- how to use request parameters in an action (not bound to the form), eg. when passing parameters via a link to the start of a flow or between actions
context.getSourceEvent().getParameter("foo");
- how to initialize a form programatically (eg. in the SearchPhoneBookAction)
Note sure what you mean here. Form setup is performed by setupForm of the FormAction--you shouldn't have to code standard form setup logic. Now, if you need to retrieve other data (to populate drop downs for example) on setup, you can do this:
<action-state id="setupForm">
<action bean="formAction" method="setupForm"/>
<action name="setupDropDowns" bean="formAction" method="setupDropDowns"/>
<transition on="setupDropDowns.success" to="displayForm"/>
</action-state>
... that obviously requires you to have a "setupDropDowns" action method defined in your 'formAction' subclass:
public Event setupDropDowns(RequestContext context) {
context.getRequestScope().setAttribute("dropDownAData", dao.getDropDownAData());
return success();
}
See the ActionState and FormAction JavaDocs for more info.
- how to use different form objects in the same flow, possibly in different scopes; eg. the typical "edit items" flow where the items are stored in a flowscope-form, and adding a new one or editing an existing one uses a requestcope-form
Use a different form action with a formObject with a different name. Refer to that form action from your flow definition just like would any other action.
We may consider adding a capability to FormAction to be parameterized by the states in which it is invoked in at some point so you could have one FormAction per app to handle all forms.
Keith[/quote]