[ionEyes]

Hi there,

I am not too sure whether to post this as I am not sure if this is a Struts issue or myEclipse issue or me. Here goes.

I have a struts action and form page. Within the Form object I have a validation of form fields. that I was hoping would cause the struts:error tag to operate to reveal form errors. I am using struts 1.3, with myEclipse 6 on tomcat v6. The debugger and println statements reveals the validate method is being called and I assume the correct behaviour – namely filling out the ActionErrors object and returning it.

That validate method is as follows.:

    public ActionErrors validate(ActionMapping mapping,
            HttpServletRequest request) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
        System.out.println("validate called on form : " + mapping.getName());

        ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors();

        if (getContactName() == null || getContactName().length() < 1) {
            errors.add("contactName", new ActionMessage("a contact name is required"));
        }
        if (getContactEmail() == null || getContactEmail().length() < 1) {
            errors.add("contactEmail", new ActionMessage(
                    "a valid email address is required"));
        }
        
//        System.out.println(errors.toString());

        return errors;
    }

The corresponding JSP code looks as follows:

<%@ taglib uri="http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean" prefix="bean"%>
<%@ taglib uri="http://struts.apache.org/tags-html" prefix="html"%>
<%@ taglib uri="http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic" prefix="logic"%>

        <html:form action="/newBusiness">
            <table title="Contact Details" align="left">
                <tr align="left">
                    <td>
                        Name
                    </td>
                    <td>
                        <html:text property="contactName" />
                    </td>
                    <td>
                        <html:errors property="contactName" />
                    </td>
                </tr>
            </table>

– shortened for brevity.

I can place the validation in the ActionObjects execute() method and try and do it all manually – which is very inefficient and leads to lots of code in the JSP to retrieve the error object from the session or request and then perform the revelation of errors on the page.

I was hoping to use the struts:error tag – taken from examples online – and in the above example in the manner I have to reveal the errors.

Is there something I have missed – or something obviously wrong ?

I have not used resource bundles and externalised strings as its a simple site, that does not require internationalisation.

Can anyone explain why html:errors in the JSP above is not revealing the errors that the field validation is coded for ?

Thank you.

[support-joy]

ionEyes,

if (getContactName() == null || getContactName().length() < 1) {
errors.add(“contactName”, new ActionMessage(“a contact name is required”));
}

you should place that String value(“a contact name is required”) as a key’s value in the properties file and pass that key name as the parameter for new ActionMessage()

[ionEyes]

Thank you for getting back to me so quickly Joy.

Must I place the string value in the property file as well as defining the error message here ?
Does this mean there is no way to avoid the property file ?

I assumed (possibly wrongly) that I could kind of get away with this definition of the error message only. I will admit I am a bit confused now why there is the ability to specify an error with a new ActionMessage object in the validate method ?

Thank you in advance.

[support-joy]

ionEyes,
i would like to know if the solution works for you. As per Struts Framework, you need to place the key value pairs in a properties file as shown below
key = a contact name is required
and use the key as follows in your validate() method
errors.add(“contactName”, new ActionMessage(“key”));

This doesn’t seem to be a MyEclipse problem, rather it is related to coding. I would recommend you to crosspost your queries to Struts forums to get alternate solutions.

[ionEyes]

Thank you Joy.

[Author]

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