RE: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
The Struts bean:write tag offers a format attribute (or formatKey if you want to use a resource file). But JSTL would be a better option if you can use it in your environment. Steve http://www.ninsky.com/struts/ -Original Message- From: Sasha Borodin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: August 27, 2003 8:43 AM To: Struts Users Mailing List Subject: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's) Thought I'd throw this out in the middle of the week again... Kind of a conceptual question: how do you format Dates, Numbers, Currencies, etc. for *form fields* inside the JSP? I know I could do in in the ActionForm getters, but: 1. I don't know the locate of the user at that point 2. I'd have to recompile the ActionForm every time I want to make a change to the *view* - seems like a bad practice. What I'm looking to achieve is something similar to fmt:format JSTL tag, where you can specify a format mask, or even a format style defined elsewhere. Thanks, -Sasha On 8/22/03 12:30, Sasha Borodin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I would like to state a basic assumption I deduced in learning struts, then pose a question. Assumption: ActionForm property getters and setters should return and take Strings. My initial impulse was to try passing the actual data types (Dates, Numbers, etc.); however, the Struts mechanism seems to pass Strings to the ActionForm setter methods on form submission (which throws a conversion Exception of course). Then I tried making the setters take Strings, and getters return the actual data types, but this seemed to confuse the introspection mechanism; plus I didn't see any way to apply formatting inside the html:text tags (like you can in JSTL's fmt:format tags). Question: How does one handle formatting data (custom formatting or i18n) for (pre/re)population of a form? Ex.: An update form; a user's information is loaded from the database into classes (Strings, Dates, Numbers, etc.). If you want to format this data, you have to do it in the Model, as the ActionForm only takes and gives Strings - which seems to be a Bad Practice. Even if you had additional special setters for the explicit purpose of populating the ActionForm from original data types, you still don't know what Locale the client is from. Is my assumption incorrect? Is there a basic flaw in my understanding of the use of ActionForm? Or there an actual short-coming, and workaround? In short, How Can You Format Data For Strut's Form Tags Inside The Actual JSP :-) ? Thank you for any input. -Sasha - 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] - To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
That's what I use when just outputting the contents of a bean; but I'm trying to format the data in form fields. If I can't combine html:text and bean:write (or JSTL's fmt:format) tags, is there another way to achieve this? Thanks, -Sasha On 8/27/03 11:17, Steve Raeburn [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: The Struts bean:write tag offers a format attribute (or formatKey if you want to use a resource file). But JSTL would be a better option if you can use it in your environment. Steve http://www.ninsky.com/struts/ -Original Message- From: Sasha Borodin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: August 27, 2003 8:43 AM To: Struts Users Mailing List Subject: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's) Thought I'd throw this out in the middle of the week again... Kind of a conceptual question: how do you format Dates, Numbers, Currencies, etc. for *form fields* inside the JSP? I know I could do in in the ActionForm getters, but: 1. I don't know the locate of the user at that point 2. I'd have to recompile the ActionForm every time I want to make a change to the *view* - seems like a bad practice. What I'm looking to achieve is something similar to fmt:format JSTL tag, where you can specify a format mask, or even a format style defined elsewhere. Thanks, -Sasha On 8/22/03 12:30, Sasha Borodin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I would like to state a basic assumption I deduced in learning struts, then pose a question. Assumption: ActionForm property getters and setters should return and take Strings. My initial impulse was to try passing the actual data types (Dates, Numbers, etc.); however, the Struts mechanism seems to pass Strings to the ActionForm setter methods on form submission (which throws a conversion Exception of course). Then I tried making the setters take Strings, and getters return the actual data types, but this seemed to confuse the introspection mechanism; plus I didn't see any way to apply formatting inside the html:text tags (like you can in JSTL's fmt:format tags). Question: How does one handle formatting data (custom formatting or i18n) for (pre/re)population of a form? Ex.: An update form; a user's information is loaded from the database into classes (Strings, Dates, Numbers, etc.). If you want to format this data, you have to do it in the Model, as the ActionForm only takes and gives Strings - which seems to be a Bad Practice. Even if you had additional special setters for the explicit purpose of populating the ActionForm from original data types, you still don't know what Locale the client is from. Is my assumption incorrect? Is there a basic flaw in my understanding of the use of ActionForm? Or there an actual short-coming, and workaround? In short, How Can You Format Data For Strut's Form Tags Inside The Actual JSP :-) ? Thank you for any input. -Sasha - 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] - 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]
RE: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
yes,
you can use jstl to locate your form. then you can access it's properties
via el and use the jstl tags for display.
