populating forms, sry :(

[Ilja Smoli]

Hi
Sorry for this question, but i dont clearly understand the process of populating forms on struts.
I have a jsp where user can update his/her profile like username, email etc.
I know struts can populate this form. I have this data stored in database.
I did like this. I have an action class lets say ProfileAction which is mapped to profileAction.do. This class calls this jsp with form to be populated.

public class ProfileAction extends Action {
  public ActionForward execute(
    ActionMapping actionMapping, 
    ActionForm actionForm, 
    HttpServletRequest request, 
    HttpServletResponse httpServletResponse) 
  throws Exception
  {
    //Do i have to put in request values to be populated in form??
    String first_name = "lalala";
    request.setAttribute("first_name", first_name);    
 
    // success forwards to jsp file with form    
    return (actionMapping.findForward("success"));
  }
}

Then i have ActionForm bean with all gets sets methods of jsp's form fields. And i have another UpdateProfileAction with mapping "updateProfile.do". This where submit goes and i do here all update queries.
The question is: do i have to put in request in ProfileAction class all the stuff i want to be populated?
Thx in advance...
[reformatted by |10dr]
[ March 19, 2004: Message edited by: Junilu Lacar ]

[brad balmer]

I hope I'm following your question correctly.
Your flow is:
ProfileAction -> .jsp -> UpdateProfileAction
And you are asking how to pre-populate the .jsp with data?
If no, please restate your question.
If yes, you can either attach the ProfileActionForm in your struts-config.xml to the ProfileAction (in addition to UpdateProfileAction).
Then, in your ProfileAction.execute() get a reference to the form through the ActionForm parameter passed in, call your set functions on the data and forward onto the .jsp.
Or in your ProfileAction class, instantiate your ActionForm, populate it with the data and set the form in the appropriate scope with the EXACT same name as you gave it in the struts-config.xml file.
I hope this helps.

[Ilja Smoli]

Thx for reply.
You got my flow and question correctly.
First way you offer is smth. like:

 
// Getting reference to ActionForm; writing from head, so can be with mistakes;
UpdateProfileForm upf = new (UpdateProfileForm) actionForm();
// calling set method;
upf.setFirst_name("John Smith");
...
//Then forward to jsp

Actually I tried this, but ProfileActionForm was attached only to second action. My fault
Unfortunately I can't try this code now and tell is it ok or not.
Im not fully understood second way, it'll be great if u can provide example of it. As I see difference is that in second way i put whole form in a scope (request, session). True?
Thx

[Junilu Lacar]

I suggest you go through this tutorial to get a better understanding of the flow and responsibilities of the different components that are involved in Struts.