JBoss/config/Collections

<moved from EJB forum>

I have an EAR file deployed under JBoss 4.0.2, running JDK1.5 on OS X. I am getting the following error from this line in my JSP:

<html:select property="state" tabindex="14" >
<html ption value="">Select</html ption>
<html ptions collection="states" property="value" labelProperty="value"/>
</html:select>

where "state" is a collection in the session.

Here is the error:

javax.servlet.jsp.JspException: No getter method available for property value for bean under name states
at org.apache.struts.taglib.html.OptionsTag.doEndTag(OptionsTag.java:252)

I have the struts-html.tld in the appropriate JAR file contained in the EAR. I also have the struts-1.1.jar file in both my deploy/lib/ and in the EAR file.

The object that is being used to display is the ValueBean. I can't say I know what is causing this - the libraries appear to be there. The previous "html:text" instances are not throwing an error. This code was working before, but now that I am creating new EAR files, I wonder if its because of the proper libraries not getting picked up?

thank you for any advice or pointers you can share with me.

where "state" is a collection in the session.

The name that the <html

ptions> tag is looking for is "states" not "state.

Also, this message is telling you that as Struts examines each element in the collection, it's not finding a getValue() method on the individual element. Make sure that the object you're putting in the collection has a getValue() method.
[ October 30, 2006: Message edited by: Merrill Higginson ]

I think this is a deployment issue, because this code is currently working in production (I have inherited it). I have this code that builds it:

EnrollHelper getCoveredStateList() {
List stateCoverage = new ArrayList(51);
...
stateCoverage.add( new ValueBean( stateCode, stateName));

return stateCoverage;
}

this are set via the JSP:
pageContext.setAttribute("states", EnrollHelper.getCoveredStateList());

Unfortunately, it would appear the original code uses it's own ValueBean (basic bean). I can only assume it was done this way because the application pre-dates ValueBeans. However, this ValueBean class is definately in the jar.

Because I am now deploying to a single application server (JBoss) instead of JBoss and Tomcat - could that be an issue? the jar file is in the EAR and I wonder if it could be classloading.

I suspect you're on the right track with this being a classpath or classLoader issue. This error would occur if there were two classes of the same name in the classpath, and one of them does not have a getValue() method.

I don't really have a solution to suggest, though, other than changing what's in the shared classpath and what's in the WAR file's WEB-INF/lib directory. There may also be some classpath configuration settings within JBOSS that you can adjust.

I am pretty sure it has to be a classloader issue. I tested this by replacing the customer ValueBean with Apache LabelValueBean. When I did this, my dropdown and other properties on the JSP's worked properly. So I started to just do a global replace until I ran into this:

ArrayList valList = new ArrayList();
ValueBean val = new ValueBean("Some display text");
val.setValue(0, DBUtil.formatBigDecimalAsCurrency(current.getPremium()));
val.setValue(1, DBUtil.formatBigDecimalAsCurrency(renew.getPremium()));
val.setValue(2, DBUtil.formatBigDecimalAsCurrency(alternate.getPremium()));
valList.add(val);

then I realized that the ValueBean isn't a one-one matching because it holds a list of values. So, unless I want to do a major refactor of some existing code (that works great in production) I need to find out how to get everyone to use this class.

Now I am back to my original problem of how to get my JSP's to use the ValueBean that is in the jar. Here is my jboss EAR struture:

product.ear
-default.jar <- where the ValueBean class is
-default.war <-Webapp that uses ValueBean
-admin.war <-Webapp that uses ValueBean
- someEJB.jar
- jakarta-oro.2.0.6.jar
- commons-validator.1.0.1
- struts-1.1.jar

I am deploying to jboss4.0.2/server/default/deploy/ and I just don't understand why this class file can't be seen by the JSP, or is getting confused with another.

Hope that made sense, I know I am certainly confused