Re: Implementing ActionRequest and RenderRequest in the same class

[Elliot Metsger]

Hi John,

John Lewis wrote:
In a few places in the framework, we have code that generally handles 
PortletRequest objects, but then may need to do some special logic 
depending on if it is an ActionRequest or RenderRequest.  In those 
cases, we test it with instanceof and proceed accordingly.

Whereabouts in Spring do you perform special logic?  I saw this in 
FrameworkPortlet's processAction method (but didn't look much further):
                        if (request instanceof ActionRequest) {
                                doActionService((ActionRequest) request, 
(ActionResponse) response);
                        }
                        else {
                                doRenderService((RenderRequest) request, 
(RenderResponse) response);
                        }

Could you add a parameter to processRequest(PortletRequest, 
PortletResponse) which would indicate whether or not it was called from 
processAction(ActionRequest, ActionResponse)?

<snip>

Can anyone suggest a better way to detect what kind of request is being 
processed when working with a PortletRequest?  

My suggestion would be to add a request attribute to the PortletRequest 
in Spring's FrameworkPortlet that would indicate it is an ActionRequest. 
 Or, if the processAction method is the only place where you perform 
special logic, modify the method to take a boolean indicating whether or 
 not it is an action.

Is the way that a lot of 
existing code is doing it reasonable and should this portal look to 
change it's class structure?  Should there be an errata against the 
current spec about this issue?  Should this be clarified in the JSR-286 
spec?

I agree that it is a common assumption and common practice to implement 
ActionRequest and RenderRequest separately, and that the instanceof 
idiom is common.

Hope this helps, keep up the good work on Spring Portlet - I've been 
using it since the m2 days and it has really done wonders for me.

Best,
Elliot

Thanks in advance for your opinions on this topic.

John Lewis