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How to use validator with dispatchAction

Answer(s)

if you want to use different validation rules with the validator you have to declare different action elements in your struts-config.xml file (using the same action class if you want). for that you have to use the (Dyna)ValidatorActionForm.

another means is to validate your form in the methods of your DispatchAction class as in this example:

struts-config.xml:

        <action    path="/logon/action/logon"
                   type="test.web.struts.action.logon.LogonAction"
                   name="logonForm"
                  scope="request"        <-- !!!
               validate="false"          <-- !!!
                  input="/WEB-INF/jsp/logon/logon.jsp">
             <forward   name="success"   path="/index.jsp"/>
        </action>

LogonAction.java:

   ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors();
   errors = form.validate(mapping, request);

   // Report any errors we have discovered back to the original form
   if (!errors.isEmpty())
   {
       saveErrors(request, errors);
       return  new ActionForward(mapping.getInput());
   }

<eliemedeiros@hotmail.com>
Or you could also write a thin wrapper around the validationframework to validate a single field at the time. For instance the following code carries out the validation of the form field at the same time it retrieves its value:

     import java.util.ArrayList;
     import java.util.Iterator;
     import java.util.List;

     import javax.servlet.http.*;

     import org.apache.struts.action.*;
     import org.apache.struts.validator.DynaValidatorForm;

     public class CustomValidator {
	ActionErrors formValidationErrors;
	DynaValidatorForm form;
	private static final Logger logger = Logger.getLogger(MosaicValidator.class);

	/**
	 * Creates a new MosaicValidator object.
	 * 
	 * @param form parameter
	 * @param mapping parameter
	 * @param request parameter
	 */
	public MosaicValidator(DynaValidatorForm form, ActionMapping mapping, HttpServletRequest request) {
		this.form = form;
		formValidationErrors = form.validate(mapping, request);
	 }

	/**
	 * Get the value for a particular form field, and validate the value the user has enteed against the Struts validation file
	 * 
	 * @param key parameter
	 * @param errors parameter
	 * @return returnValue 
	 */
	public final Object validate(String key, ActionErrors errors) {
		Iterator it = formValidationErrors.get(key);
                while (it.hasNext()) {
			ActionError e = (ActionError)it.next();
			errors.add(key, e);
		 }
                 return form.get(key);
	 }
 }

This can be called in the following manner from an action extending DispatchAction:

      public ActionForward viewForm (ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
			       throws Exception {
		ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors();
		MosaicValidator v=new MosaicValidator( (DynaValidatorForm)form, mapping, request);
		String formField = (String)v.validate("formField", errors);
		if (!errors.isEmpty()) {
			saveErrors(request, errors);
                        return (mapping.getInputForm() );
		}
		return viewForm(mapping, form, request, response);
	 }

Hope this helps someone.

</eliemedeiros@hotmail.com>

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