Anyone got any ideas on how handle hyperlinks in an MVC controller servlet?

We've been in the process of developing a servlet based on the MVC model 2
architecture for the last few months now. And many thanks to Craig for his
key contributions here. I've implemented his action class mechanism
successfully to have a single "controller" servlet interact with java
business objects thru action objects.

Each action object maps to the name attached to a FORM SUBMIT in our JSP
pages. So, for example, a pushbutton submits the name "RetrieveVendors.do"
to the controller servlet, the servlet uses this string as a key to a
hashtable of action class names, instantiates the relevant action class, and
finally invokes it's perform() method. The action class then takes over and
performs processing relavant to that pushbutton. It also has the facility to
pull all the data from the SUBMIT into the relevant business object.

It all works very nicely. However, the whole mechanism does depend on all
interaction with the controller servlet being performed using FORM SUBMITS.
I'm fine with this but there are times when I'll want to interact with the
controller servlet via a hyperlink - or **via a SUBMIT that looks and
behaves like a hyperlink.**

SUBMITs will always look like button clicks - the mouse pointer doesn't turn
into a finger but remains as an arrow etc. There are ways to make SUBMITs
resemble hyperlinks using IE4 style tags but these don't work for netscape.

Anyone encountered this sort of problem before? I'd prefer to keep
everything as a SUBMIT so that I'm always routing through the servlet. I'd
like to compromise and use a real hyperlink only when the target page
contains static content.

Any ideas thoughts really welcome.
Thanks,
Ferghil O'Rourke
USMoving.com - chief programmer

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