com.opensymphony.xwork.util
Class XWorkConverter

java.lang.Object
  extended byognl.DefaultTypeConverter
      extended bycom.opensymphony.xwork.util.XWorkConverter
All Implemented Interfaces:
ognl.TypeConverter

public class XWorkConverter
extends ognl.DefaultTypeConverter

XWorkConverter is a singleton used by many of the WebWork's Ognl extention points, such as InstantiatingNullHandler, XWorkListPropertyAccessor etc to do object conversion. Type conversion is great for situations where you need to turn a String in to a more complex object. Because the web is type-agnostic (everything is a string in HTTP), WebWork's type conversion features are very useful. For instance, if you were prompting a user to enter in coordinates in the form of a string (such as "3, 22"), you could have WebWork do the conversion both from String to Point and from Point to String.

Using this "point" example, if your action (or another compound object in which you are setting properties on) has a corresponding ClassName-conversion.properties file, WebWork will use the configured type converters for conversion to and from strings. So turning "3, 22" in to new Point(3, 22) is done by merely adding the following entry to ClassName-conversion.properties (Note that the PointConverter should impl the ognl.TypeConverter interface):

point = com.acme.PointConverter

Your type converter should be sure to check what class type it is being requested to convert. Because it is used for both to and from strings, you will need to split the conversion method in to two parts: one that turns Strings in to Points, and one that turns Points in to Strings.

After this is done, you can now reference your point (using <ww:property value="post"/> in JSP or ${point} in FreeMarker) and it will be printed as "3, 22" again. As such, if you submit this back to an action, it will be converted back to a Point once again.

In some situations you may wish to apply a type converter globally. This can be done by editing the file xwork-conversion.properties in the root of your class path (typically WEB-INF/classes) and providing a property in the form of the class name of the object you wish to convert on the left hand side and the class name of the type converter on the right hand side. For example, providing a type converter for all Point objects would mean adding the following entry:

com.acme.Point = com.acme.PointConverter

Type conversion should not be used as a substitute for i18n. It is not recommended to use this feature to print out properly formatted dates. Rather, you should use the i18n features of WebWork (and consult the JavaDocs for JDK's MessageFormat object) to see how a properly formatted date should be displayed.

Any error that occurs during type conversion may or may not wish to be reported. For example, reporting that the input "abc" could not be converted to a number might be important. On the other hand, reporting that an empty string, "", cannot be converted to a number might not be important - especially in a web environment where it is hard to distinguish between a user not entering a value vs. entering a blank value.

By default, all conversion errors are reported using the generic i18n key xwork.default.invalid.fieldvalue, which you can override (the default text is Invalid field value for field "xxx", where xxx is the field name) in your global i18n resource bundle.

However, sometimes you may wish to override this message on a per-field basis. You can do this by adding an i18n key associated with just your action (Action.properties) using the pattern invalid.fieldvalue.xxx, where xxx is the field name.

It is important to know that none of these errors are actually reported directly. Rather, they are added to a map called conversionErrors in the ActionContext. There are several ways this map can then be accessed and the errors can be reported accordingly.

Author:
Pat Lightbody, Rainer Hermanns, Alexandru Popescu
See Also:
XWorkBasicConverter

Field Summary
static String CONVERSION_COLLECTION_PREFIX
           
static String CONVERSION_ERROR_PROPERTY_PREFIX
           
static String CONVERSION_PROPERTY_FULLNAME
           
static String LAST_BEAN_CLASS_ACCESSED
           
static String LAST_BEAN_PROPERTY_ACCESSED
           
protected static org.apache.commons.logging.Log LOG
           
static String REPORT_CONVERSION_ERRORS
           
 
Constructor Summary
protected XWorkConverter()
           
 
Method Summary
static String buildConverterFilename(Class clazz)
           
 Object convertValue(Map map, Object o, Class aClass)
           
 Object convertValue(Map context, Object target, Member member, String property, Object value, Class toClass)
          Convert value from one form to another.
static String getConversionErrorMessage(String propertyName, OgnlValueStack stack)
           
protected  Object getConverter(Class clazz, String property)
           
static XWorkConverter getInstance()
           
