Questions on multipage forms

[Nick Airey <Ni...@citria.com>]

To: Kevin Duffey
 
Kevin, 
 
Thank you for your excellent explanation and source code on multipage forms.
I have just a few additional questions:
 
Firstly, I assume that you are not using the struts "ActionBase" class
because you don't need/use the utility methods getLocale(), etc.
 
Next, if you are in a position to, could you please provide the source code
to the ActionContext class, so that myself and others don't have to recode
the same thing. If not, I guess that the interface is the 5 parameter
constructor, and the methods getCommand(), returning the command as string.
What does the method getClass() return ?
 
Next, it occurs to me that the jsp fragment <input type="submit" value="x"
onclick="y" > could probably end up in a custom tag since it seems to be
used at lot. Is there any reason not to do this ?
 
Finally, a question about the scope of the form bean. As I understand it,
the whole idea of implementing multipage forms is to use only a single
instance of a "form" bean, which is filled in across several pages. I am
unsure as to where the bean is instantiated, what its scope is, and how it
is kept available across multiple pages. Is it instantiated when the jsp
engine sees a struts:form tag as in the code from the example application
code below ?  If so, how is that form instance accessed from the next jsp
page ? Also I assume that the validate() method is run only after the final
page, which has a "normal" struts:submit tag. Is this correct ?
 
Thanks and kind regards,
Nick
 
 
...extract from example struts application...
 
<struts:form action="logon.do" name="logonForm" focus="username"
               type="org.apache.struts.example.LogonForm">
<table border="0" width="100%">
 
  <tr>
    <th align="right">
      <struts:message key="prompt.username"/>
    </th>
    <td align="left">
      <struts:text property="username" size="16" maxlength="16"/>
    </td>
  </tr>
 
// .... stuff removed here for clarity....
 
  <tr>
    <td align="right">
      <struts:submit property="submit" value="Submit"/>
    </td>
    <td align="left">
      <struts:reset/>
    </td>
  </tr>
 
</table>
 
</struts:form>



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