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org.apache.struts.actions

Class DispatchAction

Known Direct Subclasses:
EventDispatchAction, LookupDispatchAction, MappingDispatchAction
public abstract class DispatchAction
extends Action
An abstract Action that dispatches to a public method that is named by the request parameter whose name is specified by the parameter property of the corresponding ActionMapping. This Action is useful for developers who prefer to combine many similar actions into a single Action class, in order to simplify their application design.

To configure the use of this action in your struts-config.xml file, create an entry like this: <action path="/saveSubscription" type="org.apache.struts.actions.DispatchAction" name="subscriptionForm" scope="request" input="/subscription.jsp" parameter="method"/>

which will use the value of the request parameter named "method" to pick the appropriate "execute" method, which must have the same signature (other than method name) of the standard Action.execute method. For example, you might have the following three methods in the same action:

and call one of the methods with a URL like this: http://localhost:8080/myapp/saveSubscription.do?method=update

NOTE - All of the other mapping characteristics of this action must be shared by the various handlers. This places some constraints over what types of handlers may reasonably be packaged into the same DispatchAction subclass.

NOTE - If the value of the request parameter is empty, a method named unspecified is called. The default action is to throw an exception. If the request was cancelled (a html:cancel button was pressed), the custom handler cancelled will be used instead. You can also override the getMethodName method to override the action's default handler selection.

Version:
$Rev: 384089 $ $Date: 2006-03-08 01:50:52 +0000 (Wed, 08 Mar 2006) $

Field Summary

protected Class
clazz
The Class instance of this DispatchAction class.
protected static Log
log
Commons Logging instance.
protected static MessageResources
messages
The message resources for this package.
protected HashMap
methods
The set of Method objects we have introspected for this class, keyed by method name.
protected Class[]
types
The set of argument type classes for the reflected method call.

Fields inherited from class org.apache.struts.action.Action

defaultLocale, servlet, token

Method Summary

protected ActionForward
cancelled(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
Method which is dispatched to when the request is a cancel button submit.
protected ActionForward
dispatchMethod(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, String name)
Dispatch to the specified method.
ActionForward
execute(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
Process the specified HTTP request, and create the corresponding HTTP response (or forward to another web component that will create it).
protected Method
getMethod(String name)
Introspect the current class to identify a method of the specified name that accepts the same parameter types as the execute method does.
protected String
getMethodName(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response, String parameter)
Returns the method name, given a parameter's value.
protected String
getParameter(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
Returns the parameter value.
protected ActionForward
unspecified(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
Method which is dispatched to when there is no value for specified request parameter included in the request.

Methods inherited from class org.apache.struts.action.Action

addErrors, addMessages, execute, execute, generateToken, getDataSource, getDataSource, getErrors, getLocale, getMessages, getResources, getResources, getServlet, isCancelled, isTokenValid, isTokenValid, resetToken, saveErrors, saveErrors, saveErrors, saveMessages, saveMessages, saveToken, setLocale, setServlet

Field Details

clazz

protected Class clazz
The Class instance of this DispatchAction class.

log

protected static Log log
Commons Logging instance.

messages

protected static MessageResources messages
The message resources for this package.

methods

protected HashMap methods
The set of Method objects we have introspected for this class, keyed by method name. This collection is populated as different methods are called, so that introspection needs to occur only once per method name.

types

protected Class[] types
The set of argument type classes for the reflected method call. These are the same for all calls, so calculate them only once.

Method Details

cancelled

protected ActionForward cancelled(ActionMapping mapping,
                                  ActionForm form,
                                  HttpServletRequest request,
                                  HttpServletResponse response)
            throws Exception
Method which is dispatched to when the request is a cancel button submit. Subclasses of DispatchAction should override this method if they wish to provide default behavior different than returning null.
Since:
Struts 1.2.0

dispatchMethod

protected ActionForward dispatchMethod(ActionMapping mapping,
                                       ActionForm form,
                                       HttpServletRequest request,
                                       HttpServletResponse response,
                                       String name)
            throws Exception
Dispatch to the specified method.
Since:
Struts 1.1

execute

public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping,
                             ActionForm form,
                             HttpServletRequest request,
                             HttpServletResponse response)
            throws Exception
Process the specified HTTP request, and create the corresponding HTTP response (or forward to another web component that will create it). Return an ActionForward instance describing where and how control should be forwarded, or null if the response has already been completed.
Overrides:
execute in interface Action
Parameters:
mapping - The ActionMapping used to select this instance
form - The optional ActionForm bean for this request (if any)
request - The HTTP request we are processing
response - The HTTP response we are creating

getMethod

protected Method getMethod(String name)
            throws NoSuchMethodException
Introspect the current class to identify a method of the specified name that accepts the same parameter types as the execute method does.
Parameters:
name - Name of the method to be introspected

getMethodName

protected String getMethodName(ActionMapping mapping,
                               ActionForm form,
                               HttpServletRequest request,
                               HttpServletResponse response,
                               String parameter)
            throws Exception
Returns the method name, given a parameter's value.
Parameters:
mapping - The ActionMapping used to select this instance
form - The optional ActionForm bean for this request (if any)
request - The HTTP request we are processing
response - The HTTP response we are creating
parameter - The ActionMapping parameter's name
Returns:
The method's name.
Since:
Struts 1.2.0

getParameter

protected String getParameter(ActionMapping mapping,
                              ActionForm form,
                              HttpServletRequest request,
                              HttpServletResponse response)
            throws Exception
Returns the parameter value.
Parameters:
mapping - The ActionMapping used to select this instance
form - The optional ActionForm bean for this request (if any)
request - The HTTP request we are processing
response - The HTTP response we are creating
Returns:
The ActionMapping parameter's value

unspecified

protected ActionForward unspecified(ActionMapping mapping,
                                    ActionForm form,
                                    HttpServletRequest request,
                                    HttpServletResponse response)
            throws Exception
Method which is dispatched to when there is no value for specified request parameter included in the request. Subclasses of DispatchAction should override this method if they wish to provide default behavior different than throwing a ServletException.

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