Class EventActionDispatcher

An Action helper class that dispatches to to one of the public methods that are named in the parameter attribute of the corresponding ActionMapping and matches a submission parameter. This is useful for developers who prefer to use many submit buttons, images, or submit links on a single form and whose related actions exist in a single Action class.

The method(s) in the associated Action must have the same signature (other than method name) of the standard Action.execute method.

To configure the use of this action in your struts-config.xml file, create an entry like this:

   <action path="/saveSubscription"
           type="org.example.SubscriptionAction"
           name="subscriptionForm"
          scope="request"
          input="/subscription.jsp"
      parameter="save,back,recalc=recalculate,default=save"/>
 

where parameter contains three possible methods and one default method if nothing matches (such as the user pressing the enter key).

For utility purposes, you can use the key=value notation to alias methods so that they are exposed as different form element names, in the event of a naming conflict or otherwise. In this example, the recalc button (via a request parameter) will invoke the recalculate method. The security-minded person may find this feature valuable to obfuscate and not expose the methods.

The default key is purely optional. If this is not specified and no parameters match the list of method keys, null is returned which means the unspecified method will be invoked.

The order of the parameters are guaranteed to be iterated in the order specified. If multiple buttons were accidently submitted, the first match in the list will be dispatched.

To implement this dispatch behaviour in an Action, class create your custom Action as follows, along with the methods you require (and optionally "cancelled" and "unspecified" methods):

   public class MyCustomAction extends Action {

       protected ActionDispatcher dispatcher = new EventActionDispatcher(this);

       public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping,
                                    ActionForm form,
                                    HttpServletRequest request,
                                    HttpServletResponse response)
                           throws Exception {
           return dispatcher.execute(mapping, form, request, response);
       }
   }
 

private static final String DEFAULT_METHOD_KEY

private static final Log LOG

public EventActionDispatcher(Action action)

protected String getMethodName(ActionMapping mapping,
                               ActionForm form,
                               HttpServletRequest request,
                               HttpServletResponse response,
                               String parameter)
            throws Exception

protected ActionForward unspecified(ActionMapping mapping,
                                    ActionForm form,
                                    HttpServletRequest request,
                                    HttpServletResponse response)
            throws Exception