Craig, I use the opportunity to jump into this and to ask you and everybody here for an advice:
I try to follow the good practice to have only Strings within the form-classes and having value objects with the correct types. In the past I coded the copy from vo to form and vice-versa with the typical setter-getter for every field - easy but sometimes painfull. Recently I've started using BeanUtils to copy the properties, I even ;-))) managed it to register my own converter for GregorianCalendar properties. Now my two questions/problems: question 1: where do i need to register the converter in a struts web-application? once in a plugin? within the the controller? within every action? problem/question 2: when i have the typical situation of vaqlue object "invoice" having an ArrayList of value objects "invoice position" and having a form "invoice" with an ArrayList of "subforms" "invoice position", then the copyProperties works fine for the vo-invoice to form-invoice but it copes the vo-invoice-positions to the ArrayList of the form-invoice. is there a solution for this problem? is there a possibility to ask the converter not to convert collections? what is a good practice to manage this? -Rene > -----Original Message----- > From: Craig R. McClanahan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Dienstag, 7. Januar 2003 21:28 > To: Struts Users Mailing List > Subject: Re: ConvertUtils, Null Integers > > > > > On Tue, 7 Jan 2003, Jim Krygowski wrote: > > > Date: Tue, 07 Jan 2003 09:00:04 -0500 > > From: Jim Krygowski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Reply-To: Struts Users Mailing List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: Struts Users Mailing List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Subject: ConvertUtils, Null Integers > > > > Hi- > > > > This might be a question to Craig specifically, but I'd > appreciate hearing > > from anyone with experience. I noticed that the > ConvertUtils instructs > > IntegerConverter to create Integer objects with the default > value of 0 when > > it can't convert what it receives into a proper Integer. > The application > > I'm building with Struts has several forms that must > support "null" values. > > That is, fields in which no entries are made. The > underlying database > > fields are nullable and zero is a significant and > meaningfull number. > > > > Using the Struts infrastructure as is, form fields > containing nothing are > > converted to zero by ConvertUtils/IntegerConverter thus > messing up my data > > somewhat. > > > > Is there any way to get the Converter to set the Integer to > null when the > > value recieved from the HTML form isn't a valid integer? > I'm aware of the > > approach of creating my own custom Integer converter and > loading it in a > > static intializer but is there a better way? Preferably > some way that's > > configurable via an xml file? > > > > You can make Struts act like this by registering your own > Converter, but > you are ***much*** better off by keeping the property as a > String in your > form bean. No only can you then distinguish between a > zero-length String > and a "0", it also doesn't screw things up when the user types garbage > like "1a3" instead of "123". > > > thanks. > > Craig > > > > > -- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > For additional commands, e-mail: > <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
