Struts 2: Returning a list to a s:select

[Rich]

I am trying to populate a s:select drop down using a list. I am new
to all of this so I am having some trouble.

There is a example for populating a select using a list on this page:

http://struts.apache.org/2.0.8/docs/select.html

I was wondering what:

list="petDao.pets"
listKey="id"
listValue="name"

are referring to?

Is petDao a java bean? Is it an action? How do you set it up on the
page? What is pets? Does it refer to petDao.getPets? what does it
return? What do id and name refer to? Does getPets return a list of
objects that contain the fields name and id which have the getters and
setters for those fields?

Sorry if this is posted in the wrong forum. This is the only group I
found when I searched for struts 2.

 

[Richard Senior]

Is petDao a java bean?

Probably a DAO (Data Access Object), producing a Collection from a database.

Is it an action?

No.

How do you set it up on the page?

It's presumably imported as a bean, e.g. with <jsp:useBean .../>

Note this is not a particularly good way of doing it in anything other
than a sample. The view is accessing the model directly in MVC parlance.
Read up on MVC.

What is pets?

It's shorthand for the getPets() method in petDAO.

Does it refer to petDao.getPets?

Yes. You are one step ahead of me.

what does it return?

A Collection of Pets.

What do id and name refer to?

ID is what gets returned in the POST when you've selected that element
and submitted the form. Name is what is displayed for that element.

Does getPets return a list of objects that contain the fields name and
id which have the getters and
setters for those fields?

Yes.

Why do you ask so many questions?

A. I'm learning Struts. It's my job.