How to assign names to buttons and tell which button was pressed in the Action class?

Hi guys,

Up until today I had only 2 buttons in my struts pages (usually submit and cancel). They worked fine since I used to ask the code below in my Action class:

If it wasn�t cancel � it was submit and life was easy and fun.

So�what if I have 5 buttons in my page, how can I tell which button the user has pressed?

In swing, that�s easy: JButton b1 = new JButton() and later:
If (e.getSource==b1) //I call it by the name
{

}

How can I assign names to each button and tell in my action class which button was pressed.

Thanks

Like this:

In your JSP:
<html:submit property="colorButton" value="red" />
<html:submit property="colorButton" value="blue" />
<html:submit property="colorButton" value="green" />
<html:submit property="colorButton" value="orange" />

In your ActionForm:

In the execute method of your Action class:

You could also make your Action extend DispatchAction.

P.S. Just so you know, in the case of a cancel button, The Action class has an isCancelled method that accomplishes the same thing as your code above.
[ October 05, 2006: Message edited by: Merrill Higginson ]

*PERFECT*

I did this (disregard the naming and the fw, only for testing):
struts-config.xml

and the bean

the coode in the jsp just as you instructed and when it gets to the ACTION, I did this:

String action = (String)((DynaActionForm)form).get("colorButton");

I did this without the usage of DispatchAction. I wonder what is the value of DispatchAction and would that eliminate the bean? if so, how would the Action look like (I must get the property somehow?!)

thank you Merrill!

DispatchAction would not eliminate the need for an ActionForm bean. It is used if you want to avoid a long if/else structure in your program. It allows you to create individual methods for each of the buttons that are automatically called by DispatchAction.

This link gives a good explanation of what DispatchAction does and how to use it.
[ October 06, 2006: Message edited by: Merrill Higginson ]