STRUTS: Multiple buttons in a form

Forgot the quotes
   
 document.yourForm.action="nextPage.do";
 

http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/api/org/apache/struts/actions/LookupDispatchAction.html

Hi Didier,

Just a quick question, when you use <a href="/nextPage.do"> this means that all of the buttons will have this link right? I mean, they will all go to one action but to the different methods of the action? Or does it mean having multiple actions? (mutiple .java/.class).

Thanks :-)

Hi Kotan,

Will the link you sent me also work with <html:images> used as submit buttons? Just wanted to check. Thanks!

I think can not. Then you can use its super class, DispatchAction

http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/api/org/apache/struts/actions/DispatchAction.html

Hi Kotan,

Could you give me a code sample of how I could pass the the paramenter/method?

I tried using this:

        <html:link action="/RemoveConfigItem" paramId="method" paramName="remove">
        <html:image src="/ADM/images/delete_button.gif" border="0"/>
        </html:link>

But I get an error because it can't find the bean names remove. I was wondering how I'd be able to pass this :-)

Thanks!

Hi rusco,

No, you can put the <a href="youraction"> ...........</a> around every html:img. Give them all a differnt value for href.


The same with the other example. You can make a function gotoCancel(), gotoOK(), gotoWhatever(), etc

Greetz,
Didier

This is a good way of doing it (I think):

http://j2ee.lagnada.com/struts/html-buttons.htm

DidierD,

I like what you are proposing, but I can't seem to get it to work.  I'm using LookupDispatchAction to determine which action method gets called when a button on the form is clicked (there are several buttons: add, save, exit).  I'm also using the Validator framework so that when I click the Add and Save buttons the form gets validated before the action class methods are executed (some fields on the form cannot be left blank for Add and Save).  But, I don't want validation to occur when I click the Exit button (because user should be able to exit from a blank form).   So, I want to change the form action to /exit.do when the Exit button is clicked (in struts-config.xml the action mapping for /exit.do has validate='false' to prevent the form from being validated before going to the action class's exit() method).  Here are the pieces:

Action mappings from struts-config.xml:
<action path="/theformaction" name="myForm" type="CommonActions" validate="true" input="/thejspfile.jsp" parameter="methodToCall" scope="request" >
      <forward name="success" path="/success.jsp" />
      <forward name="failure" path="/failure.jsp" />
</action>
<action path="/exit" name="myForm" type="CommonActions" validate="false" parameter="methodToCall" scope="request" >
      <forward name="mainmenu" path="/mainMenu.jsp" />
</action>

(myForm is of type org.apache.struts.validator.DynaValidatorForm, CommonActions is a subclass of org.apache.struts.actions.LookupDispatchAction).

Button code from thejspfile.jsp:
<html:submit property="methodToCall">
      <bean:message key="button.add"/>
</html:submit>
<html:submit property="methodToCall">
      <bean:message key="button.save"/>
</html:reset>
<input type="button" name="methodToCall" value="Exit" onclick="javascript:exit()">
<script>
      function exit(){
            document.forms[0].action="/exit.do";
            document.forms[0].submit();
      }
</script>

Struts uses the methodToCall parameter to figure out which method in my LookupDispatchAction subclass to execute.  It works fine for the add and save buttons (validation occurs, then the add() or save() methods run), but when I click the exit button, I get a runtime exception:

javax.servlet.ServletException: Request[/exit] does not contain handler parameter named methodToCall.

This is what the form buttons look like with view source:

<input type="submit" name="methodToCall" value="Add">
<input type="submit" name="methodToCall" value="Add">
<input type="button" name="methodToCall" value="Exit" onclick="javascript:exit()">

Apparently, the methodToCall parameter isn't being added to the ActionMapping object, but I don't know why.  Very sorry this is so long, but I wanted to provide a complete description.  

Note that I know this works:

<input type="button" value='Exit' onclick='window.location="mainMenu.jsp";'>

 but I don't want to do that, because then the path to the jsp file is displayed to the user in the URL.

Thanks for any help.

To make buttons work:

JSP:
 <html:submit property="submit">
                          <bean:message key="button.add"/>
                </html:submit>

note:  there has to be space between the " /> .

1. property can be any name you want but you will have to remember this because this is what you will need for parameter name in the struts-config file.

2. The key to the button is called button.add.  You can make any name you want.  You can call it e.g. butt.pizza.  You will also have to remember this because you will need to add this name in the file ApplicationResources.properties.  In the applicationResources.properties, you do your translation.  button.pizza=Nice Job.   note:  no space in the equal.   This is why this makes struts more extensible.  

3. You will need to change the struts-config file:

 <action path="/doSomething"
            type="com.fitness.pt.actions.doSomethingAction"
            name="measurementForm" scope="request" parameter="submit" validate="false">
      <forward name="success" path="/doSomething.do"/>
    </action>

please note parameter="submit"  this is the property in the .jsp
validate can be false or true since I do not have a validation file, I set it to false.

4.  You will need only one java class to control your routing.  I think this makes it cleaner.  You will need to import LookupDispatchAction.  Please do not inherit PTBaseAction since it has an execute() method.  If you do that, this overrides the execute method of the LookupDispatchAction.  I do not know how to make a PTLookupDispatchAction to make the codes reusable because you have to implement getKeyMethodMap();

The method getKeyMethodMap() is your database.  This tells the class what your button.pizza has to do.  map.put("button.pizza", "buyPizza");    Then you need to implement a method called buyPizza().



  protected Map getKeyMethodMap() {
    Map map = new HashMap();
    map.put("button.update", "update");
    map.put("button.delete", "delete");
    map.put("button.add", "add");
    map.put("button.save", "save");
    return map;
  }

    public ActionForward save(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException, ServletException
  {
    System.out.println("called the update");
    return mapping.findForward("success");
  }

  public ActionForward delete(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException, ServletException
  {
    System.out.println("called the delete");

    return mapping.findForward("success");
  }
   public ActionForward add(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException, ServletException
  {
    System.out.println("called the update");
   
    return mapping.findForward("success");
  }

  public ActionForward update(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException, ServletException
  {
    System.out.println("called the delete");
    return mapping.findForward("success");
  }
}

I made a mistake in the following>  I used these codes in my application and these are the notes to my colleagues.  I forgot to take out all the application specific codes.  These are:

1. PTBaseAction is specific to our application.  The codes are tested and it works