Options Lists, in db or what

[Siamak Saarmann]

Hello,

In a web application which has lots of option lists, it would be difficulat to put all of those options in separate tables and build data layer etc for every of them. (I used to do this in conventional non-oop languages like PHP, ASP etc. but doing it with Java seems to me difficult).

What do people do (best practice)? (As an example in a web application with 50 forms and 10 options list).

Regards,
Mac

[Siamak Saarmann]

Hello again,

Seemd no one has answered the question. I have prepared something and I would appereciate if you tell me your opinion.

I have written a class which has the options inside it (in future these options can come from db).

I have also added some methods which can help me build html forms. Is this good or I should not do this?

Regards,
Mac

/*
package com.--.--.optionslist;
 
import java.util.ArrayList;
 
/**
 *
 * @author Siamak
 */
public class PriorityList {
    private ArrayList ar=new ArrayList();
 
    public PriorityList() {
        ar.add(new PriorityItem(1,"Very Low",0));
        ar.add(new PriorityItem(1,"Low",0));
        ar.add(new PriorityItem(1,"Normal",0));
        ar.add(new PriorityItem(1,"High",0));
        ar.add(new PriorityItem(1,"Very High",0));
    }
 
   public String getHtmlOptionsList(){
       String html="<select size=1 name=priority>";
       
       for(int i=0;i< ar.size();i++)
       {
           PriorityItem it=(PriorityItem)ar.get(i);
           if(it.getStatus()==0)
            html+="<option value="+ it.getId() + ">"+ it.getTitle() +"</option>";
       }
       
       html += "</slect>";
       return html;
   }    
   
   public String getHtmlOptionsList(int id){
       String html="<select size=1 name=priority>";
       
       for(int i=0;i< ar.size();i++)
       {
           PriorityItem it=(PriorityItem)ar.get(i);
           if(it.getStatus()==0){
            if(it.getId()==id)
               html+="<option value="+ it.getId() + " selected>"+ it.getTitle() +"</option>";
            else
               html+="<option value="+ it.getId() + ">"+ it.getTitle() +"</option>";
           }
       }
       
       html += "</slect>";
       return html;
   }    
 
   public String getOptionTitle(int id){
       String tit="";
       for(int i=0;i< ar.size();i++)
       {
           PriorityItem it=(PriorityItem)ar.get(i);
           if(it.getId()==id)
            tit = it.getTitle();
       }
       return tit;
   }
    
    
    class PriorityItem{
        private int id;
        private String title;
        private int status;
 
        public PriorityItem(int id,String title, int Status){
            this.id=id;
            this.title=title;
            this.status=status;
        }
        
        public int getId() {
            return id;
        }
 
        public void setId(int id) {
            this.id = id;
        }
 
        public String getTitle() {
            return title;
        }
 
        public void setTitle(String title) {
            this.title = title;
        }
 
        public int getStatus() {
            return status;
        }
 
        public void setStatus(int Status) {
            this.status = status;
        }
    }
 
}

[Paul Sturrock]

Not an ORM question. Moving to Servlets etc.

[Christophe Verré]

I'd like to point out that :

        ar.add(new PriorityItem(1,"Very Low",0));
        ar.add(new PriorityItem(1,"Low",0));
        ar.add(new PriorityItem(1,"Normal",0));
        ar.add(new PriorityItem(1,"High",0));
        ar.add(new PriorityItem(1,"Very High",0));

is probably not what you want to do. You probably want to pass different ids for each item, don't you ?

[Darren Edwards]

Your approach for storing values in the db and retrieving them as needed is fine - remember there is often more than one usable solution for a problem.

You should look at using jsp/jstl to actually display the results though. Consider passing the option objects in some form of list, then using jstl

<select name="priority_id">
<c:forEach var="priority" items="${priorities}">
  <option name="<c:out value="${priority.id}"/>"><c:out value="${priority.value}"/></option>
</c:forEach>
</select>

[ June 09, 2006: Message edited by: Darren Edwards ]

[Siamak Saarmann]

Hello,

Satou, yes. It was a mistake. They should be 1,2,3 ...

Darren, thank you very much. Yes , I'd rather use JSTL.

Regards,
Mac