Request parameters not in command object

[fallofrome]

I'm wondering what the recommended method is for grabbing parameters from a form that are NOT part of the value/command object.

I have been using the following inside an Action class...

HttpServletRequest request = ServletEvent.getRequest( context.getSourceEvent() );
int fooId = RequestUtils.getIntParameter( request, "fooId", 1 );


However, this does mean the code is now coupled to an HTTP request (which is no worse than it was previously in a Spring FormController).

Am I missing something? I checked the RequestScope and FormScope to see if all params were being dropped into a Map, but didn't find them. This is the case where I don't want to modify the value object for the form to introduce this parameter....

[klr8]

The way you're doing it is pretty much correct.

If you want to keep your actions (and the flow itself) independent of HttpServletRequest, consider doing it in a FlowExecutionListener. Those are easily pluggable, so you could plug in another listener if you're reusing your flow in other situation, e.g. for a Portlet.

Erwin

[Keith Donald]

Hey now, there is no need to expose the servlet API here, nor should you!

You can just do this:

context.getSourceEvent().getParameter("foo");

That will access the HTTP request parameters underneath the covers.

Keith

[fallofrome]

Ahhh, this is exactly what I was looking for (and hoping was there)!

Any chance for some utility functionality similar to RequestUtils (i.e. checking for required, setting defaults, casting to primitives)? Or is there a utility class that I'm overlooking?

[Keith Donald]

Yes, actually. Perhaps you could get this integration started and maybe submit a JIRA enhancement with a patch :-)

If you take a look at Event, you'll see it's a AttributeSource. So is Scope, as well (anything in RequestScope or FlowScope). AttributeSource is a simple interface.

So it'd be straight forward to have:

int value = AttributeUtils.getIntAttribute(source, "myAttribute");

etc, etc...

like RequestUtils, but more flexible. You could use the Converter machinery to actually perform conversions underneath the covers. e.g:

getIntAttribute(AttributeSource source, String attributeName, int defaultValue) {
    try {
      return ((Integer)converterFor(value.getClass(),
Integer.class).convert(value)).intValue();
   } catch (ConversionException e) {
      return defaultValue;
   }
}

Keith