subclassing frustrations

[Erik Hatcher]

*everything should be an interface* :))

ARG... I'm having some frustrations with the built-in Struts Actions (yeah, I know, I'm the author of one of them, LookupDispatchAction, so I'm guilty!)

I make it a standard practice to subclass Action to form a BaseAction (using the template pattern, making execute final and calling a new executeAction method). I then template this further with a BaseAdminAction which all administrative actions subclass from. This works all fine and dandy when all I want to do is plain actions.

But what about when I want to use DispatchAction or LookupDispatchAction? I cannot easily do this. In my last project I resorted to just cutting and pasting the LookupDispatchAction code into a new BaseLookupDispatchAction (which subclassed from my BaseAction), and went around the very thing I created.

Do others have thoughts on this? Suggestions on how I can handle this such that I actually can use the real LookupDispatchAction within a custom BaseAdminAction subclassed action?

I hope that Struts2 is more interface-centric such that I don't have to resort to messing with my inheritance hierarchy to play nicely with Struts. How that plays out with form beans and the rationale for them being an actual class is still unclear to me, but in that case I'm ok with creating my own BaseForm that extends from ValidatorForm (making validate final so no developers can mess it up!) - so I haven't run into any form bean inheritance issues, only actions.

Thanks,
Erik


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