This example shows how to use external controls, and special shortcuts to switch the tabbed panels

The rich:toggleControl behavior used by any of the other switchable panels (togglePanel, accordion) can be used with rich:tabPanels as well.

So you can set the targetItem to be defined as a specific tab name or use one of the shortcuts detailed in the rich:togglePanel example.

Additionally you can manage the current tab on the server side using the activeItem attribute on the tabPanel bound to some Bean property which then holds current tab name.