Re: How to generate form controls dynamically

[Craig McClanahan]

On 3/9/06, Rivka Shisman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Hi friends,
>
>
>
> I need to dynamically build an input form that may contain various
> html:fields (i.e. html:text, html:select, html:radio etc).
>
> The type and name of the html:field will be determined at runtime (from
> DB table).
>
> How can I do it using Struts and JSP?


Basically, you can not do this sort of thing with the Struts HTML tags ...
but you could easily do it with JavaServer Faces components.  A quick
snapshot to give you the idea of how it works:

    HtmlForm form = ...; // Acquire a reference to the parent form component

    HtmlOutputLabel label1 = new HtmlOutputLabel(); // Label for username
field
    label1.setValue("Username:");

    HtmlInputText username = new HtmlInputText(); // Username field
    username.setId("username");

    HtmlOutputLabel label2 = new HtmlOutputLabel(); // Label for password
field
    label2.setValue("Password:");

    HtmlInputSecret password = new HtmlInputSecret(); // Password field
    password.setId("password");

    HtmlCommandButton submit = new HtmlCommandButton(); // Submit button
    submit.setId("logon");

    List children = form.getChildren();
    children.add(label1);
    children.add(username);
    children.add(label2);
    children.add(password);
    children.add(submit);

There's lots more you can do, but this gives the basic flavor of dynamically
creating component hierarchies.

Thanks
>
> Rivka


Craig