tree2 with empty TreeNode as base exception

[Rob Decker]

When I have an empty tree:

 treebacker.getTreeData {
   return new TreeNodeBase("branch", "root", "0", true);
 }

 I get this exception:

[24 Mar 2005 16:42:46,806] ERROR <org.apache.myfaces.el.ValueBindingImpl -> 
ValueBindingImpl.java:457> [Thread-17] -
       Cannot get value for expression '#{treeBacker.treeData}'
javax.faces.el.ReferenceSyntaxException: Cannot convert index to int for base 
com.gsk.scmm.vis.test.TreeBacker and index treeData
       at org.apache.myfaces.el.ELParserHelper.coerceToIntegerWrapper
(ELParserHelper.java:418)
       at org.apache.myfaces.el.ELParserHelper.toIndex(ELParserHelper.java:440)
       at org.apache.myfaces.el.ELParserHelper$MyPropertySuffix.evaluate
(ELParserHelper.java:541)
       at org.apache.commons.el.ComplexValue.evaluate(ComplexValue.java:145)
       at 
org.apache.myfaces.el.ValueBindingImpl.getValue(ValueBindingImpl.java:441)
       at 
org.apache.myfaces.custom.tree2.UITreeData.getValue(UITreeData.java:229)
       at org.apache.myfaces.custom.tree2.HtmlTreeRenderer.encodeChildren
(HtmlTreeRenderer.java:160)
       at javax.faces.component.UIComponentBase.encodeChildren
(UIComponentBase.java:320)

Can there be a way to say 'There are no items', i.e. a custom message instead?

--
Rob

@objectsource.org