Introduce a successor to FormAction for data binding and validation [SWF-297]

[spring-operator]

Keith Donald opened SWF-297 and commented

FormAction handles form object data binding and validation command logic in the context of flow definition controller logic. It works fine, but its approach is not very object oriented. Specifically:

• a FormAction instance is shared by the entire flow (and perhaps all flows), yet the binding and validation logic it executes is typically view-state specific.
• Updating different "form objects" in the same flow is a bit unwiedly, requiring multiple independent form actions to be deployed.

This issue should devise a better solution by building support for data binding and validation into the view state construct.

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Affects: 1.0

Issue Links:

• Introduce a message context abstraction for reporting messages [SWF-296] #158 Introduce a message context abstraction for reporting messages
  ("depends on")
• Add support for Spring 2.5 @Controller @RequestMapping annotations for "REST-ful" flows [SWF-396] #1236 Add support for Spring 2.5 @Controller @RequestMapping annotations for "REST-ful" flows
  ("is depended on by")
• Enhance bean invoking action to provide built-in exception handling support [SWF-321] #170 Enhance bean invoking action to provide built-in exception handling support
  ("is depended on by")
• Introduce model binding and validation support for SWF2 views [SWF-539] #1361 Introduce model binding and validation support for SWF2 views

2 votes, 3 watchers

[spring-operator]

Erwin Vervaet commented

Probably it would even be usefull to build a 'FormState' that automatically handles data binding and validation using FormAction behind the screen.

[spring-operator]

Erwin Vervaet commented

A possible example

<form-state id="myFormState" view="myForm">
<form-object name="foo" class="my.FormObject" validator="myValidator"/>
<transition on="submit" to="someOtherState"/>
</form-state

is equivalent to:

<view-state id="myFormState" view="myForm">
<render-actions>
<action bean="formAction" method="setupForm"/>
</render-actions>
<transition on="submit" to="someOtherState">
<action bean="formAction" method="bindAndValidate"/>
</transition>
</view-state>
<bean id="formAction" class="org.springframework.webflow.action.FormAction">
<property name="formObjectClass" value="my.FormObject"/>
<property name="formObjectName" value="foo"/>
<property name="validator" ref="myValidator"/>
</bean>