I for one dont even understand the value in the "input value" parameter.
There could be MANY pages that got you to the page you are on. The "input"
value just makes one possible origin available for you to have as a return
target should things go fowl. I had been saying on this discussion that
there should be more or less 4 different destinations:
1) where you came from (referrer, or if there is no referrer a default
page...see below)
2) where you were originally going when you were interrupted
3) a specific page - (can be success or failure page or could be the first
page in a form)
4) a default page
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Noll" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Wednesday, June 06, 2001 1:24 PM
Subject: RE: input in XML config
>
> Forget what I said last night about calling setInput() from the
> ActionForm. Setting the input in the ActionForm's validate method
> flagrantly violates Struts' MVC architecture; flow of control should
> always be defined by the controller servlet and struts-config.xml. But
> saving request scope variables as part of an ActionForm isn't always
> an option. I think the best solution to Max's problem is to define the
> input as the full path to the original action, then make sure that the
> form coming from that page includes the necessary parameters to
> recreate the original action page.
>
> The following hypothetical situation should make this a bit clearer:
>
> - You are running an online bookstore backed by a database. To display
> books you have defined an action as "viewbook.do". The action takes
> one parameter, an ISBN, so the user ends up seeing the url
> http://server/viewbook.do?ISBN=123.
>
> - On the book's page, you have a form asking users to rate the
> book. Part of the rating form uses a select box generated from a
> database of possible ratings (this list, all the possible ratings,
> is the kind of request scope variable that one would *not* want to
> store as part of a form; the list doesn't pertain to data the user
> entered, it merely defines *possible* input values).
>
> - When the user submits the ratings form, an ActionForm validates the
> input. In struts-config, the input attribute for the "save ratings"
> action is defined as "viewbook.do". Now suppose that the ratings
> ActionForm generates errors... in order for the "view book" action
> to successfully recreate the page that the ratings form was
> submitted from, it needs an ISBN parameter. The solution to that
> seems fairly simple--just drop in a hidden ISBN field in the ratings
> form.
>
> What I don't like about this solution is that information essential to
> successfully defining the flow of control--a parameter that is part of
> the definition of the input page--has to be in an HTML form. Perhaps a
> feature for Struts 1.1 could be a special input value that signified
> "use the form's HTTP referrer header, including all request
> parameters, as the input for this form". Or, quite possibly, there is
> an even more elegant solution that someone out there has discovered.
>
> Cheers,
> David
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ted Husted [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2001 9:11 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: input in XML config
>
>
> Could you create these request scope beans as properties of the
> ActionForm?
>
> David Noll wrote:
> >
> > Max,
> >
> > I don't know if it's the official way to do it, but in my ActionForm's
> > validate() method, I call mapping.setInput() with the full path of the
> > original Action. An important thing to note is that if your Action class
> > pre-populates an ActionForm for the page, you should check for the
> > ActionForm's existence before populating it.
> >
> > All that said, it does seem a bit cumbersome to go through all that
merely
> > to return to a dynamically generated input page if there are form
errors.
> > Does anyone on the list know of a cleaner way to achieve this?
> >
> > David
> >
> > --
> > David Noll, Public Digital
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: LORENA MASSIMO [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 05, 2001 6:37 AM
> > To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
> > Subject: input in XML config
> >
> > Hi,
> > in an action mapping i'd like to reexecute the complete action instead
of
> a
> > simple jsp when the validate method of the form fails, because i need to
> > create some beans having request scope
> > So my question is...
> > Is it possible to have an action in the input fiele of a mapping instead
> of
> > a simple jsp?
> > thanks Max
>