Here is the jsp code to accomplish this
code start
[EMAIL PROTECTED] prefix=c uri=/WEB-INF/tld/c.tld %
c:set
var=formName
value=${requestScope['org.apache.struts.action.mapping.instance'].name}/
c:set
var=formScope
value=${requestScope['org.apache.struts.action.mapping.instance'].scope}
/
c:if test=${formScope=='request'}
c:set
var=form
value=${requestScope[formName]} scope=request /
/c:if
c:if test=${formScope=='session'}
c:set
var=form
value=${sessionScope[formName]} scope=request /
/c:if
--- code end ---
I usually place this code in a jsp and include it my page when i need to
expose the FormBean easily to the page.
ex. jsp:include page=/jsp/common/form.jsp /
Then i use the following syntax in my page:
c:out value=${form.myValue}/
This would allow you to use all the jstl stuff to format values stored in
your FormBean.
Brandon Goodin
-Original Message-
From: Sasha Borodin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 9:29 PM
To: Struts Users Mailing List
Subject: Re: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
That's what I use when just outputting the contents of a bean; but I'm
trying to format the data in form fields.
If I can't combine html:text and bean:write (or JSTL's fmt:format)
tags, is there another way to achieve this?
Thanks,
-Sasha
On 8/27/03 11:17, Steve Raeburn [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
The Struts bean:write tag offers a format attribute (or
formatKey if you
want to use a resource file).
But JSTL would be a better option if you can use it in your environment.
Steve
http://www.ninsky.com/struts/
-Original Message-
From: Sasha Borodin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: August 27, 2003 8:43 AM
To: Struts Users Mailing List
Subject: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
Thought I'd throw this out in the middle of the week again...
Kind of a conceptual question: how do you format Dates, Numbers,
Currencies, etc. for *form fields* inside the JSP?
I know I could do in in the ActionForm getters, but:
1. I don't know the locate of the user at that point
2. I'd have to recompile the ActionForm every time I want
to make a
change to the *view* - seems like a bad practice.
What I'm looking to achieve is something similar to
fmt:format JSTL tag,
where you can specify a format mask, or even a format style defined
elsewhere.
Thanks,
-Sasha
On 8/22/03 12:30, Sasha Borodin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I would like to state a basic assumption I deduced in learning
struts, then
pose a question.
Assumption: ActionForm property getters and setters should
return and take
Strings.
My initial impulse was to try passing the actual data types
(Dates, Numbers,
etc.); however, the Struts mechanism seems to pass Strings to
the ActionForm
setter methods on form submission (which throws a conversion
Exception of
course). Then I tried making the setters take Strings, and
getters return
the actual data types, but this seemed to confuse the introspection
mechanism; plus I didn't see any way to apply formatting inside the
html:text tags (like you can in JSTL's fmt:format tags).
Question: How does one handle formatting data (custom
formatting or i18n)
for (pre/re)population of a form?
Ex.: An update form; a user's information is loaded from the
database into
classes (Strings, Dates, Numbers, etc.). If you want to format
this data,
you have to do it in the Model, as the ActionForm only takes and gives
Strings - which seems to be a Bad Practice. Even if you had
additional
special setters for the explicit purpose of populating the
ActionForm from
original data types, you still don't know what Locale the
client is from.
Is my assumption incorrect? Is there a basic flaw in my
understanding of
the use of ActionForm? Or there an actual short-coming, and
workaround?
In short, How Can You Format Data For Strut's Form Tags Inside
The Actual
JSP :-) ?
Thank you for any input.
-Sasha
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RE: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
Hi Sasha,
An alternative approach would be to create a generic mechanism to
populate the ActionForm with properly formatted string values. The idea
here is to write a method that transfers values from a bean to an
ActionForm, automatically applying default type conversion and
formatting based on the bean's property types. Another method can be
added to provide a way to override the default formatting behavior.
I write about this subject extensively in my book Jakarta Pitfalls
(Wiley). Chapter 2, ActionForms, begins with this problem and its
solution. Later sections in the same chapter show how to extend the
mechanism to automatically validate inbound request values (without the
need for declarative specification), and then populate the JavaBean
with converted values using the inverse of the formatting scheme.
