Struts 1.3 - html:option doesn't select Integer value

[Faisal Ahmad]

I'm using Struts 1.3 for my application. I found that Struts is not 'selecting' a value if the value type is Integer in html:select and html: option. It's selecting if the type is String. Why? See the below code:

<tr><td>Role</td><td>
                        <html:select property="roleName">
                            <html:option value="admin">admin</html:option>
                            <html:option value="user">user</html:option>                            
                        </html:select>
                    </td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>Role</td>
                    <td>
                        <html:select property="roleId">
                            <%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" %>
                            <c:forEach var="role" items="${roles}">                                 
                                <html:option value="${role.id}">${role.name}</html:option>
                            </c:forEach>
                        </html:select>
                    </td>
                </tr>

Where roleId is an Integer and roleName is String.

The web page displays:

<tr><td>Role</td><td>
                        <select name="roleName"><option value="admin">admin</option>
                            <option value="user" selected="selected">user</option></select>
                    </td>
                </tr>
                <tr>
                    <td>Role</td>
                    <td>
                        <select name="roleId"><option value="1">admin</option>
                                                             
                                <option value="2">user</option></select>
                    </td>
                </tr>

As you can see, there is no 'selected' property for Integer values. Can someone explain why? What is the solution for this?

Many thanks in adv.!

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

Is your type and int or an Integer? If the later, can you try it with int? Struts was developed before autoboxing so it might not know what to do with mixed types.

A workaround of course would be to use String. Or to add an if statement in the JSP to set the selection.