Struts form validation and error handling
Struts Validation and error handling
Struts
provides capabilities to validate form properties in two major modes,
one is Java and the other is XML related. Another feature of Struts
is error handling. In this tutorial we want to explain both of them
and show you a small example application using these features.
General
Author:
Sascha
Wolski
Sebastian
Hennebrueder
Date
Updated:
December 2007
First
edition: February 2005
Software:
Struts
Framework 1.3
PDF
download:
http://www.laliluna.de/download/struts-validation-error-handling-en.pdf
Source
download:
http://www.laliluna.de/download/struts-validation-error-handling.zip
Requirements
We require the basics of Struts to
understand this tutorial. If you are new to Struts, read the ‘first
steps in struts’ tutorial, you can find at
http://www.laliluna.de/articles/posts/first-steps-using-struts-tutorial.html.
Create a struts project
Let’s start, create a new struts project and
a package named de.laliluna.tutorial.validation.
Action form class (java related validation)
Create a new class ExampleForm in the
package de.laliluna.tutorial.validation.form,
which extends the class ActionForm.
Add two properties, name of type
String and age of type String.
Add a getter and setter method for each
property.
Initialize the properties in the reset()
method.
The following source code shows the content
of the class ExampleForm.
public class ExampleForm extends ActionForm {
private String name;
private Integer age;
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public Integer getAge() {
return age;
}
public void setAge(Integer age) {
this.age = age;
}
}
The Validate Method
The action form class provides a method
validate() which is called before the action class is
executed. So you can validate your properties within this method. The
return-value of the method is a collection (ActionErrors) of error
messages (ActionMessage).
You can validate your properties and add
error messages to this collection for each wrong validation. In the
JSP file you can display these messages to the user. The error
messages are message keys of the message resource bundle. (You will
find more infos about message resource bundle at
http://www.laliluna.de/articles/posts/struts-message-resources-tutorial.html.)
Implement the validate() method of
the action form class.
Validate each property and add an error
message for each wrong validation.
These are the criteria for the validation:
-
name must have more than three
characters -
age must be not null and greater
than 18
The following source code shows the
validate() method.
public ActionErrors validate(ActionMapping mapping,
HttpServletRequest request) {
// create a new instance of actionerrors
ActionErrors actionErrors = new ActionErrors();
// valdiate name
if (name.length() < 3) {
actionErrors.add("name", new ActionMessage("error.name"));
}
// validate age
if (age == null || age < 18) {
actionErrors.add("age", new ActionMessage("error.age"));
}
// return collection of action messages
return actionErrors;
}
public void reset(ActionMapping mapping, HttpServletRequest request) {
// reset properties
name = "";
age = 0;
}
Validator form class (XML related validation)
Create a new class ExampleXMLForm in
the package de.laliluna.tutorial.validation.form, which
extends the class ValidatorForm.
Add the same properties in this class, name
of type String and age of type Integer.
Add a getter and setter method for each
property.
Initial the properties in the reset()
method.
The following source code shows the content
of the class ExampleXMLForm.
public class ExampleXMLForm extends ValidatorForm {
private String name;
private Integer age;
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public Integer getAge() {
return age;
}
public void setAge(Integer age) {
this.age = age;
}
public void reset(ActionMapping mapping, HttpServletRequest request) {
// reset properties
name = "";
age = 0;
}
}
The XML related validation (validation.xml)
The ValidatorForm class provides validation
based on an XML file. Within this file you define your rules and
error message keys. To use this feature you have to configure the
validator plugin in your struts-config.xml.
Open your struts-conig.xml and add
the following lines:
<plug-in className=“org.apache.struts.validator.ValidatorPlugIn”>
<set-property property=“pathnames”
value=“/org/apache/struts/validator/validator-rules.xml,
/WEB-INF/validation.xml” />
</plug-in>
Struts provides a XML file
validator-rules.xml which contains standard validation
methods. These validation methods use standard message keys to
display error messages to the user.
