How To Install a Property Editor?

[cyboc]

You'll need to install a PropertyEditor to convert from String to Number and vice versa. Unfortunately this doesn't happen automatically yet for the common types. Improving this is a priority.

Apparently, I need to install a PropertyEditor to convert from String to Number and vice versa so that I don't get a ClassCastException when the framework tries to bind a Form field to an Integer property in a domain object. How and where do I install this PropertyEditor????

(See http://forum.springframework.org/showthread.php?t=10946 for more details.)

[Keith Donald]

The SwingFormModel.registerCustomEditor() methods

CustomNumberEditor, a Spring core class, is what you want.

Example:

            getFormModel().registerCustomEditor(int.class,
                    new CustomNumberEditor(Integer.class, true));

[cyboc]

Thanks Kieth -- that worked. But is there an easy way to register this custom editor ONLY ONCE and have it apply to ALL instances of SwingFormModel? It's a little bit inconvenient to repeat this registration for every new SwingFormModel.

I thought I might be able to do this by calling PropertyEditorRegistry.setPropertyEditor() in ApplicationAdvisor.onPostStartup() like this (very ugly, I know):

public class MyApplicationAdvisor extends BeanFactoryApplicationAdvisor {
  ...

  public void onPostStartup()
  {
    super.onPostStartup();
    
    getApplication().getApplicationServices().getPropertyEditorRegistry()
      .setPropertyEditor(Number.class, CustomNumberEditor.class);
  }
}

However, the call to setPropertyEditor() failed with the exception:
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: class org.springframework.beans.propertyeditors.CustomNu mberEditor does not have a no-arg constructor.

Indeed, CustomNumberEditor does not have a no-arg constructor. Neither do some of the other editors in the package org.springframework.beans.propertyeditors including CustomBooleanEditor, CustomDateEditor and StringTrimmerEditor.

Is there a better way to do what I'm trying to do?

[Keith Donald]

Check out PropertyEditorRegistry :-)

[cyboc]

Check out PropertyEditorRegistry :-)

I thought I did already? :?

In my previous post, I tried calling PropertyEditorRegistry.setPropertyEditor(Number.cl ass, CustomNumberEditor.class) but I got an IllegalArgumentException because CustomNumberEditor does not have a no-arg constructor. Apparently, some code underneath tries to use reflection to instantiate CustomNumberEditor with a no-arg constructor; obviously, this instantiation will fail.

Did I overlook some feature of PropertyEditorRegistry?

[oliverhutchison]

You need to create a subclass of CustomNumberEditor

class MyIntEditor extends CustomNumberEditor  {
    public MyIntEditor() {
        super(Integer.class, true);
    }
}

and then register that class with the PropertyEditorRegistry. You can also configure the PropertyEditorRegistry in your application context.

  <bean id="propertyEditorRegistry" 
    class="org.springframework.richclient.application.DefaultPropertyEditorRegistry">
    <property name="propertyEditors">
      <list>
        <props>
          <prop key="objectClass">int</prop>
          <prop key="propertyEditorClass"> MyIntEditor</prop>
        </props>
      </list>
    </property>
  </bean>

Ollie

[pdbruycker]

updated user documentation on the wiki. Now contains a topic on PropertyEditors (see Forms Support)

[cyboc]

Thanks Ollie and pdbruycker,

You need to create a subclass of CustomNumberEditor

class MyIntEditor extends CustomNumberEditor  {
    public MyIntEditor() {
        super(Integer.class, true);
    }
}

and then register that class with the PropertyEditorRegistry.

