RichFaces provides set of functions for more convinient work with DOM tree and to use some server side expressions.

Here is the current list:

- rich:clientId(id) - returns client Id for component by it's short id.
- rich:element(id) - returns DOM element for the passed short id
- rich:component(id) - returns richfaces client component instance to call some API method.
- rich:isUserInRole(role) - returns is the user has specified role.
- rich:findComponent(id) - returns component instance for given short id

For example the result of #{rich:element('input')} expression will be - document.getElementById('formId:input').

And here is one more simple example. There is no need in Bean creation in order to store the value. It's picked from component instance by using rich:findComponent call.

One more sample could be found at dataScroller API page. There are rich:component used for calling JS API of dataScroller.

This set goes to be extended continously. Rise jira or forum requests if you have proposals on new useful functions.