The value of this approach is that you don't have to encode the
formatting logic in your JSPs at all. All the formatting code is in one
place, and new JSPs automatically get the formatting behavior without
adding any new code. It helps ensure consistency too, especially if you
have a lot of pages/developers.
A free, downloadable implementation is provided in the example
solutions for Chapter 2, at
http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/dudney/jakarta/index.html under the
Chapters 2,3,4 link.
I'm a bit puzzled that you say that you can't get the user's locale in
your ActionForm. I would think you should be able to do something like
this in your Action to get the locale and set it on the form instance:
public ActionForward execute(...) {
...
Locale currLocale = (Locale)
request.getSession().getAttribute(Globals.LOCALE_KEY);
form.setLocale(currLocale);
...
}
Jonathan
-Original Message-
From: Sasha Borodin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: August 27, 2003 8:43 AM
To: Struts Users Mailing List
Subject: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
Thought I'd throw this out in the middle of the week again...
Kind of a conceptual question: how do you format Dates, Numbers,
Currencies, etc. for *form fields* inside the JSP?
I know I could do in in the ActionForm getters, but:
1. I don't know the locate of the user at that point
2. I'd have to recompile the ActionForm every time I want to
make a
change to the *view* - seems like a bad practice.
What I'm looking to achieve is something similar to fmt:format JSTL
tag,
where you can specify a format mask, or even a format style defined
elsewhere.
Thanks,
-Sasha
On 8/22/03 12:30, Sasha Borodin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I would like to state a basic assumption I deduced in learning
struts, then
pose a question.
Assumption: ActionForm property getters and setters should
return and take
Strings.
My initial impulse was to try passing the actual data types
(Dates, Numbers,
etc.); however, the Struts mechanism seems to pass Strings to
the ActionForm
setter methods on form submission (which throws a conversion
Exception of
course). Then I tried making the setters take Strings, and
getters return
the actual data types, but this seemed to confuse the introspection
mechanism; plus I didn't see any way to apply formatting inside the
html:text tags (like you can in JSTL's fmt:format tags).
Question: How does one handle formatting data (custom
formatting or i18n)
for (pre/re)population of a form?
Ex.: An update form; a user's information is loaded from the
database into
classes (Strings, Dates, Numbers, etc.). If you want to format
this data,
you have to do it in the Model, as the ActionForm only takes and
gives
Strings - which seems to be a Bad Practice. Even if you had
additional
special setters for the explicit purpose of populating the
ActionForm from
original data types, you still don't know what Locale the
client is from.
Is my assumption incorrect? Is there a basic flaw in my
understanding of
the use of ActionForm? Or there an actual short-coming, and
workaround?
In short, How Can You Format Data For Strut's Form Tags Inside
The Actual
JSP :-) ?
Thank you for any input.
-Sasha
__
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To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
Haven't tried this yet, but it's a bit more concise and should be
equivalent:
%@ taglib prefix=c uri=http://java.sun.com/jstl/core; %
jsp:useBean id=configHelper
class=org.apache.struts.config.ConfigHelper/
c:set target=${configHelper}
property=request
value=${pageContext.request}/
c:set var=form value=${configHelper.actionForm}/
Brandon Goodin wrote:
yes,
you can use jstl to locate your form. then you can access it's properties
via el and use the jstl tags for display.
Here is the jsp code to accomplish this
code start
[EMAIL PROTECTED] prefix=c uri=/WEB-INF/tld/c.tld %
c:set
var=formName
value=${requestScope['org.apache.struts.action.mapping.instance'].name}/
c:set
var=formScope
value=${requestScope['org.apache.struts.action.mapping.instance'].scope}
/
c:if test=${formScope=='request'}
c:set
var=form
value=${requestScope[formName]} scope=request /
/c:if
c:if test=${formScope=='session'}
c:set
var=form
value=${sessionScope[formName]} scope=request /
/c:if
--- code end ---
I usually place this code in a jsp and include it my page when i need to
expose the FormBean easily to the page.
ex. jsp:include page=/jsp/common/form.jsp /
Then i use the following syntax in my page:
c:out value=${form.myValue}/
This would allow you to use all the jstl stuff to format values stored in
your FormBean.
