Thanks for the response.
Whether we use XML and access elements through XPath, or use a Hashmap of
Hashmaps,
the idea is still the same: Javabeans are not flexible enough to allow you
to
codify display information - which is an irony considering that's what
Javabeans
were created for. What we'll end up doing is creating a Hashmap of Hashmaps
and then
ditching the <logic:iterate> tag (which operates on a Javabean) and either
(a) write our own tags that operate on our own objects, or
(b) using scriptlets to perform the loops.
If the developers of Struts were to add this as a standard feature, then
different
groups would not need to implement the same idea in a non-standard way...
Just a thought.
Iraklis
-----Original Message-----
From: Rajan Gupta [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2001 2:33 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: (architectural issue/feature request) JavaBeans in Struts
aren't flexible enough
Have u thought of using XML for passing generic data around. A Tag using
XPath can be used to access the data from this generic XML document.
--- Iraklis Kourtidis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I was wondering what your views on the following are:
>
> JavaBeans seem to only allow fixed properties (say "foo" and "bar), and
> the
> tags that operate on them (e.g. <bean:write>) essentially call getters
> "getFoo()" and "getBar()". However, this means that any time we're in
> the
> action class and we want to package some information to send to the JSP,
> we
> need to write a Java class with the appropriate properties and getters.
> This
> quickly becomes tiresome and causes code bloating; if I want to avoid
> scriptlets in my JSP, I have to use Javabeans, so for pretty much every
> Action class I need to add such a new Java class.
>
> A better way would be for Javabeans to be (essentially) some sort of
> subclass of java.util.Map, so that I can add properties at runtime.
> Here's
> some sample code:
>
> GenericJavabean jb = new GenericJavabean();
> jb.addProperty("foo", "value of foo");
> jb.addProperty("bar", "value of bar");
>
> Then, there could be some other tag, say <bean:write2> whose "property"
> attribute will not correspond to a getter function, but will instead
> call
> (internally) bean.getProperty("foo").
>
> In short, Javabeans, the current mechanism of passing information to the
> JSP
> for display purposes, are limiting because they have to be defined at
> *compile* time. It is not practical (in terms of efficiency and
> complexity)
> to add getter functions to a class at runtime (we've considered that),
> so we
> need to essentially create new Javabean classes.
>
> Am I the only one who gets bothered by this? I was wondering what the
> rest
> of you do. Do you just resign to creating new Java classes every time
> you
> want to put something on the request and send it to the JSP?
>
> thanks for your input,
> Iraklis
>
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