The
following default error message keys exists for the struts validator:
# Struts Validator Error Messages
errors.required={0} is required.
errors.minlength={0} can not be less than {1} characters.
errors.maxlength={0} can not be greater than {1} characters.
errors.invalid={0} is invalid.
errors.byte={0} must be a byte.
errors.short={0} must be a short.
errors.integer={0} must be an integer.
errors.long={0} must be a long.
errors.float={0} must be a float.
errors.double={0} must be a double.
errors.date={0} is not a date.
errors.range={0} is not in the range {1} through {2}.
errors.creditcard={0} is an invalid credit card number.
errors.email={0} is an invalid e-mail address.
Create a new XML file validation.xml
in the folder /WebRoot/WEB-INF/. This file contains the
validation mapping for the form properties.
These are the criteria for the validation:
name must have more than
three characters-
age must be a number and greater
than 18
The following source code shows the content
of the file validation.xml:
<form-validation>
<formset>
<!-- validation mappings -->
<form name="exampleXMLForm">
<field
property="name"
depends="required, minlength">
<arg key="exampleXMLForm.name" />
<arg key="${var:minlength}" resource="false" />
<var>
<var-name>minlength</var-name>
<var-value>3</var-value>
</var>
</field>
<field
property="age"
depends="required, integer, validwhen">
<arg key="exampleXMLForm.age"/>
<arg name="validwhen" key="${var:min}" resource="false" />
<var>
<var-name>test</var-name>
<var-value>(*this* > 18)</var-value>
</var>
</field>
</form>
</formset>
</form-validation>
The action classes
We need two action classes for each
validation option (java related, XML related).
Create two classes, ExampleAction and
ExampleXMLAction in the package
de.laliluna.tutorials.validation.action which extends the
class Action.
The following source codes shows the
classes:
Action class ExampleAction:
public class ExampleAction extends Action {
public ActionForward execute(
ActionMapping mapping,
ActionForm form,
HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response) {
ExampleForm exampleForm = (ExampleForm) form;
return mapping.findForward(“example”);
}
}
Action class ExampleXMLAction:
public class ExampleXMLAction extends Action {
public ActionForward execute(
ActionMapping mapping,
ActionForm form,
HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response) {
ExampleForm exampleForm = (ExampleForm) form;
return mapping.findForward(“example”);
}
}
Message resource bundle
To display errors we need message keys which
contains the error messages. Create a new text file named
ApplicationResources.properties in the package
de.laliluna.tutorials.validation.
Open the file and
add the struts validator error message keys first:
# Struts Validator Error Messages
errors.required={0} is required.
errors.minlength={0} can not be less than {1} characters.
errors.maxlength={0} can not be greater than {1} characters.
errors.invalid={0} is invalid.
errors.byte={0} must be a byte.
errors.short={0} must be a short.
errors.integer={0} must be an integer.
errors.long={0} must be a long.
errors.float={0} must be a float.
errors.double={0} must be a double.
errors.date={0} is not a date.
errors.range={0} is not in the range {1} through {2}.
errors.creditcard={0} is an invalid credit card number.
errors.email={0} is an invalid e-mail address.
For the error messages of the XML related
validation, we need two message keys which hold the labels for the
form propeties, because the {0} in the struts validator error
messsages will be replaced with them. You will find these keys in the
validation.xml.
# property labels
exampleXMLForm.name=Name
exampleXMLForm.age=Age
Now add the message keys we used in the
validate() method of the action form class.
# Custom Error Messages
error.name=Name must have 3 Characters
error.age=Age is not over 18
error.number=Age is not a number
The JSP files
We need two JSP files for each action class
we created before. The difference between these two files is the
action in the form tag.
Create a JSP file named example.jsp
and one named exampleXML.jsp in the folder /WebRoot/form
Add a html:form and two html:text
elements for each property.
Use html:messsages tags
to display errors instead of html:errors. If you want to display an
error associated with a form property use the attribute property
of the html:messages tag. The value of the attribute specifies the
property which error message should displayed.
