commandLink does not work in dataList

I've been trying to get a simple commandLink to work in a dataList. I have the dataList bound to a UIData component (binding="#

{categoryAdmin.ancestorTree}") on the backing bean. It properly displays links. However, when i select the link it fails to call the appropriate action method (action="#{categoryAdmin.ancestor}")and returns back to the page. No error meassages are written to the screen or logs.

Things i have tried with no success are:

- placing my backing bean in session rather than request
- placed <h:messages/> on the jsp to see any error messages (none appear)
- Debugged the phases in the LifeCycleImpl. It hits all the full LifeCycle phases (restoreView,applyRequestValues,processValidations,updateModelValues,invokeApplication). However, i am not able to determine what is really happening in these phases to result in the outcome.
- used h:commandLink and x:commandLink (both with session and request backing bean)
- set a breakpoint in my action method (public String ancestor(){...}) method and it never gets called.

Following is my page code. I provided the whole page to give context in case there are other conflicts that may be taking place. I'd be happy to provide a small app to reproduce this if my explanation is not enough.

<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core"; prefix="f"%>
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html"; prefix="h"%>
<%@ taglib uri="http://myfaces.apache.org/extensions"; prefix="x"%>
<h:form>

<x:dataList
id="ancestorTree"
var="ancestor"
binding="#{categoryAdmin.ancestorTree}

">
<x:commandLink action="#

{categoryAdmin.ancestor}

" value="#

{ancestor.title}

"/>
</x:dataList>

<h:commandButton styleClass="buttonnormal"
action="#

{categoryAdmin.add}" value="Add Category"/>

<h:inputHidden id="categoryAdmin_parentCategoryId"
value="#{categoryAdmin.parentCategoryId}"/>

<!-- category list -->

<h:dataTable style="margin: 10px; border: 1px solid black"
var="category" binding="#{categoryAdmin.categoryTable}">

<h:column>
<f:facet name="header">
<h:outputText value="Title" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black"/>
</f:facet>
<h:commandLink action="#{categoryAdmin.child}">
<h:outputText value="#{category.title}"/>
</h:commandLink>
<f:facet name="footer">
<h:outputText value="" style="border-top: 1px solid black"/>
</f:facet>
</h:column>

<h:column>
<f:facet name="header">
<h:outputText value="" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black"/>
</f:facet>
<h:commandLink action="#{categoryAdmin.edit}"><h:outputText
value="Edit"/></h:commandLink>
<f:facet name="footer">
<h:outputText value="" style="border-top: 1px solid black"/>
</f:facet>
</h:column>

<h:column>
<f:facet name="header">
<h:outputText value="Tree" style="border-bottom: 1px solid black"/>
</f:facet>
<h:outputText value="#{category.ancestorTree}"/>
<f:facet name="footer">
<h:outputText value="" style="border-top: 1px solid black"/>
</f:facet>
</h:column>

</h:dataTable>

<h:commandButton styleClass="buttonnormal"
action="#{categoryAdmin.add}

" value="Add Category"/>

</h:form>