Using Property Editors With Spring

[Stevie Braga]

Hi there!

I'm starting an application using the spring MVC, and I got this doubt: everytime I need to convert a String to a non-String property, do I have to create a new class extending java.beans.PropertyEditorSupport to use as a custom property editor or there is another way of doing that?

Thanks for the atention

Stevie
[ May 11, 2007: Message edited by: Stevie Braga ]

[Nick Williamson]

No, it should try and convert the string when it tries to bind, the only one I had to specifically tell was with a date, and I just set up a simpledateformat object to parse/format dates.

[Stevie Braga]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for replying, but the classes I mean are my domain classes. And my real doubt is: do I have to write a Custom Editor for everyone of my domain classes? If I have 100 classes, do I have to write 100 custom editors? I think that might be another way of doing that.

[Nick Williamson]

You have to tell Spring how to convert certain things, basically objects that don't take a string in a constructor.

In my code I use this, I have my controller that extends simple form controller and my form backing object (my domain bean) has a java.util.Date filed on it. So I put this code in my controller
...

@Override
protected void initBinder(
HttpServletRequest request, 
ServletRequestDataBinder binder) throws Exception 
{
binder.registerCustomEditor(Date.class, new CustomDateEditor(new SimpleDateFormat("MM/dd/yyyy"), true));
super.initBinder(request, binder);
}

...

Now if I had 100 bean that had a date for submission. I would create a form that extends SimpleFormController, put this method in it and then have all my other controllers extend this controller, that way I have this code for binding my dates in one location and I don't have to override this method for each controller.