The following source code shows the first
jsp file example.jsp:
<%@ page language="java"%> <%@ taglib uri="http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean" prefix="bean"%> <%@ taglib uri="http://struts.apache.org/tags-html" prefix="html"%> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html:html> <head> <html:base /> <title>example.jsp</title> </head> <body> <html:form action="/example"> <p> <i><b>Display all error messages:</b> </i> <br /> <html:messages id="errors"> <bean:write name="errors" /> <br /> </html:messages> </p> <p> <%-- input field for property name --%> Name: <html:text property="name" /> <br /> <i><b>Only error messages for property name:</b> </i> <br /> <html:messages id="err_name" property="name"> <bean:write name="err_name" /> <br /> <br /> </html:messages> </p> <p> <%-- input field for property age --%> Age: <html:text property="age" /> <br /> <i><b>Only error messages for property age:</b> </i> <br /> <html:messages id="err_age" property="age"> <bean:write name="err_age" /> <br /> </html:messages> </p> <html:submit /> </html:form> </body> </html:html>
The following source code shows the second
jsp file exampleXML.jsp.
<%@ page language=“java”%><%@ taglib uri=“http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean” prefix=“bean”%>
<%@ taglib uri=“http://struts.apache.org/tags-html” prefix=“html”%><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN”>
<html:html>
<head>
<html:base />
<title>exampleXML.jsp</title>
</head><body>
<html:form action=“/exampleXML”>
<p>
<i><b>Display all error messages:</b>
</i>
<br />
<html:messages id=“errors”>
<bean:write name=“errors” />
<br />
</html:messages>
</p>
<p>
<%— input field for property name —%>
Name:
<html:text property=“name” />
<br /><i><b>Only error messages for property name:</b>
</i>
<br />
<html:messages id=“err_name” property=“name”>
<bean:write name=“err_name” />
<br />
<br />
</html:messages>
</p>
<p>
<%— input field for property age —%>
Age:
<html:text property=“age” />
<br /><i><b>Only error messages for property age:</b>
</i>
<br />
<html:messages id=“err_age” property=“age”>
<bean:write name=“err_age” />
<br />
</html:messages>
</p>
<html:submit />
</html:form>
</body>
</html:html>
Configure the struts-config.xml
Now open your struts-config.xml and
add the form bean, the action and message resource mappings. And
don’t forget to configure the validator plugin ;-)
With the attribute input of the
<action> tag you can specify a jsp file, Struts
automatically forwards to it, if an error occurs. In our example we
do not use a different jsp file to display error messages.
The following source code shows the
content of the struts-config.xml:
<?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?>
<!DOCTYPE struts-config PUBLIC “-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 1.3//EN” “http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-config_1_3.dtd”><struts-config>
<form-beans>
<form-bean name=“exampleForm”
type=“de.laliluna.tutorial.validation.form.ExampleForm” />
<form-bean name=“exampleXMLForm”
type=“de.laliluna.tutorial.validation.form.ExampleXMLForm” />
</form-beans><action-mappings>
<action attribute=“exampleForm” input=“/form/example.jsp”
name=“exampleForm” path=“/example” scope=“request”
type=“de.laliluna.tutorial.validation.action.ExampleAction”>
<forward name=“example” path=“/form/example.jsp” />
</action><action attribute=“exampleXMLForm” input=“/form/exampleXML.jsp”
name=“exampleXMLForm” path=“/exampleXML” scope=“request”
type=“de.laliluna.tutorial.validation.action.ExampleXMLAction”>
<forward name=“example” path=“/form/exampleXML.jsp” />
</action>
</action-mappings><message-resources
parameter=“de.laliluna.tutorial.validation.ApplicationResources” /><plug-in className=“org.apache.struts.validator.ValidatorPlugIn”>
<set-property property=“pathnames”
value=“/org/apache/struts/validator/validator-rules.xml,
/WEB-INF/validation.xml” />
</plug-in>
</struts-config>
Run the example application
Now you can test the example. We recommend
an installation of Jboss, Jetty or Tomcat to run this example. Call
the example by using the following links:
http://localhost:8080/Validation/