struts - dropdown list - assign the value to the drop down list

Ok, the way you're using Struts makes me remember my first project using it too :p

In fact, there's a simple way of handling form initialization in Struts (surely not the only one, but that's the one that I find the best for now);
- You must have a Struts action that initialiaze the view (like a ViewMyForm.do)
- You must have a Struts action that handle the submit (like a DoMyForm.do or SubmitMyForm.do)
- On that submit action, you must have a Struts ActionForm (like MyForm) linked (which will contains all the parameters of the form)

The goal is to generate the actionForm in the view action so that it will contains all the "to be selected" values in the form to be displayed and eventually all the collections that are used in the forms (in tags like html:select).

When you've that, here's how you can do it;

    * in MyForm;

private String userType;

public String getUserType() {
    return userType;
}

public void setUserType(String userType) {
    this.userType = userType;
}

public void reset(... /* forgot the parameters required here :p */) {
    userType = null;
}


    * in ViewMyForm's execute method;

String userType = ...;
MyForm myForm= new MyForm();
myForm.setUserType(userType);
request.setAttribute("MyForm", myForm); /* The key has to be the name of the form as defined for the submit action to which it will be submitted */

// Eventually, let's also generate the collection here; it'll look better than in the JSP page;
Collection options = new ArrayList();
for (int i = 0;i < Constants.USER_TYPE.length;i++) {
    String value = Constants.USER_TYPE[i];
    /* A label value bean is the Struts key-value object, which is used to represent, by example,
    the value and the label of a option in a select */
    LabelValueBean option = new LabelValueBean(value, value);
    options.add(option);
}
request.setAttribute("listOfValuesUserType", options);


    * In the JSP page;

<html:select property="userType">
    <html:optionsCollection name="listOfValuesUserType" />
</html:select>


    * In the SubmitMyForm's execute;

MyForm myForm = (MyForm) form;
String userType = myForm.getUserType();


So the advantages here are multiple;
- You've a clean separation between form/page initialization & display
- You've a nice JSP code without any Java code
- You can use the Struts framework to make most of the work through actions, forms and tags.

I know the example may not be very cool, but it's a simple description on how you could do it (and also, I did not really test it)...
If you have any question about it, just ask.

I got compiliation error in my jsp page. The error is

The error is: com.sap.engine.services.servlets_jsp.lib.jspparser.exceptions.JspParseException: Attribute [property] is required but was not found in the tag of the action.
==================================================================================
Do i need to declare listOfValuesUserType in my jsp page?

===================================================================================
below is my code - jsp

<td align="left" size="10" >
    <html:select property="userType">
        <html:optionsCollection name="listOfValuesUserType" />
    </html:select>                     
</td>      

===========================================================================
My action form.
I use your code after calling my EJB method, findByEmail,  to return the value.


 try {
    String emailAddress = request.getParameter("emailAddress").trim();
   findByEmail(request,order,emailAddress);
   for (int j = 0;j < Constants.SR_USER_TYPE.length;j++) {
   String value = Constants.SR_USER_TYPE[j];
   LabelValueBean option = new LabelValueBean(value, value);
   options.add(option);
}  
     request.setAttribute("listOfValuesUserType", options);            
} catch (SrUserException e) {
   e.printStackTrace();
}


please advise