sensing submit in servlet

[john guthrie]

i have a servlet with a blank action (so it calls itself). first time in it creates a form with a submit button a la:

 <input type="submit" name="goButton"> 

so the servlet has basically this logic:

   if (req.getParameter("goButton")) {
      // respond to submit
   } else {
      // display form, first time in
   }

this works fine when i test it on my servlet engine.
the problem is trying to test it with httpUnit. when i submit the form via the httpUnit WebConversation getResponse method, the code above always hits the else block.
is there a better way to check for form submission than my req.getParameter("goButton") call? preferably one that httpUnit likes...

[Frank Carver]

HTTPUnit is actually very good at simulating form submission, but I guess you are not using the form parsing and submission tools.
I suggest that you take a look at part 6 of my "small and simple web applications" series in the Java Ranch Journal. In this article I give some detailled instructions on how to test web applications using the HTTPUnit form tools.

[john guthrie]

thanks. i'll try that out. you're right, i didn't use the same code. i had something like:

  WebConversation wc = new WebConversation();
  WebResponse wr = wc.getResponse(SERVLET_URL);
  WebForm wf = wr.getFormWithID(SOME_ID);
  WebRequest wq = wf.getRequest("goButton");
  WebResponse wr2 = wc.getResponse(wq);

in other words, i used WebRequest instead of SubmitButton. it ran, but the submit button didn't seem to be set.
again, thanks. i am finding that there is thin documentation on httpUnit. of course, i missed your article, which is greatly appreciated!