How to access application module from ActionForm Execute?

Question

I've got a very simple ADF/UIX/Struts application where I'm trying to create a simple Login function. I have a /loginAction data action pointing to a login.uix page forward. The login.uix page has a <struts:form> on it with a user and a password field. There is a LoginBean with the corresponding get/set values. I have an ADF model created with a boolean login(String username, String password) function exposed as a client method.
Eventually, when I have this basic part working, then I'll actually be using an ActionForward mapping to dispatch to different home pages, based on the particular login account (the name of the forward will be stored in the authentication table).
I've tried overriding Execute(), since that is where you can return the appropriate ActionForward mapping, but that does not have a DataActionContext passed in -- so I can't get to the application module.
I've also looked at processComponentEvents, but that doesn't have any ActionForward results nor a way to pass back ActionErrors (in case the login fails).
How do I call my login client method when a user has entered a username/password and pressed the Submit button?

Answer 1

Here is another solution as provided by Oracle Support in response to a TAR that I opened:
I had described my need to access a login() function defined in my Application Module, returning true/false if the login succeeds/fails. Here is the reply, posted with permission:
I have gotten the following information back from one of the development folks pertaining to the question you asked.
His suggestions are as follows:
1) Expose the method as a client method on the App module
2) On the pageflow create a new DataAction
3) Drag and drop the logon method from the AppModule operations node and drop it onto the new data Action
3) Edit the set-property values that are created in the Struts metadata for this new DataAction to use the correct expressions to get the logon info to pass to the middle tier.
e.g.
<action path="/authenticateUser" className="oracle.adf.controller.struts.actions.DataActionMapping" type="AuthenticateUserAction" name="DataForm"
unknown="false">
<set-property property="modelReference" value="authenticateUserUIModel"/>
<set-property property="methodName" value="authenticateUserUIModel.authenticateUser"/>
<set-property property="resultLocation" value="${requestScope.methodResult}"/>
<set-property property="numParams" value="2"/>
<set-property property="paramNames[0]" value="${param.logonUsername}"/>
<set-property property="paramNames[1]" value="${param.logonPassword}"/>
<forward name="fail" path="/logon.do"/>
<forward name="success" path="/menu.do"/>
</action>
So in this case the values of the logonUsername and logonPassword fields in the form that submitted to this DataAction are passed as the two parameters that my authenticateUser method on the AppModule requires.
I have also overriden the data action class to customise the findForward() method to route the user depending on if the method call worked or not.
And here's the code for the customized FindForward in the DataAction:
protected void findForward(DataActionContext actionContext) throws Exception
HttpServletRequest request = actionContext.getHttpServletRequest();
HttpSession session = request.getSession();
String target = "fail";
//Get the result of the Model Method call
JUCtrlActionBinding method = actionContext.getCustomMethod();
boolean successfulLogon = ((Boolean)method.getResult()).booleanValue();
if (!successfulLogon)
// If the logon fails we need to do the following
// 1. Increament the counter once this exceeds 3 any logon will fail
// 2. Create an error message to display on the logon screen
// note this is a non specific error to prevent hackers from
// knowing that they at least got the username right or from
// knowing that there is a Max attempts value if they are trying
// an automated attack
Integer attempts = (Integer)session.getAttribute("logonAttempts");
int intAttempts = 0;
if (attempts != null)
intAttempts = attempts.intValue();
session.setAttribute("logonAttempts", new Integer(++intAttempts));
//The error message comes out of the ApplicationResources.properties file.
actionContext.getActionErrors().add("general",new ActionError("logon.error.logonFailed"));
this.saveErrors(actionContext.getHttpServletRequest(),
actionContext.getActionErrors());
else
//If connection was OK do we need to save the username in a cookie?
String remember = (String)request.getParameter("logonRemember");
int cookieLife = 0; //Expire
if ( remember != null && remember.length()>0 )
cookieLife = 2592000;
String name = (String)request.getParameter("logonUsername");
Cookie userCookie = new Cookie("CARA_USER_COOKIE",name);
userCookie.setMaxAge(cookieLife);
actionContext.getHttpServletResponse().addCookie(userCookie);
target = "success";
actionContext.setActionForward(target);
I hope this helps anyone looking to implement something similar. It also illustrates the "preferred" way of executing a client method and working with the result.