Struts Validation

[Ludmila Snova]

Hi All,

I have a web app that uses STRUTS(1.1). For some reason when I changed the scope in the action tag from request to session my validation stopped working.
It looks like it's ignored.

I expect validation to pass with URL: www.site.com/ShowFile.do?lang=EN&doc=4&number=148&fileName=fileName.doc
And fail with URL: www.site.com/ShowFile.do?lang=EN
But it does not fail...

Any ideas?


Here is my struts-config.xml:

 
...  
<form-bean name="showFileForm" type="org.apache.struts.validator.DynaValidatorForm">
			<form-property name="number" type="java.lang.String" />
			<form-property name="lang" type="java.lang.String" />
			<form-property name="doc" type="java.lang.String" />
			<form-property name="fileName" type="java.lang.String" />
			<form-property name="type" type="java.lang.String" />						
</form-bean>

<action path="/ShowFile" type="com.xxx.xxx.action.ShowFileAction" name="showFileForm" scope="session" attribute="docForm" input="/WEB-INF/jsp/error/Error.jsp" validate="true">
			<forward name="path1" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/Path1.jsp"></forward>
			<forward name="path2" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/Path2.jsp"></forward>
</action> 
...

And validation.xml:

   
...
form name="showFileForm">
         <field property="number" depends="required,mask">
			<var>
				<var-name>mask</var-name>
				<var-value>${number}</var-value>
			</var>
         </field>
         <field property="lang" depends="required,mask">
			<var>
				<var-name>mask</var-name>
				<var-value>${lang}</var-value>
			</var>
         </field>
         <field property="doc" depends="required,mask">
			<var>
				<var-name>mask</var-name>
				<var-value>${doc}</var-value>
			</var>
         </field>

         <field property="fileName" depends="required,mask">
			<var>
				<var-name>mask</var-name>
				<var-value>${fileName}</var-value>
			</var>
         </field>
        <field property="type" depends="mask">
			<var>
				<var-name>mask</var-name>
				<var-value>${type}</var-value>
			</var>
         </field>
      </form>
...

[Merrill Higginson]

I'd suggest that in your form bean definition you set an initial value of blank to all the properties. Otherwise, if the form bean is in session scope, it retains the values last entered and therefore will pass validation even when no new value is entered.

[Ludmila Snova]

Thank you for response. Unfortunately, it did not help. The initial values have been assigned to blanks.And, it looks like the validation is not triggered at all. It goes further to the action class, instead of going to the error page.

[David Newton]

How are you setting the form values to blanks?

[Ludmila Snova]

I use initial.

 <form-property name="fileName" type="java.lang.String" initial=" "/> 

Then, in the action class, I print them out, and they came out blank.

[David Newton]

If you restart the server and use the example failure URL from your first message does it still "skip validation"?

[Ludmila Snova]

Yes. After restart it still skips validation. Is that possible that I am missing some additional parameters for a session scope?

[Ludmila Snova]

I've done some additional testing. And notice, that validation is not triggered then I have attribute="docForm" in the action tag:

<action path="/ShowFile" type="com.xxx.xxx.action.ShowFileAction" name="showFileForm" scope="session" attribute="docForm" input="/WEB-INF/jsp/error/Error.jsp" validate="true">  

When I've removed that attribute, validation is executed properly. But I need it, in order to retrieve bean from a session in the code... Is there any other way to identify form bean?

[David Newton]

The form bean is named by the "name" attribute. If I remember correctly the "attribute" attribute is for when the form bean is named something other than the "name" attribute--I've never actually seen anybody use this.

Can you explain a bit more what you're trying to accomplish? I'm just not sure it's necessary to use "attribute".

[Ludmila Snova]

When I retrieved the bean from the session I used the attribute name. I've changed it to form name and everything works perfectly now.

Thanks a lot for your help!