Brandon Goodin
-Original Message-
From: Sasha Borodin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 9:29 PM
To: Struts Users Mailing List
Subject: Re: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
That's what I use when just outputting the contents of a bean; but I'm
trying to format the data in form fields.
If I can't combine html:text and bean:write (or JSTL's fmt:format)
tags, is there another way to achieve this?
Thanks,
-Sasha
On 8/27/03 11:17, Steve Raeburn [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
The Struts bean:write tag offers a format attribute (or
formatKey if you
want to use a resource file).
But JSTL would be a better option if you can use it in your environment.
Steve
http://www.ninsky.com/struts/
-Original Message-
From: Sasha Borodin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: August 27, 2003 8:43 AM
To: Struts Users Mailing List
Subject: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
Thought I'd throw this out in the middle of the week again...
Kind of a conceptual question: how do you format Dates, Numbers,
Currencies, etc. for *form fields* inside the JSP?
I know I could do in in the ActionForm getters, but:
1. I don't know the locate of the user at that point
2. I'd have to recompile the ActionForm every time I want
to make a
change to the *view* - seems like a bad practice.
What I'm looking to achieve is something similar to
fmt:format JSTL tag,
where you can specify a format mask, or even a format style defined
elsewhere.
Thanks,
-Sasha
On 8/22/03 12:30, Sasha Borodin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I would like to state a basic assumption I deduced in learning
struts, then
pose a question.
Assumption: ActionForm property getters and setters should
return and take
Strings.
My initial impulse was to try passing the actual data types
(Dates, Numbers,
etc.); however, the Struts mechanism seems to pass Strings to
the ActionForm
setter methods on form submission (which throws a conversion
Exception of
course). Then I tried making the setters take Strings, and
getters return
the actual data types, but this seemed to confuse the introspection
mechanism; plus I didn't see any way to apply formatting inside the
html:text tags (like you can in JSTL's fmt:format tags).
Question: How does one handle formatting data (custom
formatting or i18n)
for (pre/re)population of a form?
Ex.: An update form; a user's information is loaded from the
database into
classes (Strings, Dates, Numbers, etc.). If you want to format
this data,
you have to do it in the Model, as the ActionForm only takes and gives
Strings - which seems to be a Bad Practice. Even if you had
additional
special setters for the explicit purpose of populating the
ActionForm from
original data types, you still don't know what Locale the
client is from.
Is my assumption incorrect? Is there a basic flaw in my
understanding of
the use of ActionForm? Or there an actual short-coming, and
workaround?
In short, How Can You Format Data For Strut's Form Tags Inside
The Actual
JSP :-) ?
Thank you for any input.
-Sasha
--
Kris Schneider mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
D.O.Tech http://www.dotech.com/
-
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
Kris, Brandon:
Thank you for your replies; I understand your code, and am able to access
the form properties from within the JSP.
My question is more about combining formatting tags (like bean:message and
fmt:format with html:text and the like. I want to format the default
values of form elements (the part that Struts automates). This is where I'm
coming up short on ideas.
Thanks,
-Sasha
On 8/27/03 23:53, Kris Schneider [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Haven't tried this yet, but it's a bit more concise and should be
equivalent:
%@ taglib prefix=c uri=http://java.sun.com/jstl/core; %
jsp:useBean id=configHelper
class=org.apache.struts.config.ConfigHelper/
c:set target=${configHelper}
property=request
value=${pageContext.request}/
c:set var=form value=${configHelper.actionForm}/
Brandon Goodin wrote:
yes,
you can use jstl to locate your form. then you can access it's properties
via el and use the jstl tags for display.
Here is the jsp code to accomplish this
code start
[EMAIL PROTECTED] prefix=c uri=/WEB-INF/tld/c.tld %
c:set
var=formName
value=${requestScope['org.apache.struts.action.mapping.instance'].name}/
c:set
var=formScope
value=${requestScope['org.apache.struts.action.mapping.instance'].scope}
/
c:if test=${formScope=='request'}
c:set
var=form
value=${requestScope[formName]} scope=request /
/c:if
c:if test=${formScope=='session'}
c:set
var=form
value=${sessionScope[formName]} scope=request /
/c:if
--- code end ---
I usually place this code in a jsp and include it my page when i need to
expose the FormBean easily to the page.
ex. jsp:include page=/jsp/common/form.jsp /
Then i use the following syntax in my page:
c:out value=${form.myValue}/
This would allow you to use all the jstl stuff to format values stored in
your FormBean.
