Another aproach is to generate your ActionForms using Xdoclet so you don't waste time generating them.
Also, I think it is a great idea to do sintactic validation using the Commons Validator and then have some business/semantic validation in another layer, the commons validator (combined with xdoclet) is really a big help to validate simple stuff (like required fields). -----Original Message----- From: Hubert Rabago [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, March 18, 2005 11:40 AM To: Struts Users Mailing List Subject: Re: Wouldn't validation be better performed by Actions rather than ActionForms? Inline. On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 17:17:39 +0000, Lawrie Gallardo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm still relatively new to Struts, but I can't help but feel that > validation would be better performed by Action classes rather than > ActionForm classes. > > It seems to me that, ideally, you want > 1. Validation, > 2. Transformations (ie convert separate day, month and year HTML fields to > Java Date object), and > 3. Mapping of ActionForm fields (/HTML parameters) to Domain POJOs / DTOs > to all be configured in the same config file (to minimise duplication) and > to be implemented in the same class rather than scattered between multiple > config files and classes. > Hmm, you just described one use case for FormDef when coupled with its Validator integration. :) https://formdef.dev.java.net http://www.rabago.net/struts/formdef/manual.htm#combinedconfig > Now, if my understanding is correct: > 1. There is always a one-to-one mapping between an ActionForm and an > ActionMapping, An action form holds the request parameters that accompany a request. The most common use case is a form being submitted. You submit each <form> to one URL - that's why there's a one-to-one mapping. > 2. Struts best practice is to have each Action class handle all possible > operations for the HTML request it deals with using DispatchLookupAction or > something similar, That certainly is one practice. Personally I don't use that. I mostly use my own Action subclasses, or if I want dispatch functionality, I used to use MappingDispatchAction. Now I use the ActionDispatcher class in http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=31270 . > 3. Almost noone creates ActionForms manually any more - they use > DynaActionForm (or validating variations of this). And for those who do > still create ActionForms manually, they don't offer anything in the way of > reuse, and are basically throw-away classes. My own rule has been, if the requirements can be fulfilled by a dyna form, then that's what I use. Otherwise, I use a manually created ActionForm. Whenever I have a manually created ActionForm, believe me, they're certainly not throw-away. Hubert --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