 ObjectTypeDeterminer getObjectTypeDeterminer()
           
protected  void handleConversionException(Map context, String property, Object value, Object object)
           
 void loadConversionProperties(String propsName)
           
 ognl.TypeConverter lookup(Class clazz)
          Looks for a TypeConverter in the default mappings.
 ognl.TypeConverter lookup(String className)
          Looks for a TypeConverter in the default mappings.
 void registerConverter(String className, ognl.TypeConverter converter)
           
 void registerConverterNotFound(String className)
           
static void resetInstance()
           
 void setDefaultConverter(ognl.TypeConverter defaultTypeConverter)
           
static void setInstance(XWorkConverter instance)
           
 void setObjectTypeDeterminer(ObjectTypeDeterminer determiner)
           
 
Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait
 

Field Detail

LOG

protected static final org.apache.commons.logging.Log LOG

REPORT_CONVERSION_ERRORS

public static final String REPORT_CONVERSION_ERRORS
See Also:
Constant Field Values

CONVERSION_PROPERTY_FULLNAME

public static final String CONVERSION_PROPERTY_FULLNAME
See Also:
Constant Field Values

CONVERSION_ERROR_PROPERTY_PREFIX

public static final String CONVERSION_ERROR_PROPERTY_PREFIX
See Also:
Constant Field Values

CONVERSION_COLLECTION_PREFIX

public static final String CONVERSION_COLLECTION_PREFIX
See Also:
Constant Field Values

LAST_BEAN_CLASS_ACCESSED

public static final String LAST_BEAN_CLASS_ACCESSED
See Also:
Constant Field Values

LAST_BEAN_PROPERTY_ACCESSED

public static final String LAST_BEAN_PROPERTY_ACCESSED
See Also:
Constant Field Values
Constructor Detail

XWorkConverter

protected XWorkConverter()
Method Detail

getConversionErrorMessage

public static String getConversionErrorMessage(String propertyName,
                                               OgnlValueStack stack)

getInstance

public static XWorkConverter getInstance()

setInstance

public static void setInstance(XWorkConverter instance)

buildConverterFilename

public static String buildConverterFilename(Class clazz)

resetInstance

public static void resetInstance()

setDefaultConverter

public void setDefaultConverter(ognl.TypeConverter defaultTypeConverter)

convertValue

public Object convertValue(Map map,
                           Object o,
                           Class aClass)

convertValue

public Object convertValue(Map context,
                           Object target,
                           Member member,
                           String property,
                           Object value,
                           Class toClass)
Convert value from one form to another. Minimum requirement of arguments:

See Also:
TypeConverter.convertValue(java.util.Map, java.lang.Object, java.lang.reflect.Member, java.lang.String, java.lang.Object, java.lang.Class)

lookup

public ognl.TypeConverter lookup(String className)
Looks for a TypeConverter in the default mappings.

Parameters:
className - name of the class the TypeConverter must handle
Returns:
a TypeConverter to handle the specified class or null if none can be found

lookup

public ognl.TypeConverter lookup(Class clazz)
Looks for a TypeConverter in the default mappings.

Parameters:
clazz - the class the TypeConverter must handle
Returns:
a TypeConverter to handle the specified class or null if none can be found

getConverter

protected Object getConverter(Class clazz,
                              String property)

handleConversionException

protected void handleConversionException(Map context,
                                         String property,
                                         Object value,
                                         Object object)

registerConverter

public void registerConverter(String className,
                              ognl.TypeConverter converter)

registerConverterNotFound

public void registerConverterNotFound(String className)

loadConversionProperties

public void loadConversionProperties(String propsName)
                              throws IOException
Throws:
IOException

getObjectTypeDeterminer

public ObjectTypeDeterminer getObjectTypeDeterminer()

setObjectTypeDeterminer

public void setObjectTypeDeterminer(ObjectTypeDeterminer determiner)
Parameters:
determiner -

XWork Project Page