Ajax Validation
Validation servlet vs Interceptor
- Using a validation servlet requires the app developer to map any servlet filters for any action that is to be validated to the validation servlet as well.
- Using a validation interceptor executes the validation within the context of any mapped servlet filters, as well as within the context of the action.
Custom Ajax code or Third Party Library
- The DOJO Toolkit promises to be a very flexible and powerful toolkit, however they are only in the beginning stages. A lot of the code is coming from other dhtml toolkit projects that are very mature.
- We only require a fairly simple xmlhttp layer a the moment. Dojo have released their dojo.io.bind package http://dojotoolkit.org/intro_to_dojo_io.html which should be sufficient for us, however I think we can produce our own XmlHTTP code for now.
- I have implemented some custom xmlhttp / javascript code http://www.drivelater.com.au - do a search. It works in IE and FireFox.
JavaScript API
- In WW CVS /src/webapp/validationServlet.js contains a sample ValidationServlet client javascript class. It handles the communication with the validation servlet, and exposes callbacks for handling the errors. NOTE : I think we can re-work this a bit. I currently have lots of onWhatever callbacks. I think we should just have onErrors, and let the template designer do what they want with the Errors object.
- Sample Usage
var validation = new ValidationServlet('/validationServlet/client.js'); validation.onErrors = function(inputObject, errors) { // clear old errors // display new errors }
- The errors param for the onErrors callback is a javascript object that has this structure
class Errors { String[] actionErrors; Map<String, String[]> fieldErrors; // fieldName is the key }
- Sample Usage
- See this in action in WW cvs head
/src/java/templates/xhtml/validation.vm /src/webapp/validationServlet.js /src/webapp/javascript-input.jsp
- Cloves' provided example API :
function addActionErrors(messages); // should messages be an array?! function addFieldErrors(fieldName, messages); // should messages be an array?! function clearActionErrors(); function clearFieldErrors(fieldName); function clearErrors(formName);
New Theme
- We need to develop a new slick looking template based on css that has full client side javascript support.
- We could mix some ideas from