I agree.
The primary fields on an ActionForm must be Strings, ActionForms should
not be used to store persistent data, and the beans used to store
persistent data should use appropriate types.
The peristent data beans should not have to worry about data
conversions, and so that task should be performed by a helper object.
But encapsulating the helper object within the ActionForm can be a valid
approach, since converting the String to a native type may be considered
part of the initial validation. Once this is done, the persistent data
bean can call a getPropertyInt or getPropertyDate method to retrieve the
native Property type (and then perhaps perform any business logic
validations).
It's just a matter of whether you prefer converting the data in the
Action or in the ActionForm validation method. A reuseable helper class
could be implemented in either case.
-- Ted Husted, Husted dot Com, Fairport NY USA.
-- Custom Software ~ Technical Services.
-- Tel 716 737-3463.
-- http://www.husted.com/about/struts/
Oleg V Alexeev wrote:
> What reason to store text values and data values in ActionForm? I
> think that more flexible approach is to use ActionForm with text only
> fields and data bean with native types, not String. In this case we
> can name all corresponded fields in data bean with same names as for
> ActionForm and use convert methods under it, for example, or use
> another convert methods.
> We can convert text values to/from with one of the ways -
> 1. Perform conversion of all fields in some method in ActionForm, for
> example import/export.
> 2. Make it in every setter/getter.
> 3. Write special helper class to perform conversion - in this case
> more flexible approach can be used - one helper can handle
> multiple sources and targets.
>
> --
> Best regards,
> Oleg mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
