.add}"
update=":entityDialog" oncomplete="PF('entityDialog').show()" />
</h:form>
<p:dialog id="entityDialog" widgetVar="entityDialog"
header="#{empty bean.entity.id ? 'New' : 'Edit'} entity">
<h:form id="entityForm">
<p:inputText id="foo" value="#{bean.entity.foo}" />
<p:inputText id="bar" value="#{bean.entity.bar}" />
<p:commandButton id="save" value="#{empty bean.entity.id ? 'Create' : 'Update'} entity"
process="@form" action="#{bean.save}"
update=":entitiesForm:entitiesTable" oncomplete="PF('entityDialog').hide()" />
</h:form>
</p:dialog>
With this @ViewScoped bean:
private List<Entity> entities; // +getter
private Entity entity; // +getter
@EJB
private EntityService entityService;
@PostConstruct
public void load() {
entities = entityService.list();
entity = null;
}
public void add() {
entity = new Entity();
}
public void edit(Entity entity) {
this.entity = entity;
}
public void save() {
entityService.save(entity); // if (id==null) em.persist() else em.merge()
load();
}
public void delete(Entity entity) {
entityService.delete(entity); // em.remove(em.find(type, id))
load();
}