Programming Tutorials

Using Multibox in Struts

By: Ivan Lim Printer Friendly Format    

Multibox is a collection of checkbox. When a single checkbox exists, it should be mapped to a Boolean. Such condition does not apply to collection of checkboxes. Here we map it to a String array

1. Recall that Checkbox cannot exist outside a form. Hence start by defining a form to handle the
   checkboxes around the search display list as follows (Simplified for clarity):
   
   <html:form action="/manageCustomerList">
   <c:if test='${not empty CUSTOMER_SUMMARY_OBJECTS}'>
   ..
   <html-el:multibox property="idSelections">
   <c:out value='${customer.id}'/>
   </html-el:multibox>
   ..
   </c:if>
   </html:form>
   
2. Define ManageCustomersForm to hold the checkbox information and initialize the string array
   as follows.
   
   public class ManageCustomersForm extends ActionForm {
   private String[] idSelections;
   //getters and setters
   public ManageCustomersForm() {
   init();
   }
   protected void init() {
   idSelections = new String[] { "" };
   }
   ..
   }
   
3. Create a ManageCustomersAction to handle it in the package struts.example.search. Leave its execute() method empty.
   
4. Add an ActionMapping in struts-config.xml. to associate /manageCustomerList.do with
   ManageCustomersAction and ManageCustomersForm Build Deploy and See how the page displays at this point. This should give you a clear picture of using multibox.