Consistent behavior across an app or an app framework is, it seems to me, a
desireable thing. Absent any compelling programming reasons, I think its a
great idea to have Struts tags behave similar to their jsp brethren.
Regards,
George Phillips
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Craig R. McClanahan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, October 23, 2000 12:50 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: Problem with optional form fields
>
>
> Matthias Kerkhoff wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I've noticed a problem with forms containing optional fields.
> >
> > Suppose you have a form containing some optional fields, that the
> > user can fill with some value or leave blank. If form validation
> > fails (for example because the user has not filled in values for
> > some _other_ mandatory fields) the usual pattern is to redisplay
> > the form page to the user together with some error messages.
> >
> > However, due to the way the form-field tags like <struts:text>
> > are implemented, the optional fields will then contain default
> > values, if the associated properties are not of type String.
> >
> > Example:
> >
> > Imagine a slightly modified subscription.jsp from the
> struts-example,
> > that asks the user for an additional (and optional) Integer
> property.
> >
> > <tr>
> > <th align="right">
> > <struts:message key="prompt.intProperty"/>
> > </th>
> > <td align="left">
> > <struts:text property="intProperty"/>
> > </td>
> > </tr>
> >
> > If the user enters invalid values for - let's say - the
> mail hostname
> > and leaves the intProperty field blank, the subscription.jsp will be
> > redisplayed. This time, the intProperty field will contain
> a 0 (instead
> > of being empty). Depending on the semantic behind
> intProperty this could
> > make a serious difference, when this form is resubmitted.
> >
> > Is this behaviour intended ?
> >
>
> It is a side effect of what is really happening.
>
> The browser has no real clue that the field is an integer
> field -- it just
> thinks there is text. Therefore, what it sends as input for
> an empty input
> field is a zero-length string, which (unfortunately) the
> BeanUtils populate
> method treats as a zero when setting an integer field.
>
> It might make sense to skip calling the setIntProperty()
> field at all if the
> input is a zero-length string. JSP follows this rule when you specify
> something like <jsp:setProperty name="beanname"
> property="*"/>, so this
> would be more consistent with JSP as well.
>
> What do you think?
>
> > Matthias mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> Craig McClanahan
>
> ====================
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>
>
