Added a workaround based on the new ice core:focusManager technique. However, this workaround would only potentially work with cases where the dialog is being displayed via the server-side "visible" attribute being set to true, and would not support the client-side use-case where the dialog has already been rendered and is being displayed via JavaScript.

For the client-side scenario, having the "setFocus" attribute on the ace:dialog would be handy as it could be pre-rendered with the correct value, and that field would automatically receive focus whenever the dialog was displayed, regardless of whether that was via "visible=true" or the client-side JavaScript API.

The suggested order of precedence for the ace:dialog "setFocus" attribute in cases where an icecore:focusManager was present on the page is as follows:

1. "for" attribute if defined on the focusManager
2. "setFocus" attribute if defined on the dialog
3. Any invalid component

Introduced 'setFocus' attribute that can define which component (found inside the dialog) will receive focus once the dialog opens.

On EE-3.3.0-maintenance branch (# 40878) , setFocus attribute is not functional for ACE components inside the ace:dialog (ace:textEntry, ace:textAreaEntry, etc.). However it works for h: input components inside ace:dialog.

This is not an issue on ICEfaces4 trunk, where setFocus works for both ACE components and h: components inside ace:dialog.

QA test app: http://dev.icesoft.com/svn/repo/qa/trunk/Regression-Icefaces2/Sparkle/Nightly/dialog
Test pages:
/dialogSetFocus.xhtml
/dialogAttribute.jsf

On IF4 trunk and EE-3.3.0-maintenance (#40900), setFocus attribute doesn't work if opening the dialog component using a submit type button with actionListener.

Test page: /dialogSetFocus1.jsf
Steps:

• select the second component from the drop-down (in222).
• click the first 'Show' button (type=button) -> dialog is rendered and the second inputText component has the focus.
• hide the dialog, then click the second 'Show' button (type=submit) -> dialog is rendered with both inputText components without focus.

Modified ice.ace.Dialog constructor to move focus on the specified element (or first input element when not specified) when an update creates the dialog.

The setFocus attribute feature is not working with EE-3.3.0-maintenance branch based components because ICE-9483 who modified ACE components to implement the Focusable interface was targeted only to 4.0.BETA. Components that implement the Focusable interface return the ID of the element that should receive focus within the markup rendered by the in focus component. By default the focus is applied to the root element in the markup which usually works well for simpler component (such as h:* input components)

Added a note to the TLD doc for the setFocus attribute on the 3.3 maintenance branch only to warn that this attribute is not reliable when used with ACE components - "Specifies the ID of the component contained within the dialog that should receive focus when the dialog is made visible. Note that this feature does not work with ACE components in this release (h: and ice: are supported)."

Resolved.