Thanks Niall for the suggestions and feedback. Both are good solutions, and I'm looking into both of them.
Ed -----Original Message----- From: Niall Pemberton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, January 04, 2007 2:54 PM To: Struts Users Mailing List Subject: Re: Action name vs. attribute On 1/4/07, Edward Song <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi all, > > STRUTS 1.2 > > Got a quick question on the Action "name" and "attribute" properties > > name - The name of the form bean associated with this action. This > value must be the name attribute from one of the form-bean elements. > This attribute is optional and has no value. > > attribute - The name of the request-or session-scope attribute under > which the form bean for this action can be accessed. A value is > allowed here only if there is a form bean specified in the name > attribute. This attribute is optional and has no default value. If > both this attribute and the name attribute contain a value, this attribute will take precedence. > > I have a generic form bean (SearchObjectForm), that I'd like to reuse > amongst many actions, along with its validation. > > <form-bean name="SearchObjectForm" > type="org.apache.struts.validator.DynaValidatorForm"> > <!-- properties left out for email --> </form-bean> > > For the form bean above...I have these two actions defined. (Defs are > simplified for illustration) > > <action path="/admin/SearchUsers" type="com.SearchUsers" scope="session" > attribute="SearchUsersForm" name="SearchObjectForm" validate="true" > input="/WEB-INF/jsps/searchUsers.jsp"> > <forward name="success" > path="/WEB-INF/jsps/pages/admin/searchUsers.jsp"/> > </action> > > <action path="/admin/SearchSubs" type="com.SearchSubs" scope="session" > attribute="SearchSubsForm" name="SearchObjectForm" validate="true" > input="/WEB-INF/jsps/searchSubs.jsp"> > <forward name="success" > path="/WEB-INF/jsps/pages/admin/searchSubs.jsp"/> > </action> > > Now when I execute these actions, the validation that is called uses > the validation key "SearchUsersForm" or "SearchSubsForm", and upon not > finding those form beans, actually does not validate anything. > > My expectations were to have it use the "name" property of the action > to access the form bean and necessary validation, and then use the > attribute to store the Form Bean within the request or session. > Thereby, reusing the form bean defintion and validation and having the > ability to access the form with the attribute name, within the action. > > However, as this is not the case, I set the validation key to the form > name and call validate in the action (Not what I want to do). Is > there another way to reuse the form bean defintion and its validation, > and have Struts automatically store the form into the request or > session using the attribute field? > > Any guidance, on how to more effectively approach this problem would > be appreciated Thanks in advance. One solution would be to create your own DynaValidatorForm implementation and override the getValidationKey() method to use the "name" rather than attribute. Personally I haven't actually ever used the "attribute" configuration option and so name == attribute is always true for me so whether there are other side effects I'm not sure - but give it a go and see if it works for you: public class MyDynaValidatorForm extends DynaValidatorForm { public String getValidationKey(ActionMapping mapping, HttpServletRequest request) { return mapping.getName(); } } Another solution would be to upgrade to the latest Validator version (1.3.1) - from Validator 1.2.0 onwards there is an "extends" attribute where rules can inherit. That way you could re-use rules for one form under a different name - which means you wouldn't have to duplicate them in you validation.xml, so you could have something like the following: <form name="SearchObjectForm"> ... </form> <form name="SearchSubsForm" extends="SearchObjectForm"> ... </form> http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/validator/ http://wiki.apache.org/jakarta-commons/ValidatorVersion120 The only thing about upgrading to Validator 1.3.1 is that you would need to use the new DTD and the arg0-arg3 elements have been removed and would need replacing with <arg> elements. Otherwise Validator 1.3.1 is compatible with Struts 1.2.9 Niall > Ed --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
