TypeConversion with Struts 2

[Reghu Ram Thanumalayan]

Hello Brown,
With Struts 1.2, i faced most problems with converting types between the formbean and the domain object. The BeanUtils class wasnt able to cover all the possible kids of conversions.

With Struts 2, I see that type conversion is being handled by OGNL. Does OGNL cover all possible kinds of conversions between the formbean and the domain objects ?

Regards,
Reghu

[Jeremy Anderson]

Well first, struts2 removes the need for a separate formbean object.

As for type conversion, it's fairly simple to create the type converters yourself if one doesn't exist. Look at the DateConverter provided by the struts2 starter maven archetype.

 
public class DateConverter extends StrutsTypeConverter {
    public Object convertFromString(Map context, String[] values, Class toClass) {
        if (values != null && values.length > 0 && values[0] != null && values[0].length() > 0) {
            SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd");
            try {
                return sdf.parse(values[0]);
            }
            catch(ParseException e) {
                throw new TypeConversionException(e);
            }
        }
        return null;
    }
    public String convertToString(Map context, Object o) {
        if (o instanceof Date) {
            SimpleDateFormat sdf = new SimpleDateFormat("yyyy/MM/dd");
            return sdf.format((Date)o);
        }
        return "";
    }
}
   

[ April 29, 2008: Message edited by: Jeremy Anderson ]

[Reghu Ram Thanumalayan]

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks for the pointers to StrutsTypeConvertor

Regards,
Reghu