Struts JavaScript Validation

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Struts javaScript Validation

In this lesson we will create JSP page for entering the address and use the functionality

provided by Validator Framework to validate the user data on the browser. Validator

Framework emits the JavaScript code which validates the user input on the browser.To accomplish this we have to follow the following steps:

1. Enabling the Validator plug-in: This makes the Validator available to the

system.

2. Create Message Resources for the displaying the error message to the user.3. Developing the Validation rules We have to define the validation rules in the

validation.xml for the address form. Struts Validator Framework uses this rule for

generating the JavaScript for validation.4. Applying the rules: We are required to add the appropriate tag to the JSP for

generation of JavaScript.5. Build and test: We are required to build the application once the above steps are

done before testing.

Enabling the Validator plug- in

To enable the validator plug-in open the file struts-config.xml and make sure thatfollowing line is present in the file.

Creating Message Resources

Message resources are used by the Validator Framework to generate the validation

error messages. In our application we need to define the messages for name, Addressand E-mail address. Open the Struts\strutstutorial\web\WEB-

INF\MessageResources.properties file and add the following lines:

AddressForm.name=NameAddressForm.address=Address

AddressForm.emailAddress=E-mail address

Developing Validation rules

In this application we are adding only one validation that the fields on the form shouldnot be blank. Add the following code in the validation.xml.


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depends="required">

The above definition defines the validation for the form fields name, address and

emailAddress. The attribute depends="required" instructs the Validator Framework

to generate the JavaScript that checks that the fields are not left blank. If the fields are

left blank then JavaScript shows the error message. In the error message the messageare taken from the key defined in the tag. The value of key is taken

from the message resources (Struts\strutstutorial\web\WEB-

INF\MessageResources.properties).

Applying Validation rules to JSP

Now create the AddressJavascriptValidation.jsp file to test the application. The code

for AddressJavascriptValidation.jsp is as follows:

This application shows the use of Struts Validator.

The following form contains fields that are processed by Struts Validator.
Fill in the form and see how JavaScript generated by Validator Framework validates the

form.


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Please Enter the Following Details

Name

Address

E-mail address

Save

Cancel
http://www.roseindia.net/struts/address_struts_validator.shtmlhttp://www.roseindia.net/struts/address_struts_validator.shtmlhttp://www.roseindia.net/struts/address_struts_validator.shtmlhttp://www.roseindia.net/struts/address_struts_validator.shtml


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The code is used to plug-in theValidator JavaScript.

Create the following entry in the struts-config.xml for the mapping the

/AddressJavascriptValidation url for handling the form submission through

AddressJavascriptValidation.jsp .

Add the following line in the index.jsp to call the form.

Client Side Validationfor Address Form

The Address Form that validates the data on the client side using Stuts Validatorgenerated JavaScript.

Building Example and Testing

To build and deploy the application go to Struts\strutstutorial directory and type ant on

the command prompt. This will deploy the application. Open the browser and navigateto the AddressJavascriptValidation.jsp page. Your browser should show the

following out put.
http://www.roseindia.net/struts/address_struts_validator.shtmlhttp://www.roseindia.net/struts/address_struts_validator.shtml


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If the fields are left blank and Save button is clicked, browser shows the error message.

In this lesson you learned how to use Struts Validator Framework to validate the form

on client browser.

Apache Struts has changed the way we develop a Web application. Since its inception as

an MVC architecture, Struts has been extensively used in J2EE world to develop robust,extendable and effective web applications.

Introduction to Struts Validation Framework

One of the important features of Struts framework is Struts Validation

frameworkthat performs validation on incoming form data. Validation framework was


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introduced by David Winterfeldt as an external plugin to Struts framework. Its

functionality has since been split so that validator can serve as the basis for a independant

component and is now part ofJakarta Commons.

The Struts frameworks simple validation interface alleviates much of the headache

associated with handling data validation, allowing you to focus on validation code andnot on the mechanics of capturing data and redisplaying incomplete or invalid data.

In order to do form validation without Validator framework, one has to use validate()method of the form bean (ActionForm class) to perform this task. Also one has to handle

error messages during manual validation. Lot of fields that we validate require same logic

to validate them, hence code is unneccessarily duplicated (if not managed properly).

Validation framework comes with set of useful routines to handle form validationautomatically and it can handle both server side as well as client side form validation.

If certain validation is not present, you can create your own validation logic and plug it

into validation framework as a re-usable component.

Validator uses two XML configuration files to determine which validation routinesshould be installed and how they should be applied for a given application, respectively.

The first configuration file, validator-rules.xml, declares the validation routines that

should be plugged into the framework and provides logical names for each of thevalidations. The validator-rules.xml file also defines client-side JavaScript code for each

validation routine. Validator can be configured to send this JavaScript code to the

browser so that validations are performed on the client side as well as on the server side.

