Struts - basic form submission -- variable changed values not holding

[Erica Johnson]

I am working with multiple records in a Form.


struts-config:

    <form-beans>
        <form-bean name="EditUpdateFrm" type="com.awa.test.strutsactionform.EditUpdateForm" />
    </form-beans>
 
<action path="/TestUpdateSubmit" 
        type="com.awa.test.strutsaction.TestUpdateSubmitAction"
        scope="session" 
        name="EditUpdateFrm" >
</action>

Form:

public class EditUpdateForm extends ActionForm{
        private EditRecordObject[] editRecordObjects = new EditRecordObject[200];
        public EditRecordObject getEditRecordObjects(int i){
               return editRecordObjects[i];
        }
        public EditRecordObject[] getEditRecordObjects(){
               return editRecordObjects;
        }
        public void setEditRecordObjects(int i, EditRecordObject val){
               editRecordObjects[i] = val;
        }
        public void setEditRecordObjects(EditRecordObject[] val){
               editRecordObjects = val;
        }
}

JSP:

<html:form action="TestUpdateSubmit.do" type="com.awa.test.strutsactionform.EditUpdateForm" >   
<INPUT TYPE="Submit" class="SmallTextBlack" VALUE="UPDATE" NAME="Button" />
    <nested:iterate id="form1" scope="session" name="EditUpdateFrm" property="editRecordObjects" >
         <nested:text name="form1" property="ticketNo" />
         <nested:text name="form1" property="tranDate" />
         <nested:text name="form1" property="accountNo" />
         <nested:text name="form1" property="salesId" />
    </nested:iterate>
</html:form>

EditRecordObject:

public class EditRecordObject {
    private String ticketNo = "";
    private String tranDate = "";
    private String accountNo = "";
    private String salesId = "";
                public EditRecordObject() {
        }
       
        public boolean getTicketNo() {
               return ticketNo;
        }
       
        public void setTicketNo(String val) {
               ticketNo = val;
        }
        etc...

I'm able to display the data just fine. But when I change a value in a text field, the action doesn't recognize the new value. The request variable doesn’t get loaded when I submit the action and/or the session variable doesn’t get reset.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Vicky Vijay]

Hi,

Can you post your action code... ?

How do you access the Nested Objects ?

[Erica Johnson]

Thanks for your help!

This is how the data is loaded in the first place:
 
 

EditUpdateForm euForm2 = new EditUpdateForm();
EditQueueHandler eqh = new EditQueueHandler(userName);
euForm2 = eqh.getTestRecords(req, euForm2);
logger.info(userName + " KLW # " + euForm2.getEditRecordObjects(0).getTicketNo());
req.setAttribute("EditUpdateFrm", euForm2);

 
 
getTestRecords method logic:

while (rs.next()) {
               EditRecordObject ero = new EditRecordObject();
        ero.setTicketNo(rs.getString("TICKET_NO"));
        ero.setTranDate(rs.getString("TRANSACTION_DATE"));
        ero.setAccountNo(rs.getString("ACCOUNT_NO"));
        ero.setSalesId(rs.getString("SALES_ID"));
        euForm.setEditRecordObjects(index, ero);
        index++;
        if (index == 200) {
            req.setAttribute("errorMsg", "Query returning more than 200 rows");
            break;
        }

 
 
 
 
and then TestUpdateSubmitAction just tries to read the form, but it's not updated:
 

EditUpdateForm euForm2 = (EditUpdateForm)req.getAttribute("EditUpdateFrm");
String ticketNo = (String)((EditRecordObject)euForm2.getEditRecordObjects(1)).getTicketNo();
logger.debug(userId + " KLW " + ticketNo);
String salesId = (String)((EditRecordObject)euForm2.getEditRecordObjects(0)).getSalesId();
logger.debug(userId + " KLW " +  salesId);

[Vicky Vijay]

Erica Johnson wrote:
and then TestUpdateSubmitAction just tries to read the form, but it's not updated:
 

EditUpdateForm euForm2 = (EditUpdateForm)req.getAttribute("EditUpdateFrm");
String ticketNo = (String)((EditRecordObject)euForm2.getEditRecordObjects(1)).getTicketNo();
logger.debug(userId + " KLW " + ticketNo);
String salesId = (String)((EditRecordObject)euForm2.getEditRecordObjects(0)).getSalesId();
logger.debug(userId + " KLW " +  salesId);

You are trying to access the Objects from the request...

Try accessing using the ActionForm,

EditUpdateForm euForm2 = (EditUpdateForm) form;

[Orton K Randy]

What Vijay said. Why even set the form in scope as an attribute and try to retrieve again in an action when you have the form object readily available with you as a parameter of the execute method? I don't just quite get the need for setting and retrieving the form instance as attributes.

[Erica Johnson]

Thanks for your inputs Orton.

Thanks Vicky, for the response. I am new to this and really appreciate your help.

I get the same result in the TestUpdateSubmitAction, null pointer when trying to get that ticketNo;

EditUpdateForm euForm2 = (EditUpdateForm) form; 
String ticketNo = ((EditUpdateForm)form).getEditRecordObjects(1).getTicketNo();

[Vicky Vijay]

For Your Quick Reference,

Nested:Iterate Example

[Erica Johnson]

Thanks Vicky. What am I doing wrong here?

[Vicky Vijay]

Review this below,

http://struts.apache.org/1.2.8/api/org/apache/struts/taglib/nested/package-summary.html#package_description

http://struts.apache.org/1.2.8/userGuide/struts-nested.html#iterate

[Erica Johnson]

Hi Vicky -- thanks for the help. I am making progress based on your help -- it is appreciated very much.

I finally got my form submission to retain values. But, now I am having an issue with the initialization of an Arraylist. My nested form variables need this initialization, when I’m trying to change more rows on the screen than have been initialized in the form, I get that out of bounds error… When the action is perform and Struts loads the form, it must be resetting it first before it loads the variables from the screen. I was having that index problem for a couple weeks on and off, it probably all boils down to this…

If I want 200 rows on the screen, I have to initialize 200 objects, doesn’t seem very dynamic

      public void reset(ActionMapping mapping,
                  HttpServletRequest request) {
            //initial a dummy collection of customers
            Collection editRecordObjects = new ArrayList();
            editRecordObjects.add(new EditRecordObject(false, "", "", "", "", ""));
            editRecordObjects.add(new EditRecordObject(false, "", "", "", "", ""));
            editRecordObjects.add(new EditRecordObject(false, "", "", "", "", ""));
            //initial a dummy department
            department = new Department(editRecordObjects);
      }

Surely, there is a better way to do this. Could you please guide me in the right direction?