How to set default value of <p:selectOneMenu

Question

I have a jsf containing two <p:selectOneMenu ...> components.

Part of JSF:

<p:selectOneMenu id="speakerLanguage"
        value="#{speakerAddFormView.currentSpeaker.nativLang1}">
    <f:selectItem itemLabel="Select Language" itemValue="-1" />
    <f:selectItems value="#{speakerAddFormView.languages.entrySet()}"
            var="languages" itemLabel="#{languages.key}"
            itemValue="#{languages.value}" />
    <p:ajax listener="#{speakerAddFormView.updateStateSecondNativeLangSOM}"
            update="speakerLanguage2" />
</p:selectOneMenu>
<p:selectOneMenu id="speakerLanguage2"
        value="#{speakerAddFormView.currentSpeaker.nativLang2}"
        disabled="#{speakerAddFormView.disableSecondNativeLangSOM}">
    <f:selectItem itemLabel="Select second Language" itemValue="-1" />
    <f:selectItems value="#{speakerAddFormView.languages.entrySet()}"
            var="languages" itemLabel="#{languages.key}"
            itemValue="#{languages.value}"/>
</p:selectOneMenu>

Within my bean I have a public static final Map<String, String> LANGUAGE_CODES = new TreeMap<String, String>(); containing native languages. This TreeMap is referenced at initialization of the bean at:

@PostConstruct
public void init() {
    this.languages = ConstantCodes.LANGUAGE_CODES;
}

When I reload the page, the both <p:selectOneMenus > are seleected not to the default <f:selectItem itemLabel="Select Language" itemValue="-1" /> or <f:selectItem itemLabel="Select second Language" itemValue="-1" /> .

Screen Snip:

Edit: These two items are selected from the beginning.

Is there a way to force the default selected value ?

Answer 1

Set your nativLang1 and nativLang2 to -1 in your @PostConstruct method.

@PostConstruct
public void init() {
    System.out.println("initializing");
    this.languages = ConstantCodes.LANGUAGE_CODES;
    nativLang1 = "-1";
    nativLang2 = "-1";
}