Ted,
are you talking about having the possibility of adding a "parameter" element
to the action element ?
<action ...>
<parameter name="param1" value="value1" />
<parameter name="param2" value="value2" />
<forward .../>
<forward .../>
</action>
and access a parameter value via a getParameter("param1") of the Mapping
instance ?
I think this would offer great possibilities, including deployment
configuration of an Action. Also, one single parameter attributes lacks the
description of its goal and ends up being used inexplicitly for many
different tasks. For example, the use of TemplateMethod pattern in the
DispatchAction implementation: wouldn't it be a bit clearer if
DispatchAction used a <parameter name="alternatePerformMethodParameter"
value="method" /> instead of the inexplicit parameter="method" ?
jm2c
nicolas b.
-----Original Message-----
From: Ted Husted [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2001 1:19 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Parameter property
Does anyone have any strong feelings about the ActionMapping parameter
property?
This was introduced late in the 1.0 timeframe, to support the
DispatchAction I believe.
<
http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/api/org/apache/struts/actions/DispatchActio
n.html
>
It's documented as a "General purpose configuration parameter that can
be used to pass extra information to the Action selected by this
ActionMapping." In the context of DispatchAction, it's used to determine
which parameter indicates the name of the alternate perform().
I've been using it as a way to for the Action to tell which mapping was
used. While you could do almost the same thing with getPath(), I'd
rather not bind naming conventions to functionality.
I'm thinking of adding more funcationality to parameter, so developers
could add more information to the mapping, and perhaps get more mileage
out of a given Action. My initial idea is to add getParameterValues()
and getParameterNames() methods to ActionMapping, and treat parameter
like a regular HttpServletRequest query string.
The parameter property makes a big difference in the way I design my
mappings and Actions, and I'd like to promote its use as standard way to
put more information into a mapping.
Thoughts?
-Ted.
