How to use enum values in f:selectItem(s)

I want to make a selectOneMenu dropdown so I can select a status on my question. Is it possible to make the f:selectItem more flexible considering what happens if the order of the enums changes, and if the list was large? And could I do this better? And is it possible to automatically "select" the item that the question have?

Enum class

public enum Status {
	SUBMITTED,
	REJECTED,
	APPROVED
}

Question entity

@Enumerated(EnumType.STRING)
private Status status;

JSF

<div class="field">
	<h:outputLabel for="questionStatus" value="Status" />
	<h:selectOneMenu id="questionStatus" value="#{bean.question.status}" >
		<f:selectItem itemLabel="Submitted" itemValue="0" />
		<f:selectItem itemLabel="Rejected" itemValue="1" />
		<f:selectItem itemLabel="Approved" itemValue="2" />
	</h:selectOneMenu>
	<hr />
</div>

JSF has a builtin converter for enum, so this should do:

@Named
@ApplicationScoped
public class Data {

    public Status[] getStatuses() {
        return Status.values();
    }

}

with

<h:selectOneMenu value="#{bean.question.status}" >
    <f:selectItems value="#{data.statuses}" />
</h:selectOneMenu>

(note: since JSF 2.0 there's no need anymore to provide a SelectItem[] or List<SelectItem>, a T[] and List<T> are accepted as well and you can access the current item by var attribute)

If you happen to use JSF utility library OmniFaces, then you could use <o:importConstants> instead of a bean.

<o:importConstants type="com.example.Status" />

<h:selectOneMenu value="#{bean.question.status}" >
    <f:selectItems value="#{Status}" />
</h:selectOneMenu>

If you intend to control the labels as well, you could add them to the Status enum:

public enum Status {

    SUBMITTED("Submitted"),
    REJECTED("Rejected"),
    APPROVED("Approved");

    private String label;

    private Status(String label) {
        this.label = label;
    }

    public String getLabel() {
        return label;
    }

}

with

<f:selectItems value="#{data.statuses}" var="status"
    itemValue="#{status}" itemLabel="#{status.label}" />

Or, better, make the enum value a property key of a localized resource bundle (EL 3.0 required):

<f:selectItems value="#{data.statuses}" var="status"
    itemValue="#{status}" itemLabel="#{text['data.status.' += status]}" />

with this in a properties file associated with resource bundle #{text}

data.status.SUBMITTED = Submitted
data.status.REJECTED = Rejected
data.status.APPROVED = Approved

For localization we can use also this solution:

public enum Status { SUBMITTED, REJECTED, APPROVED }

data.status.SUBMITTED=Submitted
data.status.REJECTED=Rejected
data.status.APPROVED=Approved

<h:selectOneMenu value="#{bean.question.status}" >
    <f:selectItems
        value="#{data.statuses}"
        var="status"
        itemValue="#{status}"
        itemLabel="#{text['data.status.'.concat(status)]}" />
</h:selectOneMenu>

So the resource path for localization strings are not hardcoded in Enum.

You could use <f:selectItems value="#{carBean.carList}" /> and return a list of SelectItem instances that wrap the enum (use Status.values() to get all possible values).

You can use following utility el function to obtain the enum values and use them in a SelectOneMenu for example. No need to create beans and boilerplate methods.

public final class ElEnumUtils
{
	private ElEnumUtils() { }

	/**
	 * Cached Enumerations, key equals full class name of an enum
	 */
	private final static Map<String, Enum<?>[]> ENTITY_ENUMS = new HashMap<>();;

	/**
	 * Retrieves all Enumerations of the given Enumeration defined by the
	 * given class name.
	 *
	 * @param enumClassName Class name of the given Enum.
	 *
	 * @return
	 *
	 * @throws ClassNotFoundException
	 */
	@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
	public static Enum<?>[] getEnumValues(final String enumClassName) throws ClassNotFoundException
	{
		// check if already cached - use classname as key for performance reason
		if (ElEnumUtils.ENTITY_ENUMS.containsKey(enumClassName))
			return ElEnumUtils.ENTITY_ENUMS.get(enumClassName);

		final Class<Enum<?>> enumClass = (Class<Enum<?>>) Class.forName(enumClassName);

		final Enum<?>[] enumConstants = enumClass.getEnumConstants();

		// add to cache
		ElEnumUtils.ENTITY_ENUMS.put(enumClassName, enumConstants);

		return enumConstants;
	}
}

Register it as an el function in a taglib file:

<function>
	<description>Retrieves all Enumerations of the given Enumeration defined by the given class name.</description>
	<function-name>getEnumValues</function-name>
	<function-class>
		package.ElEnumUtils
	</function-class>
	<function-signature>
		java.lang.Enum[] getEnumValues(java.lang.String)
	</function-signature>
</function>

And finally call it like:

<p:selectOneMenu value="#{bean.type}">
	<f:selectItems value="#{el:getEnumValues('package.BeanType')}" var="varEnum" 
		itemLabel="#{el:getEnumLabel(varEnum)}" itemValue="#{varEnum}"/>
</p:selectOneMenu>

Similiar to BalusC answer you should be using a resource bundle with localized enum labels and for cleaner code you can also create a function like getEnumLabel(enum)