>> There are a couple of different ways to actually do this, but you've got the basic idea. One common approach, for example, is to do the transfer from the form bean directly to a DTO or value object that you're going to send to your persistence tier. If the form bean has a String, and the value object has an int, BeanUtils.copyProperties() will do the conversion for you. <<
I've gotta admit, I definitely see value in this approach. I never thought of using a class's interface in this way, though I suppose it must be quite natural if you're used to dealing with JavaBean-friendly tools. BeanUtils is quite a convenient and powerful tool to have at your disposal... though would be nice to be able to cleanly extend it to turn any arbitrary String (Object?) into any other type, by registering Strategies. mybean.setArticle(Article article), anyone? Not sure I buy into it yet, but it's a helluva lot more convincing than simply passing around (Request, Response)... >> Somebody *really* doesn't like the command pattern :-). << You're absolutely right.... At least not when the "commands" in question are this heterogenous, and this subject to change, with such a good chance of breakage at runtime instead of compile time. (That's not a dig at Struts, just an observation about web applications in general.) Thanks for giving me some good food for thought. I'll get back to you as this beanutil stuff sinks in. -jmc -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