Brandon Goodin
-Original Message-
From: Sasha Borodin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2003 9:29 PM
To: Struts Users Mailing List
Subject: Re: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
That's what I use when just outputting the contents of a bean; but I'm
trying to format the data in form fields.
If I can't combine html:text and bean:write (or JSTL's fmt:format)
tags, is there another way to achieve this?
Thanks,
-Sasha
On 8/27/03 11:17, Steve Raeburn [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
The Struts bean:write tag offers a format attribute (or
formatKey if you
want to use a resource file).
But JSTL would be a better option if you can use it in your environment.
Steve
http://www.ninsky.com/struts/
-Original Message-
From: Sasha Borodin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: August 27, 2003 8:43 AM
To: Struts Users Mailing List
Subject: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
Thought I'd throw this out in the middle of the week again...
Kind of a conceptual question: how do you format Dates, Numbers,
Currencies, etc. for *form fields* inside the JSP?
I know I could do in in the ActionForm getters, but:
1. I don't know the locate of the user at that point
2. I'd have to recompile the ActionForm every time I want
to make a
change to the *view* - seems like a bad practice.
What I'm looking to achieve is something similar to
fmt:format JSTL tag,
where you can specify a format mask, or even a format style defined
elsewhere.
Thanks,
-Sasha
On 8/22/03 12:30, Sasha Borodin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I would like to state a basic assumption I deduced in learning
struts, then
pose a question.
Assumption: ActionForm property getters and setters should
return and take
Strings.
My initial impulse was to try passing the actual data types
(Dates, Numbers,
etc.); however, the Struts mechanism seems to pass Strings to
the ActionForm
setter methods on form submission (which throws a conversion
Exception of
course). Then I tried making the setters take Strings, and
getters return
the actual data types, but this seemed to confuse the introspection
mechanism; plus I didn't see any way to apply formatting inside the
html:text tags (like you can in JSTL's fmt:format tags).
Question: How does one handle formatting data (custom
formatting or i18n)
for (pre/re)population of a form?
Ex.: An update form; a user's information is loaded from the
database into
classes (Strings, Dates, Numbers, etc.). If you want to format
this data,
you have to do it in the Model, as the ActionForm only takes and gives
Strings - which seems to be a Bad Practice. Even if you had
additional
special setters for the explicit purpose of populating the
ActionForm from
original data types, you still don't know what Locale the
client is from.
Is my assumption incorrect? Is there a basic flaw in my
understanding of
the use of ActionForm? Or there an actual short-coming, and
workaround
Re: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
Jonathan,
I like your system; if I understand it correctly, it automates conversion
between Strings and other primitive data types. However, this formatting
still takes place inside the ActionForm, not the JSP.
I guess I've traditionally had a different view of best practice. To me,
it seems appropriate to let the page designer dictate the format of Dates,
Numbers, etc. If you ever want to change those formats, you've got to
recompile the ActionForm; and if you want to have different formats using
the same form, you'd be out of luck. Right?
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
All: Is the consensus to keep the formatting out of the JSP and in the
ActionForm? That doesn't seem to jive...everything else (localized
messages, regular bean values) have ways of being formatted inside the JSP.
-Sasha
P.S.
I'm a bit puzzled that you say that you can't get the user's locale in
your ActionForm.
You're right, my mistake.
On 8/27/03 23:51, Jonathan Lehr [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hi Sasha,
An alternative approach would be to create a generic mechanism to
populate the ActionForm with properly formatted string values. The idea
here is to write a method that transfers values from a bean to an
ActionForm, automatically applying default type conversion and
formatting based on the bean's property types. Another method can be
added to provide a way to override the default formatting behavior.
I write about this subject extensively in my book Jakarta Pitfalls
(Wiley). Chapter 2, ActionForms, begins with this problem and its
solution. Later sections in the same chapter show how to extend the
mechanism to automatically validate inbound request values (without the
need for declarative specification), and then populate the JavaBean
with converted values using the inverse of the formatting scheme.
The value of this approach is that you don't have to encode the
formatting logic in your JSPs at all. All the formatting code is in one
place, and new JSPs automatically get the formatting behavior without
adding any new code. It helps ensure consistency too, especially if you
have a lot of pages/developers.
