Re: Validator Integration

Joe Germuska Fri, 25 Oct 2002 11:21:51 -0700

David:

we saw recently that you and I disagree on the "core" nature of the validator package. But even if 90% of Struts users decide to validate with Validator, I don't think that's a compelling argument to change the behavior of ActionForm.

First, doing so would break backwards compatibility. Second, by tying relatively complex validation into the core class, you sort of cut off other possible ways to extend ActionForm. Yes, you could argue that subclasses can override the validate() method and subsequently ignore anything in the ActionForm class which refers to validator, but that's not really very clean design. Keep the core classes simple and focused on the minimal requirements for interacting with other objects, and add subclasses whenever more specialized behavior is needed.

Is it a great burden to extend a different class if you want to use the validator framework to validate form input? I do agree that having two separate subclasses which vary only in how they key to validation rules is unnecessarily complex, but otherwise, what benefits do such a change bring?

Joe

At 11:42 AM -0600 2002/10/25, David Graham wrote:

Thanks for the input Ted. I was only suggesting changing struts-config if validator was truely merged; I agree that optional components don't belong there. The validation rules file should be separate but I'm suggesting that the validator not be a plugin and have an entry similar to message-resources or form-beans.

Now the question is whether the validator is a core component?
I don't know what you all define as core but I believe this is a core aspect. How many forms have you built that didn't need validation of at least one required field (if no form fields are required I question the value of the form)?

What are the various options for validation? I see 2 built into Struts: coding a form bean's validate() method and using the validator. What I'm suggesting is that the ActionForm.validate() method use the validator by default.

I just don't see any need to subclass a different ActionForm class to use the validator when it seems that this will become the predominant form of validation.

David
From: Ted Husted <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: "Struts Developers List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Struts Developers List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Validator Integration
Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2002 13:09:10 -0400
I've been using the Validator for going on three years now, but
I don't think I would ever want to describe it as an integal
part of Struts. Struts provides a validation hotspot, and we
provide the Validation as something people can plug into that
spot. But we want to be very clear that it is only one of many
possible solutions to validation.

We provide direct support for the Validator as a convenience,
but IMHO, it is not part of the true Struts core. (Of course, I
don't consider the tags part of the true Struts core either =:)

I'd also be very cold on amending the struts-config with the
specifics for any optional component, the Validator included.
Ideally, the Validation config could be shared with other
platforms (not just Struts), and should be a standalone file.

As mentioned elsewhere, there were two classes since some
people (or maybe one person) wanted to key on the action path
rather than the action attribute. But if we were patch this to
use a switch, mores the better.

-Ted.

10/25/2002 10:34:52 AM, David Graham <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
It struck me the other day that the validator could be further
integrated
into struts.  I'm not sure about my ideas so I want to get
your thoughts.  y
Why should people need to subclass ValidatorActionForm instead
of ActionForm
to use the validator?  What forms have you built that didn't
need
validation?

My idea is that the ValidatorActionForm and ValidatorForm (why
are there 2?)
behavior should be included in ActionForm and have those
classes removed.  I
 >think this will maintain backward compatibility because if the
developer
hasn't defined any validation rules for a form then we could
return null
from validate().

Further, we could include validator configuration tags in
struts-config.xml
instead of using a plugin.  This would signify that validator
is an integral
piece of struts that most people want to use (which I believe
they do).
This is probably a post 1.1 idea but I thought I'd throw it
out here.
What do you think?

David





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Re: Validator Integration

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