instanceof check in EL expression language

Question

Is there a way to perform an instanceof check in EL?

E.g.

<h:link rendered="#{model instanceof ClassA}">      
    #{errorMessage1}
</h:link>
<h:link rendered="#{model instanceof ClassB}">      
    #{errorMessage2}
</h:link>

Answer 1

You could compare Class#getName() or, maybe better, Class#getSimpleName() to a String.

<h:link rendered="#{model['class'].simpleName eq 'ClassA'}">      
    #{errorMessage1}
</h:link>
<h:link rendered="#{model['class'].simpleName eq 'ClassB'}">      
    #{errorMessage2}
</h:link>

Note the importance of specifying Object#getClass() with brace notation ['class'] because class is a reserved Java literal which would otherwise throw an EL exception in EL 2.2+.

The type safe alternative is to add some public enum Type { A, B } along with public abstract Type getType() to the common base class of the model.

<h:link rendered="#{model.type eq 'A'}">      
    #{errorMessage1}
</h:link>
<h:link rendered="#{model.type eq 'B'}">      
    #{errorMessage2}
</h:link>

Any invalid values would here throw an EL exception during runtime in EL 2.2+.

In case you're using OmniFaces, since version 3.0 you could use #{of:isInstance()}.

<h:link rendered="#{of:isInstance('com.example.ClassA', model)}">      
    #{errorMessage1}
</h:link>
<h:link rendered="#{of:isInstance('com.example.ClassB', model)}">      
    #{errorMessage2}
</h:link>