On Thu, 27 Apr 2000, Rich Holladay wrote: > By looking through the source code I've been able to figure out how to > get the <form:select> tag to work. It makes sense to me now. Excellent. > <form:select > name='<%-- the bean containing the currently selected value --%>' > property='<%-- the property of that bean which contains the value > --%>' > list='<%-- some way to get the Collection -- %>' > value='<%-- the property of the List which contains the option value > --%>' > text='<%-- the property of the List which contains the text that > follows the <option> tag --%>' > /> I may take this example and merge it in the documentation page, since let's be real - I wrote my documentation page largely for ME. I find it really useful, but I know what I'm about. :) > I can see how this naming convention would make sense to a JSP > programmer. I wonder, though, if the target audience for custom tags is > JSP programmers or HTML programmers? If the target is HTML programmers > then it might be more appropriate to change the parameter names > slightly. I thought about naming a lot when I created the tags (and, in fact, these are the second-generation names.) More: > <input type='select' name='MySelect'> is what an HTML programmer is > used to. > Unfortunately, the JSP-centric tag requires the HTML programmer to use: > <form:select property='MySelect' name='mybean'> > > This "incorrect" use of the name parameter is going to cause confusion. > An alternative for parameter naming could be: > > <form:select bean='mybean' name='MySelect'> > > In that way the HTML programmer simply has to learn to add a new > parameter to something very similar to the <input> tag they are used to. The problem with this approach is that it matches HTML and not JSP - and let's be real, this is still JSP. I chose naming conventions to match what JSP already requires, through <jsp:getProperty /> and <jsp:setProperty />, as much as I could; the list entry stuff comes from a very useful ejb tags library. I used HTML conventions where I could, but mostly maintained consistency with other tag libraries, on the assumption that a tool would have to have two slightly different mechanisms for handling HTML vs. JSP anyway, and a person hand-authoring it would have the same requirement. It makes sense to match HTML as much as possible, but IMO I thought going to the limit (while possible) wasn't wise because of prior art (<jsp:getProperty name="myBeanName" property="myPropertyName" /> and <form:text name="myBeanName" property="myPropertyName" /> are very congruent.) > By the way, if you get tired of getting email from me about this library > feel free to tell me to cool it. > I'll tell you to cool it when I'm good and ready to do so - which will be "never," guaranteed. Feedback is good. I need it to improve the taglib in ways that everyone will find useful. ----------------------------------------------------------- Joseph B. Ottinger [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://cupid.suninternet.com/~joeo HOMES.COM Developer =========================================================================== To unsubscribe: mailto [EMAIL PROTECTED] with body: "signoff JSP-INTEREST". Some relevant FAQs on JSP/Servlets can be found at: http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/faq.html http://www.esperanto.org.nz/jsp/jspfaq.html http://www.jguru.com/jguru/faq/faqpage.jsp?name=JSP http://www.jguru.com/jguru/faq/faqpage.jsp?name=Servlets
