Retaining selected values in a portlet

[yudi raj]

I have few states listed in a drop down menu in a portlet. After clicking on a state, the portlet processes the action method and displays their cities. I have linked the cities with states through SQL. However, when the city is loaded, I need the state value to remain selected. Here is my code

<form action="<portlet:actionURL/>">

	<tr>
		<td><b>Select the state:</b></td>
		<td><select name="state" size=5>			
			<option value="ny" selected>NY</option>
			<option value="va">VA</option>
			<option value="oh">OH</option>
			<option value="mi">MI</option>
			<option value="il">IL</option>
			<option value="ca">CA</option>
		</select></td>
	</tr>
	<tr></tr>
	<tr>
		<td><input type="submit" name="submitState" value="Submit" /></td>
	</tr>
</form>
</table>

<%//======================RETREIVING CITIES INFO FROM STATE ENTERED=============================================================%>

<%
	if (renderRequest.getPortletSession().getAttribute("dataList") != null) {
%>
<br><br>Available cities for <b><%=renderRequest.getPortletSession().getAttribute("searchStringState") %></b> are:<br><br>

<table border="1" width="200">
	
<%
	Iterator itr;
	List data = (List)renderRequest.getPortletSession().getAttribute("dataList");
	for (itr = data.iterator(); itr.hasNext();) {
 %> 
<form action="<portlet:actionURL/>">
<% String temp = itr.next().toString(); %>
 	<tr>
		<td width="150"><input type="radio" name="city" value="<%=temp%>" checked><%=temp %></td>
			
	</tr>
<% } %>
</table>
<br><input type="submit" value="Next" name="submitCity" size="200">
</form>
<%
}
%>

code from processAction method
----------------------------------------

if (request.getParameter("submitState") != null) {
			String state = (String)request.getParameter("state");
			String sqlQuery = "select c.city_name " +
								"from city as c, " +
								"state as s " +
								"where s.state_id=c.state_id " +
								"and s.state_name= '"+state+"'";
			session.setAttribute("sqlQuery", sqlQuery);
			session.setAttribute("searchStringState", state);	
			try {
				Statement st = con.createStatement();
				rs = st.executeQuery((String)session.getAttribute("sqlQuery"));
			} catch (SQLException e) {
				e.printStackTrace();
			}
			List dataList = new ArrayList();
			try {
				while (rs.next()) {
					dataList.add(rs.getString(1));
					//				dataList.add(rs.getString(2));
				}
				rs.close();
				session.setAttribute("dataList", dataList);
			} catch (SQLException e) {
				e.printStackTrace();
			}

I need to know how would I keep the state as selected after the portlet had loaded cities. I know it had got to do something with boolean flags but I really don't know how to approach the problem. Also, after iterating through cities, I need the first value of the city to be selected. Further, after clicking on a city and submitting, both city and state value should remain selected with previously selected values. Thanks in advance.

[Ashish Sarin]

Hi Uday,

I would suggest that you look at actionScopedRequestAttributes container-runtime option to retain values. Also, I would recommend using something like Spring Portlet MVC and Spring form tag library to simplify developing your portlets.

regards
ashish