> why are the components that are programmatically added to the form not > getting displayed? > > if I have a panel under the form as a place holder and add components > to it, they get displayed.
The panel renders it's children but the form doesn't. When you programmatically add components, you have to invoke render. The JSP tags invoke this rendering when the page is assembled. Your behavior will also change if the form is within panel. In this case, your components will be rendered by the panel. You might be able to look at the forms parent (getRendersChildren() ) to determine if you need to invoke rendering of your programmatically assembled components. Or, just override the (getRendersChildren()) method and always render children in your form. Gary