Valang: validating fields where form bean is a Map

[alpheratz]

Hi.

I suspect that I have stumbled across a limitation of valang...and perhaps a bug.

Background:

I am using an extended AbstractWizardFormBean. Instead of using a single large object as form bean, I use a Map and each individual view uses an object keyed against the view name (ie home' -> HomeFormbean).

This is all working well.

I have been trying to use valang. Server-side validation works great (by the way: good work, guys!). My trouble is with the client side stuff.

Specifically the valang:validate tag.

To see this, look at my (Spring MVC/JSP) form:

...
<form:form method="post" id="homeForm" commandName="command.map['home']>
  <valang:validate commandName="command.map['home']" />

  <form:input path="address" />
</form>
...

With rules:

  <bean id="valangAddressCheckValidator"
    class="org.springmodules.validation.valang.ValangValidator">
    <property name="valang">
      <value>
        <![CDATA[
                    { address ? is not blank : '...' : '...' }
                ]]>
      </value>
    </property>
  </bean>

When the form is invoked, this gives

IllegalArgumentException: No valang rules for command 'command.map['home']' were found in the page context.

So I try:

...
<form:form method="post" id="homeForm" commandName="command.map['home']>
  <valang:validate commandName="command" />
</form>
...

With rules:

  <bean id="valangAddressCheckValidator"
    class="org.springmodules.validation.valang.ValangValidator">
    <property name="valang">
      <value>
        <![CDATA[
                    { map['home'].address : ? is not blank : '...' : '...' }
                ]]>
      </value>
    </property>
  </bean>

The form is now invoked OK and displayed in the browser.

On submit, however, I get an exception:

org.springframework.beans.NotReadablePropertyException: Invalid property 'map[home]' of bean class [...HomeFormBean]: Bean property 'map[home]' is not readable or has an invalid getter method: Does the return type of the getter match the parameter type of the setter?

I THEN try:

...
<form:form method="post" id="homeForm" commandName="command.map['home']>
  <valang:validate commandName="command" />

  <form:input path="address" />
</form>
...

With rules:

  <bean id="valangAddressCheckValidator"
    class="org.springmodules.validation.valang.ValangValidator">
    <property name="valang">
      <value>
        <![CDATA[
                    { address ? is not blank : '...' : '...' }
                ]]>
      </value>
    </property>
  </bean>

and this gives:

NotReadablePropertyException: Invalid property 'map[home].map[home]' of bean class [...ScriptFormController$ScriptFormBean]: Bean property 'map[home].map[home]' is not readable or has an invalid getter method: Does the return type of the getter match the parameter type of the setter?

This last attempt seems to have thrown up a bug?

Can anyone give guidance as to whether/how valang can be used in this situation?

Am I going to have this same issue with commons validation?

Attached are a few stack traces.

Thannks in advance for any help/comments!

Cheers,

Alph

[alpheratz]

spring 2.0.1
modules 0.7 (d/loaded today)
Jboss 4.0.5GA

Cheers,

Alph