Handy code for getting ADF faces component from View root.

    private UIComponent findComponentOnPage(String compId) {

        UIViewRoot root = FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getViewRoot();
        root.invokeOnComponent(FacesContext.getCurrentInstance(), compId,
                               new ContextCallback() {
                public void invokeContextCallback(FacesContext facesContext,
                                                  UIComponent uiComponent) {
                    comp = uiComponent;
                }
            });
        return this.comp;
    }

Reference : http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-tools/adf/downloads/58-optimizedadffacescomponentsearch-175858.pdf