Spring 3.0 annotated formatting: style/pattern not applied

[constv]

Are you just placing the list directly into the request? That won't work the way you are doing it because Spring is looking for a method "get${yourList}()" on your form-backing bean, and not finding it. In the example I gave you above, it is assumed that your model attribute's name is "yourModel", i.e. a form-backing bean with such name must be present in the request scope, so your JSP code can also access it directly. That form bean must contain a collection property, e.g. "yourList", and the getter method for it. If you do it the way I showed you, it should absolutely work.

The JSTL's <fmt:formatDate> tag supports locales. You can set the locale explicitly:

<fmt:setLocale value="de" />

and that will always override the client's browser's settings. If the locale is not explicitly set, the date should be formatted according to the client's browser's settings, I believe. So, if you do something like this:

  <fmt:formatDate dateStyle="SHORT" value="${item.yourDate}" />

it should display it according to the user's locale settings.

HTH,
Constantine

[eggsy84]

Hi constv,

Many thanks for your persistence with this.

My locale can be changed dynamically so using the fmt tag in the manner you described should be sufficient!

Thank you for the help.

[Keith Donald]

Hi guys,

I was just pointed to this thread, sorry for not noticing it earlier.

Constantine, you are correct about Web Flow 2.0.x not knowing anything about the new Spring Framework 3 type conversion system. The Spring 3 system was heavily inspired by Web Flow, but is not the same. Web Flow 3 M1 coming out next month will provide a version of Web Flow designed to work with the new system... we're working on that now (appreciate your patience while that project catches up with the Spring 3 foundation).

As far as working with plain MVC @Controllers, that should work fine, as long as you're accessing such annotated properties via the Spring binding system e.g. via a form:input tag. Plain JSTL ${expressions} just use the default EL and are not aware of our conversion system (In 3.1 we expect to enhance SpEL to work in this environment then this will work). For a sample showing this, see my blog here http://blog.springsource.com/2009/12...in-spring-3-0/.

Now, I do need to correct some misinformation in this thread. @DateTimeFormat DOES work with plain java.util.Date, Calendar, and Long types, as described in the reference documentation. The default conversion message is not pretty but you can customize it through use of a MessageSource. The sample referenced in the blog shows this being done with a general 'typeMismatch' error code, but you could also use a property specific or type-specific code (e.g. typeMismatch.account.renewalDate or typeMismatch.java.util.Date).

I hope this clarifies things a little,

Keith

[constv]

Keith, thanks for the clarifications, and thanks for the much anticipated update on the release of SWF 3M1. That's great news!

[eggsy84]

Hi Keith and constv

Thank you very much for this information.

I guess the main flaw in my code was the fact I was using JSTL expressions and thus would never invoke any annotation rendering I had specified.

I will look at using the spring form tag library to try and reference to object attributes that way.

Currently the items I have displaying are just listed in a table and are not editable so to speak, to implement this would I still need to use the Spring form tag library such as the form:label field or can I use some other spring library such as spring:bind?

Again thanks for all the information

[constv]

eggsy,
as I have mentioned in a previous reply, if you are only displaying read-only values on a page, there is no need at all for you to do Spring bindings. What for? Only to make sure that the supplementary formatting is engaged? You are not reading the values back, so you don't need to bind anything. Such page should use simple JSP EL and, if necessary, JSTL. That's it. Strings that do not need any formatting will be rendered using the EL:

${requestScope.modelName.propName}

Use JSTL's formatting for your dates, etc. It's as simple as that. Based on what Keith is saying, SpEL in Spring 3.1 should be able to support formatting/conversion in ${} expressions, so things would become even simpler.

[eggsy84]

Hi constv

Thanks I shall continue to use the fmt tag.

[digz6666]

@DateTimeFormat in form model still not working for me.
Am I doing something wrong?

Following working for me, But it's not that effective because I want to use dates in "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm" and "yyyy-MM-dd" both. Now all my date inputs require "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm".

package com.mobinet.wos.util.spring;

import java.util.Date;

import org.joda.time.DateTime;
import org.springframework.format.FormatterRegistry;
import org.springframework.format.datetime.DateFormatter;
import org.springframework.format.support.FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component("applicationConversionService")
public class ApplicationConversionServiceFactoryBean extends FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean {

	protected void installFormatters(FormatterRegistry registry) {
		super.installFormatters(registry);
		registry.addFormatterForFieldType(Date.class, new DateFormatter("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm"));
	}
}

BTW I'm using spring web flow 2.2.1, spring 3.0.5 and joda time 1.6.

Edit: I finally got it working @DateTimeFormat. Install JodaDateTimeFormatAnnotationFormatterFactory in conversion service.

package com.mobinet.wos.util.spring;

import org.springframework.format.FormatterRegistry;
import org.springframework.format.datetime.joda.JodaDateTimeFormatAnnotationFormatterFactory;
import org.springframework.format.support.FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component("applicationConversionService")
public class ApplicationConversionServiceFactoryBean extends FormattingConversionServiceFactoryBean {

	protected void installFormatters(FormatterRegistry registry) {
		super.installFormatters(registry);
		registry.addFormatterForFieldAnnotation(new JodaDateTimeFormatAnnotationFormatterFactory());
	}
}

[tide08]

hello Keith,

I was searching for similar problem, and found this page. Now that Spring 3.1 is in M1, can you point to an example on how we can do this in 3.1?

I tried reading 3.1M1 documentation but could not find an example.

Thanks!

[Keith Donald]

Look at Greenhouse.