A free, downloadable implementation is provided in the example
solutions for Chapter 2, at
http://www.wiley.com/compbooks/dudney/jakarta/index.html under the
Chapters 2,3,4 link.
I'm a bit puzzled that you say that you can't get the user's locale in
your ActionForm. I would think you should be able to do something like
this in your Action to get the locale and set it on the form instance:
public ActionForward execute(...) {
...
Locale currLocale = (Locale)
request.getSession().getAttribute(Globals.LOCALE_KEY);
form.setLocale(currLocale);
...
}
Jonathan
-Original Message-
From: Sasha Borodin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: August 27, 2003 8:43 AM
To: Struts Users Mailing List
Subject: Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
Thought I'd throw this out in the middle of the week again...
Kind of a conceptual question: how do you format Dates, Numbers,
Currencies, etc. for *form fields* inside the JSP?
I know I could do in in the ActionForm getters, but:
1. I don't know the locate of the user at that point
2. I'd have to recompile the ActionForm every time I want to
make a
change to the *view* - seems like a bad practice.
What I'm looking to achieve is something similar to fmt:format JSTL
tag,
where you can specify a format mask, or even a format style defined
elsewhere.
Thanks,
-Sasha
On 8/22/03 12:30, Sasha Borodin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I would like to state a basic assumption I deduced in learning
struts, then
pose a question.
Assumption: ActionForm property getters and setters should
return and take
Strings.
My initial impulse was to try passing the actual data types
(Dates, Numbers,
etc.); however, the Struts mechanism seems to pass Strings to
the ActionForm
setter methods on form submission (which throws a conversion
Exception of
course). Then I tried making the setters take Strings, and
getters return
the actual data types, but this seemed to confuse the introspection
mechanism; plus I didn't see any way to apply formatting inside the
html:text tags (like you can in JSTL's fmt:format tags).
Question: How does one handle formatting data (custom
formatting or i18n)
for (pre/re)population of a form?
Ex.: An update form; a user's information is loaded from the
database into
classes (Strings, Dates, Numbers, etc.). If you want to format
this data,
you have to do it in the Model, as the ActionForm only takes and
gives
Strings - which seems to be a Bad Practice. Even if you had
additional
special setters for the explicit purpose of populating the
ActionForm from
original data types, you still don't know what Locale the
client is from.
Is my assumption incorrect? Is there a basic flaw in my
understanding of
the use of ActionForm
Formatting form data inside the *view* (JSP's)
Thought I'd throw this out in the middle of the week again... Kind of a conceptual question: how do you format Dates, Numbers, Currencies, etc. for *form fields* inside the JSP? I know I could do in in the ActionForm getters, but: 1. I don't know the locate of the user at that point 2. I'd have to recompile the ActionForm every time I want to make a change to the *view* - seems like a bad practice. What I'm looking to achieve is something similar to fmt:format JSTL tag, where you can specify a format mask, or even a format style defined elsewhere. Thanks, -Sasha On 8/22/03 12:30, Sasha Borodin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I would like to state a basic assumption I deduced in learning struts, then pose a question. Assumption: ActionForm property getters and setters should return and take Strings. My initial impulse was to try passing the actual data types (Dates, Numbers, etc.); however, the Struts mechanism seems to pass Strings to the ActionForm setter methods on form submission (which throws a conversion Exception of course). Then I tried making the setters take Strings, and getters return the actual data types, but this seemed to confuse the introspection mechanism; plus I didn't see any way to apply formatting inside the html:text tags (like you can in JSTL's fmt:format tags). Question: How does one handle formatting data (custom formatting or i18n) for (pre/re)population of a form? Ex.: An update form; a user's information is loaded from the database into classes (Strings, Dates, Numbers, etc.). If you want to format this data, you have to do it in the Model, as the ActionForm only takes and gives Strings - which seems to be a Bad Practice. Even if you had additional special setters for the explicit purpose of populating the ActionForm from original data types, you still don't know what Locale the client is from. Is my assumption incorrect? Is there a basic flaw in my understanding of the use of ActionForm? Or there an actual short-coming, and workaround? In short, How Can You Format Data For Strut's Form Tags Inside The Actual JSP :-) ? Thank you for any input. -Sasha - 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]