I did try the above PropertyEditorRegistry technique yesterday before I even posted my previous message. But for some reason it didn't work. My editor registered correctly without throwing exceptions but when I tried to call setFormObject() on my Form I got a ClassCastException when the framework tried to set the value of an Integer property into a JTextField that is on the Form:

java.lang.ClassCastException
	at org.springframework.richclient.forms.AsYouTypeTextValueSetter.setComponentValue(AsYouTypeTextValueSetter.java:50)
	at org.springframework.richclient.forms.AbstractValueSetter.valueChanged(AbstractValueSetter.java:63)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.AbstractValueModel.fireValueChanged(AbstractValueModel.java:71)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.BufferedValueModel.onWrappedValueChanged(BufferedValueModel.java:82)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.BufferedValueModel$WrappedModelValueChangeHandler.valueChanged(BufferedValueModel.java:70)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.AbstractValueModel.fireValueChanged(AbstractValueModel.java:71)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.PropertyAdapter$DomainObjectChangeHandler.valueChanged(PropertyAdapter.java:70)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.AbstractValueModel.fireValueChanged(AbstractValueModel.java:71)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.ValueHolder.setValue(ValueHolder.java:52)
	at org.springframework.binding.form.support.AbstractFormModel.setFormObject(AbstractFormModel.java:76)
	at org.springframework.richclient.forms.SwingFormModel.setFormObject(SwingFormModel.java:269)
	at org.springframework.richclient.forms.AbstractForm.setFormObject(AbstractForm.java:454)
	at com.cbconstantini.spring.locationapp.ui.LocationView$2.getSelectedObjectName(LocationView.java:236)
	at org.springframework.richclient.progress.TreeStatusBarUpdater.onSingleSelection(TreeStatusBarUpdater.java:36)
	at org.springframework.richclient.tree.TreeSelectionListenerSupport.valueChanged(TreeSelectionListenerSupport.java:49)
	at javax.swing.JTree.fireValueChanged(JTree.java:2406)
	at javax.swing.JTree$TreeSelectionRedirector.valueChanged(JTree.java:2777)
	at javax.swing.tree.DefaultTreeSelectionModel.fireValueChanged(DefaultTreeSelectionModel.java:629)
	at javax.swing.tree.DefaultTreeSelectionModel.notifyPathChange(DefaultTreeSelectionModel.java:1076)
	at javax.swing.tree.DefaultTreeSelectionModel.setSelectionPaths(DefaultTreeSelectionModel.java:287)
	at javax.swing.tree.DefaultTreeSelectionModel.setSelectionPath(DefaultTreeSelectionModel.java:170)
	at javax.swing.JTree.setSelectionPath(JTree.java:1181)
	at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicTreeUI.selectPathForEvent(BasicTreeUI.java:2192)
	at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicTreeUI$MouseHandler.handleSelection(BasicTreeUI.java:2840)
	at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicTreeUI$MouseHandler.mousePressed(BasicTreeUI.java:2801)
	at java.awt.AWTEventMulticaster.mousePressed(AWTEventMulticaster.java:218)
	at java.awt.Component.processMouseEvent(Component.java:5131)
	at java.awt.Component.processEvent(Component.java:4931)
	at java.awt.Container.processEvent(Container.java:1566)
	at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:3639)
	at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:1623)
	at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:3480)
	at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.retargetMouseEvent(Container.java:3450)
	at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.processMouseEvent(Container.java:3162)
	at java.awt.LightweightDispatcher.dispatchEvent(Container.java:3095)
	at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:1609)
	at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Window.java:1590)
	at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:3480)
	at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:450)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:197)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:150)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:144)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:136)
	at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:99)

Note that when I used the other technique (i.e. register a PropertyEditor in the FormModel), setFormObject() worked (i.e. it did NOT throw a ClassCastException) and the Integer field in my domain object was successfully bound to the control on the form. Unfortunately, I would much rather use the PropertyEditorRegistry technique so that I don't have to register my custom integer editor on every single form that is bound to a domain object with an Integer property.