The second configuration file, validation.xml, defines which validation routines should

be applied to which Form Beans. The definitions in this file use the logical names ofForm Beans from the struts-config.xml file along with the logical names of validation

routines from the validator-rules.xml file to tie the two together.

Using the Validator framework involves enabling the Validator plug-in, configuringValidators two configuration files, and creating Form Beans that extend the Validators

ActionForm subclasses. The following sections explain in detail how to configure and

use Validator.

Create a Struts project

Create a struts web application project. I assume you have working environment set for aStruts project. If not then go through the tutorial: Creating Struts application using

Eclipse and create a struts project.

Create Form Beans
http://viralpatel.net/blogs/2008/12/tutorial-creating-struts-application-in-eclipse.htmlhttp://viralpatel.net/blogs/2008/12/tutorial-creating-struts-application-in-eclipse.htmlhttp://viralpatel.net/blogs/2008/12/tutorial-creating-struts-application-in-eclipse.htmlhttp://viralpatel.net/blogs/2008/12/tutorial-creating-struts-application-in-eclipse.html


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Create a form bean in your project called CustomerForm and copy following code in it.

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print?01 packagenet.viralpatel.struts.validation.form;

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03 importorg.apache.struts.validator.ValidatorForm;

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05 publicclassCustomerForm extendsValidatorForm {

06 07 privateString name;08 privateString telephone;09 privateString email;10 privateintage;

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12 publicString getName() {13 returnname;14 }

15

16 publicvoidsetName(String name) {

17 this.name = name;18 }

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20 publicString getTelephone() {21 returntelephone;22 }

23

24 publicvoidsetTelephone(String telephone) {25 this.telephone = telephone;

26 }

27

28 publicString getEmail() {29 returnemail;30 }

31

32 publicvoidsetEmail(String email) {33 this.email = email;

34 }

35
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36 publicintgetAge() {37 returnage;38 }

39

40 publicvoidsetAge(intage) {41 this.age = age;

42 }

43 }

We will use this validator plugin to validate this form. Note that the form bean is

extended from class ValidatorForm and not ActionForm as we generally do in Struts

project.

Add Validator Plug-in in struts-config.xml

In order to use Validator in our project we need to configure it in struts-config.xml file.

For this add following code in your struts-config.xml file.

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print?1

2 3

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This definition tells Struts to load and initialize the Validator plug-in for your application.Upon initialization, the plug-in loads the comma-delimited list of Validator config files

specified by the pathnames property. Each config files path should be specified by use ofa Web application-relative path, as shown in the previous example.

Define validations for the form

Create a file validation.xml in your applications WEB-INF directory. And copy following

content in it.


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view source

print?01 02

05

06

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08 telephoneFormat

09 ^\d{5,10}$

10

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14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21

22 min

23 1

24

25

26 max

27 125

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30 31 32 33

34 mask

35 ${telephoneFormat}

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37 38 39 40 41

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In the above xml file, we have defined the rules for form validation. Note that we are

validating form CustomerForm and the fields being validated are name, age, telephone

and email. tag defines the validation for a property of form. We can specifydifferent rules like required, integer, email, intRange, mask etc in depends attribute of

field tag..

Also you can define constants that can be reused in the validation xml using global

constants tag.

Struts-config.xml entry for the action

Following is the entry in struts-config.xml file which maps the Action to our Validator

form.

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print?01

02 04

05 ...

06 ...

07 ...

08

09 ...

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13 14 15

16 ...

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Configuring ApplicationResources.properties

Struts validation framework uses externalization of the error messages. The messages are

stored in a property file (ApplicationResource.properties) and are referred by the keyvalues. Copy following in your ApplicationResource.properties (or

MessageResource.properties).

view source

print?01 label.name= Name
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02 label.email= Email

03 label.telephone= Telephone

04 label.age= Age

05

06 # general error msgs

07 errors.header=08 errors.prefix=09 errors.suffix=

10 errors.footer=

11 errors.invalid={0} is invalid.

12 errors.maxlength={0} can not be greater than {1} characters.

13 errors.minlength={0} can not be less than {1} characters.

14 errors.range={0} is not in the range {1} through {2}.

15 errors.required={0} is required.

16 errors.byte={0} must be an byte.

17 errors.date={0} is not a date.

18 errors.double={0} must be an double.

19 errors.float={0} must be an float.20 errors.integer={0} must be an integer.

21 errors.long={0} must be an long.

22 errors.short={0} must be an short.

Create JSP to display the form

Create a JSP file and copy following content in it.

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print?01 02

03

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05 Struts Validation Framework example.

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09 10

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20 21 22 23 24 25

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Running the application

We are done with our application. Now execute it from any web container (Tomcat in my

case) and open in browser.

Enter any invalid value in the form and press submit.


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Date post:	03-Apr-2018
Category:	Documents
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Struts JavaScript Validation

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