Client Validation

Let's create a Client-Side validation workflow, step by step.

The validate attribute is set to true.

Some themes do not support client-side validation.

Step 1

Create the form.

<html>
<head>
    <title>Validation - Basic</title>
    <s:head/>
</head>

<body>

<s:form method="post" validate="true">
    <s:textfield label="Name" name="name"/>
    <s:textfield label="Age" name="age"/>
    <s:textfield label="Favorite color" name="answer"/>
    <s:submit/>
</s:form>

</body>
</html>

This case uses the default xhtml theme, so the <saf:head > tag is used to link a style sheet.

Step 2

Create the Action class.

public class QuizAction extends ActionSupport {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = -7505437345373234225L;

    String name;
    int age;
    String answer;

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public int getAge() {
        return age;
    }

    public void setAge(int age) {
        this.age = age;
    }

    public String getAnswer() {
        return answer;
    }

    public void setAnswer(String answer) {
        this.answer = answer;
    }
}

Step 3

Create the validation.xml to configure the validators to be used.

An error occurred: http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/struts/struts2/trunk/apps/showcase/src/main/java/org/apache/struts2/showcase/validation/QuizAction-validation.xml. The system administrator has been notified.

Action and Namespace

A correct action and namespace attributes must be provided to the <s:form> tag. For example, if the action named "quizClient" is defined in the "/validation" namespace, the form must be configured as:

<s:form method="post" validate="true" action="quizClient" namespace="/validation">
   <s:textfield label="Name" name="name"/>
   <s:textfield label="Age" name="age"/>
   <s:textfield label="Favorite color" name="answer"/>
   <s:submit/>
</s:form>

While the following will "work" in the sense that the form will function correctly, client-side validation will not. That is because Struts must know the exact namespace and action (rather than a URL) to properly support validation.

<s:form method="post" validate="true" action="/validation/quizClient.action">
   <s:textfield label="Name" name="name"/>
   <s:textfield label="Age" name="age"/>
   <s:textfield label="Favorite color" name="answer"/>
   <s:submit/>
</s:form>