I'll list the relevant code and bean config below to see if you can figure out what is happening. First, the bean config:

<bean id="propertyEditorRegistry"
class="org.springframework.richclient.application.support.DefaultPropertyEditorRegistry">
    <property name="propertyEditors">
        <list>
          <props>
              <prop key="objectClass">java.lang.Integer</prop>
              <prop key="propertyEditorClass">com.cbconstantini.spring.beans.propertyeditors.CustomIntegerEditor</prop>
          </props>
        </list>
    </property>
</bean>

Here's the editor:

package com.cbconstantini.spring.beans.propertyeditors;

import org.springframework.beans.propertyeditors.CustomNumberEditor;

public class CustomIntegerEditor extends CustomNumberEditor
{
  public CustomIntegerEditor()
  {
    super(Integer.class, true);
  }
}

Here's the domain object:

package com.cbconstantini.spring.locationapp.domain;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.Collections;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Set;

import org.springframework.beans.support.MutableSortDefinition;
import org.springframework.beans.support.PropertyComparator;

/**
 * Simple JavaBean domain object representing a Country.
 */
public class Country extends Entity 
{
  private String code;
  private String name;
  private Integer longDistanceCode;
  private String phoneNumFmt;
  private Set provinces;
  
  public Integer getLongDistanceCode()
  {
    return longDistanceCode;
  }
  
  public void setLongDistanceCode(Integer longDistanceCode)
  {
    this.longDistanceCode = longDistanceCode;
  }

   // other code omitted
   // ...
}

Here's the Form:

package com.cbconstantini.spring.locationapp.ui;

// code omitted
// ...

public class CountryForm extends AbstractForm {
    public static final String COUNTRY_FORM = "countryForm";

    private JComponent name;

    public CountryForm(FormModel formModel) {
        super(formModel, COUNTRY_FORM);
    }

    protected JComponent createFormControl() {
        FormLayout layout = new FormLayout("left:pref, 5dlu, pref:grow");
        BeanFormBuilder formBuilder = new JGoodiesBeanFormBuilder(
                getFormModel(), layout);
        this.name = formBuilder.add("name")[1];
        formBuilder.add("code");
        formBuilder.add("longDistanceCode");
        formBuilder.add("phoneNumFmt");
        return formBuilder.getForm();
    }

    public boolean requestFocusInWindow() {
        return name.requestFocusInWindow();
    }
}

Here's the view where I create the Form and call setFormObject():

public class LocationView extends AbstractView implements ApplicationListener
{
  private CountryForm countryForm;
  private JTree locationTree;

  // code omitted
  // ...

  private void createCountryForm()
  {
    SwingFormModel countryFormModel = SwingFormModel.createFormModel(new Country());
    
//    countryFormModel.registerCustomEditor(Integer.class,
//      new CustomIntegerEditor()); 
    countryForm = new CountryForm(countryFormModel);
  }

  // code omitted
  // ...
  
  private void createLocationTree()
  {
    // code omitted
    // ...
    locationTree.addTreeSelectionListener(new TreeStatusBarUpdater(
      getStatusBar())
    {
      public String getSelectedObjectName()
      {
        Object obj = getSelectedNode().getUserObject();
        if (obj instanceof Country)
        {
          Country country = (Country) obj;
          countryForm.setFormObject(country); // ClassCastException thrown during this call
          cardLayout.show(cardPanel, COUNTRY_CARD);
          return country.getName();
        }
        else if 

    // code omitted
    // ...
  }
}

Okay, I think that's all of the relevant code. PLEASE NOTE AGAIN, that when I used the other technique (i.e. register a PropertyEditor in the FormModel), setFormObject() WORKED with the above code (with the countryFormModel.registerCustomEditor() call UNcommented and with the "propertyEditorRegistry" bean config commented, of course).

For the moment, I'll assume that I have done something incorrectly but to me it looks like there might be a bug somewhere in the framework that is preventing the PropertyEditorRegistry technique from working correctly. I tried tracing the code the figure out what that bug might be but I got a bit lost in the details.

So, have I done something wrong?

