When I first started developing with Struts (pre 1.0), I'd just have a simple form with a DTO (VO back then) as a getter/setter on my form. In the last year, I've changed to have a DTO and a Form, where the DTO has the true data types (Long, Date, etc) and the form has only Strings. After doing it both ways, it seems like the DTO as a getter/setter is really the better way to go. I'm not trying to say it's the *right* way according to the design patterns, I'm just offering my $.02 from experience. I continue to do it the BeanUtils.copyProperties() way, but the projects I work on that do it the other way seem cleaner.
For an example of a DTO -> BeanUtils.copyProperties() -> Form, check out the following links: DTO -> User.java (source: http://tinyurl.com/emo7) Conversion -> UserManagerImpl.java (source: http://tinyurl.com/emof - see convert() method). This extends BaseManager (http://tinyurl.com/emok), which registers custom converters. No DateConverter in this example, but I've done it at my day job, so I know it's fairly easy. Form -> UserForm.java (generated via XDoclet from User.java) Of course, you can download the entire project (that has these examples in it) at http://raibledesigns.com/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=AppFuse. HTH, Matt -----Original Message----- From: Blake Whitmore [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 9:55 AM To: Struts Users Mailing List Subject: RE: Making Value Objects Into Form Objects Hey Alan, It seems to be a pretty popular mechanism out there. Anyone else have any other ideas? And Alan, dig deeper into the API - it does more conversions than you think :) For a while I had protected (my form would be in the same package as my action) 'convienence methods' for converting between value objects and actionforms. Later I went to using another layer of indirection with a separate class. But, using the BeanUtils has made my life easier. Be careful with 'Date' things though. Good luck. -Blake --- "Weissman, Alan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thanks Blake! > This doesn't seem as comprehensive a tool or design > pattern as I would have > liked. Is this what everyone is using? It seems > like a lot of work, > especially because it doesn't do data type > conversions for you! > Alan > > -----Original Message----- > From: Blake Whitmore > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 11:14 AM > To: Struts Users Mailing List > Subject: Re: Making Value Objects Into Form Objects > > > Alan, > > A good tool for this is the > org.apache.commons.beanutils.BeanUtils.copyProperties() > method. > > http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/beanutils/api/org/apache/commons/beanutils > /BeanUtils.html > > > > > --- "Weissman, Alan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Ok so I'm a little new to Struts but not J2EE and > > I've been noticing that my > > Value Objects that come out of EJB's in my data > > layer are the exact same > > objects as the ActionForms that are used by > > Struts....and I'm sure I'm not > > the first to notice this. > > > > So here's my question: How can I make one class > > that can serve as both an > > ActionForm and a ValueObject? > > > > The problems with solutions that I've brainstormed > > are this: > > > > 1) I can't make my Value Objects extend ActionForm > > for obvious reasons. > > 2) I would rather not use an interface to get > around > > this issue because then > > I have two classes to maintain again. > > > > Thanks for any advice! > > > > Alan > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > For additional commands, e-mail: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! > http://sbc.yahoo.com > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! DSL - Now only $29.95 per month! http://sbc.yahoo.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
