Map based form model

[gacor]

Is it possible to have a map backed form model? I would like to capture search criteria as a map with keys being property names and pass it further down to hibernate. I do not want to create a separate bean for every search form - hence the map idea.

I am a total newbie in Spring RCP, so pardon my question if the answer is trivial.

[adamarmistead]

Just looked into this for myself today. Yes, it is possible...damn Spring Rich rocks. For my test I created a form object with a map, to make it quick and easy I just overrode Rectangle.

public class MyRect extends Rectangle {

  private Map<String, Color> colors;

  public Map<String, Color> getColors() {
    return colors;
  }

  public void setColors(Map<String, Color> colors) {
    this.colors = colors;
  }

  public MyRect() {
    super(0, 0, 50, 100);
    colors = new HashMap<String, Color>();
    colors.put("red", Color.RED);
    colors.put("blue", Color.BLUE);
    colors.put("cyan", Color.CYAN);
  }

}

I then created a view to display my test form. To create the form model I just called FormModelHelper.createFormModel(r). The other methods seem to work as well. In my form's #createFormControl() method I bound my map to the controls like this.

@Override
protected JComponent createFormControl() {
  SwingBindingFactory bf = (SwingBindingFactory)getBindingFactory();
  FormLayout layout = new FormLayout("pref, $lcgap, pref",
      "pref, $pgap, default:grow");
  MyFormBuilder builder = new MyFormBuilder(bf, layout);
  builder.setLabelAttributes(FormLayoutFormBuilder.ALIGN_RIGHT_CENTER);

  builder.addTextAreaAndLabel("colors[red]", 1, 1);
  builder.nextRow();

  builder.addComponent(createButtonBar());

  return builder.getPanel();
}

Of course for this example to work I needed to create a pair of converters to convert ColorToString and StringToColor.

public class ColorToString extends AbstractFormattingConverter {

  private final boolean allowEmpty;

  /**
   * Creates a new instance of <code>ColorToString</code>.
   */
  public ColorToString() {
    this(new SimpleFormatterFactory(), true);
  }

  /**
   * Creates a new instance of <code>ColorToString</code>.
   */
  public ColorToString(FormatterFactory formatterFactory, boolean allowEmpty) {
    super(formatterFactory);
    this.allowEmpty = allowEmpty;
  }

  @Override
  protected Object doConvert(Object source, Class type, ConversionContext cc) throws Exception {
    Color color = (Color)source;
    return (!allowEmpty || source != null)
        ? color.getRed() + "," + color.getGreen() + "," + color.getBlue() : null;
  }

  @Override
  public Class[] getSourceClasses() {
    return new Class[] {Color.class};
  }

  @Override
  public Class[] getTargetClasses() {
    return new Class[] {String.class};
  }

}

public class StringToColor extends AbstractFormattingConverter {

  private final boolean allowEmpty;
  
  /**
   * Creates a new instance of <code>StringToColor</code>.
   */
  public StringToColor() {
    this(new SimpleFormatterFactory(), true);
  }

  /**
   * Creates a new instance of <code>StringToColor</code>.
   */
  public StringToColor(FormatterFactory formatterFactory, boolean allowEmpty) {
    super(formatterFactory);
    this.allowEmpty = allowEmpty;
  }

  @Override
  protected Color doConvert(Object source, Class type, ConversionContext cc) throws Exception {
    String[] parts = ((String)source).split(",");
    return (!allowEmpty || source != null) ? new Color(Integer.parseInt(parts[0]), Integer.parseInt(parts[1]), Integer.parseInt(parts[2])) : null;
  }

  @Override
  public Class[] getSourceClasses() {
    return new Class[] {String.class};
  }

  @Override
  public Class[] getTargetClasses() {
    return new Class[] {Color.class};
  }

}

and configure my conversion service to use the new converters in the application context.

<bean id="conversionService" class="org.springframework.richclient.application.DefaultConversionServiceFactoryBean" />
  <bean class="org.springframework.beans.factory.config.MethodInvokingFactoryBean" >
  <property name="targetObject" ref="conversionService" />
  <property name="targetMethod" value="addConverters" />
  <property name="arguments">
    <list>
      <list>
        <bean class="org.my.app.converter.ColorToString" />
        <bean class="org.my.app.converter.StringToColor" />
      </list>
    </list>
  </property>
</bean>

This should allow you to bind controls to a map, although I have not yet tested what happens if the property does not exist in the map.