Confused on validate() method

[Gregg Bolinger]

If I am using DynaValidatorForm in my struts-config.xml, then why do I still need a Class with a validate() method? I thought that using the dynamic validation on standard validation like, required, mask, etc you didn't need to write the validation code anywhere?
It is kind of like, we used DynaForm to lose the Bean class that just sets and gets variables, which is good, but then we just add another class that is to handle the validation even though we have dynavalidatorform classes?
I am just really confused on this. Why is this so hard for me? STRUTS is making me lose sleep, but everyone thinks it is the best thing in the world? I want to learn how to use it, and I even have 2 books. Of couse both books give "code snippets" which I hate because they never tell you what class they belong to. ARRRGGGG Sorry, just venting a little.
Can someone give me a good clear answer to my question(s)? And please don't tell me to go look at the Newsletter. I have looked at it, the examples, and I have made them work. But it is not making me understand WHY.
Thanks.

[Gregg Bolinger]

Ok, I got some validation to work on my form. The problem is now I am getting the stupid little alert() box telling me what validated wrong. That is worse than all the Messages at the top of the page.
I really need this explained to me or something. I will see if I can post some of this code. Right now, I am only validating the one TitleField.
AddReferenceAction

package com.ethought.holocron;
 
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import org.apache.struts.actions.*;
import org.apache.struts.action.*;
import java.sql.*;
import javax.sql.DataSource;
import javax.sql.*;
import javax.naming.*;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
import com.ethought.holocron.*;
public class AddReferenceAction extends Action {
    
  
   
    public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
   throws Exception {
       
        
        AddReferenceBean ab = new AddReferenceBean();
        request.setAttribute("AddReferenceBean", ab);
        ab.setParameters(request);
        ActionErrors ae = ab.validate();
        if (ae == null || ae.size()== 0)
        {
            return mapping.findForward("valid");
        }
        else
        {
            return mapping.findForward("invalid");
        }
        
        
                   
    }
    
  
}

AddReferenceBean - This has the validate() method

package com.ethought.holocron;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import org.apache.struts.action.*;
public class AddReferenceBean {
    
    private String TitleField;
    private String Authors;
    private String DateField;
    private String PeriodicalField;
    private String VolumeField;
    private String IssueField;
    private String PageField;
    private String URLField;
    
    
    
    /** Creates a new instance of AddReferenceBean */
    public AddReferenceBean() {
    }
    
    public void setParameters(HttpServletRequest request)
    {
        TitleField = request.getParameter("TitleField");
        Authors = request.getParameter("Authors");
        DateField = request.getParameter("DateField");
        PeriodicalField = request.getParameter("PeriodicalField");
        VolumeField = request.getParameter("VolumeField");
        IssueField = request.getParameter("IssueField");
        PageField = request.getParameter("PageField");
        URLField = request.getParameter("URLField");
        
        
    }
    
    public ActionErrors validate()
    {
        ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors();
        if ( (TitleField.compareTo("") == 0) || (TitleField == null) )
        {
            errors.add("TitleField", new ActionError("errors.TitleField.required"));
            return errors;
        }
        
        return null;
    }
}

My FORM Tag in my validation.xml file

<formset>
        <form name="addReference">
            <field property="TitleField" depends="required">
                <arg0 key="AddReference.Title.DisplayName"/>
            </field>
        </form>

My FORM-BEAN in my struts-config.xml

<form-beans>
        <form-bean name="addReference" type="org.apache.struts.validator.DynaValidatorForm">
            <form-property name="TitleField" type="java.lang.String"/>
            <form-property name="Authors" type="java.lang.String"/>
            <form-property name="DateField" type="java.lang.String"/>
            <form-property name="IssueField" type="java.lang.String"/>
            <form-property name="PageField" type="java.lang.String"/>
            <form-property name="PeriodicalField" type="java.lang.String"/>
            <form-property name="URLField" type="java.lang.String"/>
            <form-property name="VolumeField" type="java.lang.String"/>
        </form-bean>

AddReference.jsp

<%@ page language="java" %>
<%@ taglib uri="/tags/struts-html" prefix="html" %>
<%@ taglib uri="/tags/struts-bean" prefix="bean" %>
<%@ taglib uri="/tags/struts-logic" prefix="logic" %>
<html:html>
<head><title><bean:message key="AddReference.Title"/></title>
<html:javascript formName="addReference" />
</head>
<body>
<html:errors/>
<html:form action="/addReference" onsubmit="return validateAddReference(this)">
  <TABLE>
    
