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Type:
Improvement
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Status: Open
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Priority:
Minor
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Resolution: Unresolved
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Affects Version/s: 1.2.4
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Fix Version/s: Future
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Component/s: Tag Libraries
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Labels:None
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Environment:Operating System: All
Platform: All
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Bugzilla Id:32215
For our project, we have created an extension to Struts HTML tags where we copy
the tag descriptor file and specify a sub-class of the Struts provided tag
implementation in order to enhance output based on meta-data related to the control.
For example, the tag may specify that a control is required as part of its
meta-data. The extended tag then draws a "required" symbol next to the form
input automatically. This allows the display of the forms to be more
configurable, rather than hard-coded into the JSP. Other examples include input
masks, help text, labels, etc.
I would love to see such a meta-data mechanism provided as part of Struts (I can
give an example of our implementation if requested). Barring that, I would love
to see an easier way to extend the widgets in Struts in a uniform and safe way,
that would not break if the impleemntation of Struts changes. Right now, our
implementation seems fragile in this regard (over-ride different methods for
differnet controls).
This would require a documented, clean way in the API to over-ride a widget's
drawing method without having to change the Struts tag descriptor file. Perhaps
a way to specify a widget-drawing helper class in a properties file that is
deferred to instead of the default widget drawing method, if specified.