struts2+ Set Form value to POJO and Set POJO Value To form

Question

In this post you made me clear how to deal with JAVA objects in Struts ;

JSP

<th>First Name :</th>
<td><input type="text" id ="em.firstName" name="em.firstName" value=""></td>
<th>Middle Name :</th>
<td><input type="text" id ="em.middleName" name="em.middleName" value=""></td>
<th>Last Name :</th>
<td><input type="text" id ="em.lastName" name="em.lastName" value=""></td>

Action Class

public class contTest extends ActionSupport{
  public Employee  em;
  public String execute(){
    System.out.println("firstName-->>>"+em.getFirstName());
    System.out.println("lastName-->>>"+em.getLastName());
    return SUCCESS;
  }

  //Setter and Getter of em object
}

Now I would like to use the same JSP where I fetch data from database (and fit the values back to the form using the employee Object) for update too.

How can I map the em.firstName with the Object firstName variable ?

Edit 1 :

Edited ...

**Update 3 : **

Hope will clear it now.

First i select the employee and click Go button.

$('#Go').click(function(){
    if($("#txtEmpId").val() == "" || $("#txtEmpId_name").val()==""){
        alert("Please Select Employee.");
        return false;
    }
    $.ajax({
        type: 'POST',
        url: 'EmpView.action',
        data: $("#FrmEmp").serialize(),
    }).done(function(data) {
        $("#FrmEmp").submit();
    });
    $('#EmployeeDet,#divEmpId').show();
});

Struts.xml

<action name="EmpView" class="com.Test.Controller.EmpCntr" method= "EmpView">
    /*I tried with Both*/
    <result name = "success" type="json"/>

    or

    <result name="success">/AddEmp.jsp</result>
</action>

Action Class :

public String EmpView() throws SQLException, IOException{
    System.out.println("em.firstName--->>>"+em.getFirstName());
    System.out.println("em.lastName--->>>"+em.getLastName());
    try {
        CachedRowset tmList = TmMo.GetEmpViewData(ProcName,ParaName);

        int numcols = tmList.getMetaData().getColumnCount();
        List <String> row = new ArrayList<>(numcols);
        while (tmList.next()) {
            for (int i=1; i<= numcols; i++) {
                row.add(tmList.getString(i));
                em.setEmployeeId(tmList.getString("employeeId"));
                em.setFirstName(tmList.getString("firstName"));
            }
        }
        System.out.println("em.firstName--->>>"+em.getFirstName());
        System.out.println("em.lastName--->>>"+em.getLastName());
        /*Here i am getting the Name */
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return Action.SUCCESS;
}

AddEmp.jsp

Go Button :

<td>
<button type = "button" name = "Go" id= "Go">Go</button>
<button type = "button" name = "Add" id= "Add">Add Employee</button>
</td>

Form Fields:

<th>First Name :</th>
<td><input type = "text" id ="em.firstName" name = "em.firstName" value = "<s:property value='em.firstName'/>" ></td>           
    or 
<s:textfield id ="em.firstName" name = "em.firstName"/>

i tried both the ways and clear the path on what i want to do. removed all the unwanted things and Put the sample code only and try with the Sample one only. Its not working!! can i cleared u ?? can u help me where i missed ??

Answer 1

Solved :

I create an Employee DAO object and assign the DAO for Action Class Getter ,Setter Employee Object Variable.

Here my latest code.

public String EmpView() throws SQLException, IOException{
    System.out.println("em.firstName--->>>"+em.getFirstName());
    System.out.println("em.lastName--->>>"+em.getLastName());
    try {
        CachedRowset tmList = TmMo.GetEmpViewData(ProcName,ParaName);

        while (tmList.next()) {
            for (int i=1; i<= numcols; i++) {
                Employee emp = new Employee();
                emp.setEmployeeId(tmList.getString("employeeId"));
                emp.setFirstName(tmList.getString("firstName"));
                em = emp;
            }
        }
        System.out.println("em.firstName--->>>"+em.getFirstName());
        System.out.println("em.lastName--->>>"+em.getLastName());
        /*Here i am getting the Name */
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    return Action.SUCCESS;
}

And i am getting the value's in the HTML forms. I am using the same page for both add and Edit the Employee Details.

As suggested by Andrea i had removed the HTML standards and Use Struts tags and accepting Andrea reply as Answer.

Thanks alot.

Answer 2

IF you are asking how to map the properties between two objects, one coming from the page, the other from the database, let's say Employee and EmployeeDto, you can use Apache Commons BeanUtils.CopyProperties(target,source).

It will copy all the properties from the source object to the target object matching them by name.

EDIT:

Since you have only one object, it is already mapped. Simply remove value="" from all your tags.

Also note that your object must be called em or emp in both Action class and JSP, while now they're emp and em, hence not matching... and remember to put getters, setters and a default no args constructor for your Employee object too.

Finally, do not use Struts 2.0 that is from 2008, use Struts 2.3.16.x or above.

EDIT 2:

Oh dear. Didn't noticed you was using standard inputs... Use <s:textfield /> tag instead:

<s:textfield name="em.firstName"  />
<s:textfield name="em.middleName" />
<s:textfield name="em.lastName"   />

Or without using struts tags, with tag in value:

<input type="text" name="em.firstName"  value="<s:property value='em.firstName'/>"  />
<input type="text" name="em.middleName" value="<s:property value='em.middleName'/>" />
<input type="text" name="em.lastName"   value="<s:property value='em.lastName'/>"   />