    <TR> 
      <TD>
            <strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><bean:message key="AddReference.Title.DisplayName"/></font> </strong>
      </TD>
      <TD>
        <font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">
            <html:text property="TitleField" size="40"/>
        </font>        
        </TD>
    </TR>
    <TR> 
        <TD>
            <strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><bean:message key="AddReference.Author"/></font> </strong>
        </TD>
        <TD>
            <html:text property="Authors" size="40" />
        </TD>        
    </TR>
    <TR> 
      <TD>
            <strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Date(s):</font></strong>
      </TD>
      <TD>
            <html:text property="DateField" size="40" />
      </TD>
    </TR>
    <TR> 
      <TD><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Periodical:</font></strong>
      </TD>
      <TD>
        <html:text property="PeriodicalField" size="40" />
        </TD>
    </TR>
    <TR> 
      <TD><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Volume:</font></strong>
</TD>
    <TD>
        <html:text property="VolumeField" size="40"/>
        </TD>
    </TR>
    <TR> 
      <TD><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Issue:</font></strong>
      </TD>
      <TD>
        <html:text property="IssueField" size="40"/>
        </TD>
    </TR>
    <TR> 
      <TD><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Page(s):</font></strong>
      </TD>         
        <TD>
            <html:text property="PageField" size="40"/>
        </TD>
    </TR>
    <TR> 
      <TD><strong><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Url:</font></strong> 
      </TD>
      <TD>
        <html:text property="URLField" size="40"/>
        </TD>
    </TR>
  </TABLE>
    <html:submit title="Submit" property="submit" />
      </html:form>

</body>
</html:html>

application.properties file

# -- standard errors --
errors.header=<UL>
errors.prefix=<LI>
errors.suffix=</LI>
errors.footer=</UL>
# -- validator --
errors.invalid={0} is invalid.
errors.maxlength={0} can not be greater than {1} characters.
errors.minlength={0} can not be less than {1} characters.
errors.range={0} is not in the range {1} through {2}.
errors.required={0} is required.
errors.byte={0} must be an byte.
errors.date={0} is not a date.
errors.double={0} must be an double.
errors.float={0} must be an float.
errors.integer={0} must be an integer.
errors.long={0} must be an long.
errors.short={0} must be an short.
errors.creditcard={0} is not a valid credit card number.
errors.email={0} is an invalid e-mail address.
# -- other --
errors.cancel=Operation cancelled.
errors.detail={0}
errors.general=The process did not complete. Details should follow.
errors.token=Request could not be completed. Operation is not in sequence.
# -- welcome --
welcome.title=Struts Blank Application
welcome.heading=Welcome!
welcome.message=To get started on your own application, copy the struts-blank.war to a new WAR file using the name for your application. Place it in your container's "webapp" folder (or equivalent), and let your container auto-deploy the application. Edit the skeleton configuration files as needed, restart your container, and you are on your way! (You can find the application.properties file with this message in the /WEB-INF/src/java/resources folder.)
AddReference.Title=Add Reference
AddReference.Author=Author
AddReference.Title.MaskMsg=Title must be letters and number, no spaces
AddReference.Title.DisplayName=Title:
errors.TitleField.required=You must enter a Title

[ August 05, 2003: Message edited by: Gregg Bolinger ]
[ August 05, 2003: Message edited by: Gregg Bolinger ]

[Gregg Bolinger]

Ok, I finally found a decent tutorial that took a little bit different approach and really utalized 1.1's validation. So I lost the AddReferenceBean class and below is my AddReferenceAction class revised:

package com.ethought.holocron;
 
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import org.apache.struts.actions.*;
import org.apache.struts.action.*;
import org.apache.struts.validator.*;
import java.sql.*;
import javax.sql.DataSource;
import javax.sql.*;
import javax.naming.*;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
import com.ethought.holocron.*;
public class AddReferenceAction extends Action {
    
  
   
    public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping, 
                                 ActionForm form, 
                                 HttpServletRequest request, 
                                 HttpServletResponse response)
                                 throws Exception {
       
        ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors();
        DynaValidatorForm ab = ((DynaValidatorForm)form);
        String title = (String)ab.get("TitleField");
        System.out.println(title);
        if (title == null || title.length() == 0)
        {
            errors.add("TitleField", new ActionError("errors.TitleField.required"));
        }
        
        if (!errors.isEmpty())
        {
            this.saveErrors(request, errors);
            return (new ActionForward(mapping.getInput()));
        }
        
        return mapping.findForward("valid");
                   
    }
    
  
}