BC4J/Struts java.lang.ClassCastException in UpdateAction

Question

Dear reader,
I am facing a problem that I can't address. I have an entity object named 'Employee' and on the password field, there is one validation rule (a method, which checks if the passwords length is between 6 and 12 characters). I have a view called 'EmployeeView' for this entity.
I have a jsp page, where a form can be used to update an Employee's data (using an update-action servlet). This all works fine if there is no validation rule on one of the fields (as is on password), as soon as the user fills in let's say a too short password, in UpdateAction this line causes an ClassCastException.
oracle.jbo.html.struts11.actions.UpdateAction.execute(UpdateAction.java:85)
The source-line it goes wrong:
ApplicationConfig appConfig = (ApplicationConfig) request.getAttribute(Action.APPLICATION_KEY);
Apparently it is not set then... But it works fine if the password is filled in within the range of the rule.
Does anyone have any idea why this is caused? Am I missing something vital? Or am I doing something wrong? Thanx a lot for your time.
Regards,
Martijn

Answer 1

Take a look at the stack trace, it shows you exactly where the error is coming from:
java.lang.ClassCastException: org.theclass.candidate.view.SearchForm
org.theclass.candidate.view.CandidateListAction.execute(CandidateListAction.java:41)Line 41 in your CandidateListAction.
Probably it is failing on a cast of your action form.
Taking a closer look at your struts-config, you are "chaining" actions.
Your AddCandidateAction uses the candidateForm, and forwards to CandidateListAction.do
Your CandidateListAction uses the searchForm.
That will be the cause of your class cast exception.
<action path="/Add"
  name="candidateForm"
  type="org.theclass.candidate.view.AddCandidateAction"
  validate ="true"
  input="/jsp/addcandidate.jsp">
  <forward name="success" path="/CandidateList.do"/>
</action>
<action path="/CandidateList"
type="org.theclass.candidate.view.CandidateListAction"
name="searchForm"
scope="request" >
<forward name="failure" path="/jsp/list.jsp"/>
<forward name="success" path="/jsp/candidatelist.jsp"/>
</action>Check out: http://struts.apache.org/1.x/faqs/newbie.html#chaining
Solutions?
- don't chain actions ;-)
- use the same action form for both actions (possible?)
- make the actionForward a "redirect" one. That means a new request, and losing any request parameters/attributes but should prevent this class cast exception.
Hope this helps,
evnafets