When to use valueChangeListener or f:ajax listener?

The valueChangeListener will only be invoked when the form is submitted and the submitted value is different from the initial value. It’s thus not invoked when only the HTML DOM change event is fired. If you would like to submit the form during the HTML DOM change event, then you’d need to add another <f:ajax/> without a listener(!) to the input component. It will cause a form submit which processes only the current component (as in execute="@this").

<h:selectOneMenu value="#{bean.value}" valueChangeListener="#{bean.changeListener}">
    <f:selectItems ... />
    <f:ajax />
</h:selectOneMenu>

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When using <f:ajax listener> instead of valueChangeListener, it would by default executed during the HTML DOM change event already. Inside UICommand components and input components representing a checkbox or radiobutton, it would be by default executed during the HTML DOM click event only.

<h:selectOneMenu value="#{bean.value}">
    <f:selectItems ... />
    <f:ajax listener="#{bean.ajaxListener}" />
</h:selectOneMenu>

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Another major difference is that the valueChangeListener method is invoked during the end of the PROCESS_VALIDATIONS phase. At that moment, the submitted value is not been updated in the model yet. So you cannot get it by just accessing the bean property which is bound to the input component’s value. You need to get it by ValueChangeEvent#getNewValue(). The old value is by the way also available by ValueChangeEvent#getOldValue().

public void changeListener(ValueChangeEvent event) {
    Object oldValue = event.getOldValue();
    Object newValue = event.getNewValue();
    // ...
}

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The <f:ajax listener> method is invoked during INVOKE_APPLICATION phase. At that moment, the submitted value is already been updated in the model. You can just get it by directly accessing the bean property which is bound to the input component’s value.

private Object value; // +getter+setter.

public void ajaxListener(AjaxBehaviorEvent event) {
    System.out.println(value); // Look, (new) value is already set.
}

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Also, if you would need to update another property based on the submitted value, then it would fail when you’re using valueChangeListener as the updated property can be overridden by the submitted value during the subsequent UPDATE_MODEL_VALUES phase. That’s exactly why you see in old JSF 1.x applications/tutorials/resources that a valueChangeListener is in such construct been used in combination with immediate="true" and FacesContext#renderResponse() to prevent that from happening. After all, using the valueChangeListener to execute business actions has actually always been a hack/workaround.

Summarized: Use the valueChangeListener only if you need to intercept on the actual value change itself. I.e. you’re actually interested in both the old and the new value (e.g. to log them).

public void changeListener(ValueChangeEvent event) {
    changeLogger.log(event.getOldValue(), event.getNewValue());
}

Use the <f:ajax listener> only if you need to execute a business action on the newly changed value. I.e. you’re actually interested in only the new value (e.g. to populate a second dropdown).

public void ajaxListener(AjaxBehaviorEvent event) {
    selectItemsOfSecondDropdown = populateItBasedOn(selectedValueOfFirstDropdown);
}

If you’re actually also interested in the old value while executing a business action, then fall back to valueChangeListener, but queue it to the INVOKE_APPLICATION phase.

public void changeListener(ValueChangeEvent event) {
    if (event.getPhaseId() != PhaseId.INVOKE_APPLICATION) {
        event.setPhaseId(PhaseId.INVOKE_APPLICATION);
        event.queue();
        return;
    }

    Object oldValue = event.getOldValue();
    Object newValue = event.getNewValue();
    System.out.println(newValue.equals(value)); // true
    // ...
}