name vs property - in select and option tag

Question

I've read several examples on how to make a select field that takes option list from the backend. However, I am a bit confused with the attributes that go inside these tags.

My question is : what is the difference between the name attribute and the property attribute? Consider the following example:

<html:select name="addressForm" property="currentStateCode" size="1">
<logic:iterate id="user" name="usersList">
<html: options name="test" property="user.username">
</logic:iterate>
</html:select>

Answer 1

• property is the name of the request parameter sent in the HTTP request.
• name is the form bean property used to populate the control.

From the docs at:

• 1.2: http://struts.apache.org/release/1.2.x/userGuide/struts-html.html#select
• 1.3: http://struts.apache.org/development/1.x/struts-taglib/tagreference.html#html:select