Integrate struts validator framework

Question

(JHeadstart 9.0.4: Toplink/JSP/Struts)
I am trying to integrate the struts validator framework . I'm encountering the following
problem. When a validation rule(defined in the struts validation.xml) is violated I would expect
that the JSP include named jhsInfo.jsp would show the errormessage because I assumed that it also
reads from the same Error Bean (ActionErrors object ) struts normally uses.
When I include a jsp of my own, containing the following:
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/struts-html.tld" prefix="html" %>
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/struts-bean.tld" prefix="bean" %>
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/struts-logic.tld" prefix="logic" %>
<html:errors/>
then messages raised by the struts validation framework are shown and everything seems to work.
I have the following questions:
- Is it possible to show struts validation error messages using the jhsInfo.jsp ?
I investigated the <jhs:ifContainsError> in the JHeadstart Taglibrary
and noticed how it checks for the JHS_USER_INFO session attribute; apparently, when the validate()
method in JhsDynaActionForm finds ActionErrors through the Struts Validator framework, this session attribute is not set.
However, even if we add this attribute explicitly to sessionData in validate(), we do not get the Struts Validator Action Errors.
- If not possible, how could we adapt the code to make it work? Should we instantiate JHeadstart UserExceptions
for all ActionErrors or does JHeadstart have built-in functionality to deal with these ActionErrors in the proper way?
Are we running into a bug, is it intentional to keep Struts Validator Error separate from JHeadstart Exception Errors
or is JHeadstart currently not equipped with the logic to deal with the ActionErrors?
Thanks in advance,
Rob Brands (Amis)

Answer 1

Rob,
JHeadstart transforms UserExceptions (controller-independent) to Struts specific ActionErrors and ActionMessages in JhsRequestprocessor.convertUserExceptions.
So, with JHeadstart you can either use ACtionErrors/ActionMessages directly, or indirectly by thrwoing UserExceptions.
In jhsInfo we use html:messages to loop over both messages and errors (The boolean attribute message determines whether ActionErrors or ActionMessages are iterated). We do not use html:errors because that does not provide you with control over the layout of individual messages.
You are right that our custom tags ifContainsError and ifContainsInformation should also directly check for existence of ActionErrors and ActionMessages. We will fix that for the upcoming release.
With that fix in place, you should be able to use jhsInfo.jsp to display validator messages.
You mentioned you tried to put a "dummy" JHS_USER_INFO exception on the session in the validate() method. This approach should work, however, to display ActionErrors (as is the case with the validator framework), you should use JHS_USER_ERROR as the key, noy JHS_USER_INFO.
For now, you could choose to modify jhsInfo.jsp and use your own ifContains tags, until we have fixed this.
Steven Davelaar.