Why not have the form capture all the info. Have the administrator control a switch to suggest which radio boxes should appear and if they only choose one then don't show any radio boxes.
After filling in the address info have a next button and take them to the additional info about credit etc. At this point you can validate according to the radio button (which will be auto-populated according to how the user selected). I have always found it better to add all the attributes instead of getting too fancy on the actionForms. I believe Ted Husted mentions the same in his book. This is more like a "Domain DTO" pattern for action forms. sandeep --- David Tobey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hello all: > > I'm writing what (I hope) will be a > highly-configurable generic shopping > cart program using (we hope) Struts. My issue is I > want to be able to > modify the elements of various forms on the fly, and > I'm struggling with > the best way to do this. For example, I have defined > an order form as a > subclass of DynaActionForm, like so: > > <form-beans> > <form-bean name="orderForm" > type="org.netpush.cart.customer.order.OrderForm"> > <form-property name="billingFirstName" > type="java.lang.String"/> > <form-property name="billingLastName" > type="java.lang.String"/> > <form-property name="billingOrganization" > type="java.lang.String"/> > <form-property name="billingAddress1" > type="java.lang.String"/> > <form-property name="billingAddress2" > type="java.lang.String"/> > <form-property name="billingCity" > type="java.lang.String"/> > <form-property name="billingState" > type="java.lang.String"/> > <form-property name="billingPostalCode" > type="java.lang.String"/> > ... > <form-property name="creditCardNumber" > type="java.lang.String"/> > <form-property name="creditCardType" > type="java.lang.String"/> > <form-property name="creditCardExpDate" > type="java.lang.String"/> > <form-property name="creditCardName" > type="java.lang.String"/> > ... > </form-bean> > > Within this form I would like to be able to swap out > different fields, > depending on if the shopping cart is configured in > certain ways. For > example if instead of capturing credit card > information, the store > administrator wants to capture a purchase order > number and an account id > number. > > The administrator must be able to change settings > like this in a > separate web-based application talking to a database > (not by logging on > to the server and modifying the config files!). I > have no problem > reading the settings from the database and exposing > them to the view and > to the controller. The issue is what's the best to > dynamically change > the fields in this DynaActionForm given the database > settings. > > My thoughts are revolving around two options: > > 1. Subclass the RequestProcessor. I could create > mutilple ActionForms, > one for address info, one for credit card info, and > one for PO info, and > then revamp the RequestProcessor to accept more than > one Form per > action, and populate and validate each one in turn. > (During validation, > I could check the settings to find out which of the > optional forms must > pass validation.) > > 2. Write functions to dynamically modify the > struts-config.xml file and > reload the settings whenever the administrator > changes what information > they want to collect. The problem with this is I > have to worry about > file locking, and interruptions in service as the > configuration is > reloaded. (Has anyone written tools to modify the > config file through a > web application?) > > If anyone has come across or has any thoughts about > the best way to > approach this sort of thing, I would be very > grateful to hear what you > have to say. > > Many thanks, > dave > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Calendar - Free online calendar with sync to Outlook(TM). http://calendar.yahoo.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