[cyboc]

Ollie, I hope the following will help you narrow down the problem. Here are two stack traces. Both of these stack traces show the stack between where I add the Integer field to the form (i.e. formBuilder.add("longDistanceCode")) and where the Integer field's getter is called on the domain object (i.e. Country.getLongDistanceCode()). The first stack trace uses the "register a PropertyEditor in the FormModel" technique. The second stack trace uses the "PropertyEditorRegistry" technique (which doesn't work for me).

"register a PropertyEditor in the FormModel" technique

	at com.cbconstantini.spring.locationapp.domain.Country.getLongDistanceCode(Country.java:40)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
	at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
	at org.springframework.beans.BeanWrapperImpl.getPropertyValue(BeanWrapperImpl.java:514)
	at org.springframework.beans.BeanWrapperImpl.getPropertyValue(BeanWrapperImpl.java:502)
	at org.springframework.binding.support.BeanPropertyAccessStrategy.getPropertyValue(BeanPropertyAccessStrategy.java:146)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.PropertyAdapter.getValue(PropertyAdapter.java:75)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.BufferedValueModel.getValue(BufferedValueModel.java:128)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.ValueModelWrapper.getValue(ValueModelWrapper.java:39)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.TypeConverter.getValue(TypeConverter.java:90)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.ValueModelWrapper.getValue(ValueModelWrapper.java:39)
	at org.springframework.richclient.forms.SwingFormModel.bind(SwingFormModel.java:562)
	at org.springframework.richclient.forms.SwingFormModel.bind(SwingFormModel.java:555)
	at org.springframework.richclient.forms.SwingFormModel.createBoundTextField(SwingFormModel.java:502)
	at org.springframework.richclient.forms.SwingFormModel.createBoundControl(SwingFormModel.java:431)
	at org.springframework.richclient.form.builder.AbstractFormBuilder.getDefaultComponent(AbstractFormBuilder.java:62)
	at org.springframework.richclient.forms.JGoodiesBeanFormBuilder.add(JGoodiesBeanFormBuilder.java:62)
	at com.cbconstantini.spring.locationapp.ui.CountryForm.createFormControl(CountryForm.java:30)

"PropertyEditorRegistry" technique

	at com.cbconstantini.spring.locationapp.domain.Country.getLongDistanceCode(Country.java:40)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
	at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
	at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:324)
	at org.springframework.beans.BeanWrapperImpl.getPropertyValue(BeanWrapperImpl.java:514)
	at org.springframework.beans.BeanWrapperImpl.getPropertyValue(BeanWrapperImpl.java:502)
	at org.springframework.binding.support.BeanPropertyAccessStrategy.getPropertyValue(BeanPropertyAccessStrategy.java:146)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.PropertyAdapter.getValue(PropertyAdapter.java:75)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.BufferedValueModel.getValue(BufferedValueModel.java:128)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.ValueModelWrapper.getValue(ValueModelWrapper.java:39)
	at org.springframework.richclient.forms.SwingFormModel.bind(SwingFormModel.java:562)
	at org.springframework.richclient.forms.SwingFormModel.bind(SwingFormModel.java:555)
	at org.springframework.richclient.forms.SwingFormModel.createBoundTextField(SwingFormModel.java:502)
	at org.springframework.richclient.forms.SwingFormModel.createBoundControl(SwingFormModel.java:431)
	at org.springframework.richclient.form.builder.AbstractFormBuilder.getDefaultComponent(AbstractFormBuilder.java:62)
	at org.springframework.richclient.forms.JGoodiesBeanFormBuilder.add(JGoodiesBeanFormBuilder.java:62)
	at com.cbconstantini.spring.locationapp.ui.CountryForm.createFormControl(CountryForm.java:30)

My expectation was that both stack traces would be exactly the same. However, note that the first stack trace has the following two extra lines, otherwise they are the same:

	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.TypeConverter.getValue(TypeConverter.java:90)
	at org.springframework.binding.value.support.ValueModelWrapper.getValue(ValueModelWrapper.java:39)

Again, as I noted in my previous post, my code is exactly the same in both cases except for the actual property editor registration.

[steve_smith]

Maybe you misconfigure something?