EffectQueue and chaining effects in IceFaces 1.8 - icefaces

Question

I'm currently working with IceFaces 1.8, and have been trying to find an simple way to chain effects on UI Components. For example, I have a "Show Help" link at the top right of the page. When clicked, help text will appear below certain controls for users. I'd like this text to appear by sliding down, then highlighting.
I have a basic isRenderHelp() method on my bean that returns true or false, and use that to render effects using the fire attribute on the <ice:effect> tag, so it looks something like this:
<ice:effect effectType="slidedown" fire="#{myBean.renderHelp}">
<ice:effect effectType="slideup" fire="#{!myBean.renderHelp}">
This works causing the help section to slide in and out as the help link toggles the renderHelp flag in the bean. There is the small exception that renderHelp returns null before the link is clicked for the first time to prevent the slideup animation from firing on the first page render.
Now, I noticed looking through the showcase code for 1.8 that there is an EffectQueue class that extends Effect. This allows me to add mutliple Effects to the queue in my bean, and return the queue from a getEffect method that I can then assign to a panelGroup effect attribute. However, it does not execute the events in the queue, despite having their priorities set. I'm sure I'm not using it properly, and I'm wondering how it should be used.
Normally I'd use jQuery for this type of thing, but the UI uses many partial submits. Our page is displayed via a Liferay portlet, so on any partialSubmit the view is rerendered, undoing any modifications to the DOM by jQuery.
So is there any simple way to chain effects in IceFaces 1.8? Suggestions?

Answer 1

here is how I implemented the effectQueue to appear and fade the text.
private EffectQueue effectQueue;
public Effect getSaveSettingsEffect() {
return effectQueue;
}
public void fireEffect(ActionListener e) {
if(effectQueue == null) {
effectQueue = new EffectQueue("apperAndFade");
Appear appear = new Appear();
appear.setDuration(2);
effectQueue.add(appear);
Fade fade = new Fade();
fade.setDuration(3);
effectQueue.add(fade);
effectQueue.setTransitory(true);
}
effectQueue.setFired(false);
}
facelet:
<ice:commandButton value="fireEffect" action="#{bean.fireEffect}"/>
<ice:outputText value="text" style="display: none;" effect="#{bean.effectQueue}"/>