Pass List of Strings back to Action Form

[veronica jones]

Hi, I have searched all over google looking for this answer. I am using Struts 1.2 and I have a handful of select boxes in my jsp page that will not all be filled in at once. I am looking for a way to pass back the strings in the select boxes to the ActionForm in order to be able to display it in the jsp page without refilling it in from the database nor saving it as a session attribute.

I have tried to use the data coming into the jsp page as a: Vector, List, String[], and an ArrayList. I am trying to use an iterate over the list and the html:hidden tag to force it back to the action form each time. This works with an actual object with individual fields like: name, address, city. But I cannot get it to work for an array of Strings like Dan, Emily, John.

Scenario:
I fill in the first selection box indList. Upon selecting a selection in the box, I go perform an action and fill in the other selection boxes and return the same action form with the same jsp page where I had hidden the indList in hopes it would return too. Instead, the indList is now blank, the other lists have been populated.

here is a snippet of my code, this time trying to use a Vector:

Jsp:

   
<logic:iterate id="indInfo" name="SearchForm" property="indList" > 
               <html:hidden property="indInfo" indexed="true"/> 
            </logic:iterate> 
 

ActionForm

    
  public Vector getIndInfo(int index) {
        return this.indList;
    }
public Vector getIndInfo() {  
        if(this.indList == null)
            this.indList = new Vector();
        return this.indList;
    }
public void setIndInfo(int index, String industry){
       this.indList.add(industry);
   } 

Any help is appreciated.

[Sagar Rohankar]

I don't understand your requirement, please restate it.
and I don't understand the provision of this null check, its not usually done.

public Vector getIndInfo() {  
        if(this.indList == null) // why ??
            this.indList = new Vector();
        return this.indList;
    }

[veronica jones]

Hi, the requirement is that I am trying to save the list of industries from the indList that is a Vector when the form is submitted so I do not lose this data when the form is redisplayed. I am trying to avoid making another database call to get this indList populated again. Upon this first submit, the user will have selected an industry, other selections on the page will now show up and be populated based on this selection. However, I am loosing the indList. This is the reason for the null check so the page displays with an empty indList instead of bombing out on a null exception.

I am trying to save the indList in a html:hidden field by iterating through the indList and saving the data in the ActionForm.



Here is my jsp:

 
.
.   
 <td>
            <html:select name="SearchForm" property="selIndustry" >
               <html:options styleClass="selleft" name="SearchForm" property="indList" />
            </html:select>
            <logic:iterate id="indInfo" name="SearchForm" property="indList" > 
               <html:hidden property="indInfo" indexed="true"/> 
            </logic:iterate>         
          </td>
.
.

ActionForm:

    
 public Vector getIndList() {
        return indList;
    }
    
 public void setIndList(Vector indList) {
        this.indList = indList;
 }

 public Vector getIndInfo(int index) {
        return this.indList;
 }
    
 public Vector getIndInfo() {  
        if(this.indList == null)
            this.indList = new Vector();
        return this.indList;
 }

 public void setIndInfo(int index, String industry){
        this.indList.add(industry);
} 
    

I was hoping that setIndInfo would be called via the iterate tag and reset the indList in the ActionForm to save this data upon a submit. But this method is never called.

Thanks for your help.

[Sagar Rohankar]

No, you're doing it wrong, this is the wrong syntax for setter

public void setIndInfo(int index, String industry){  
        this.indList.add(industry);  
} 

And you can see, there is no use of index, setter takes only one parameter.

What you want is the list data has to be persisted between several request, then I would advise you to use "session" scope ActionForm.

[veronica jones]

Ok, thanks that is what I was afraid of. I was trying not use Session.