Struts ActionForm/EJB best practice?

[grz01]

Have a Struts/EJB question...

If I have a web-form backed by an ActionForm in Struts, where the user
types in a record that maps directly to an EJB3 entity class and a
corresponding db-table, is it advisable (or even possible) to somehow
use the same class for the ActionForm and the EJB?

Im thinking the 2 beans, they have basically the same setter/getter
methods,
but the form-bean extends ActionForm, while the Entity class
implements serializable...

Is it possible to use one and the same class for both purposes... or
maybe one extends the other...

Or should they just be two different classes, and have to copy data
back and forth between them?

What is "best practice" here?

 

[Jean-Baptiste Nizet]

Have a Struts/EJB question...

If I have a web-form backed by an ActionForm in Struts, where the user
types in a record that maps directly to an EJB3 entity class and a
corresponding db-table, is it advisable (or even possible) to somehow
use the same class for the ActionForm and the EJB?

Im thinking the 2 beans, they have basically the same setter/getter
methods,
but the form-bean extends ActionForm, while the Entity class
implements serializable...

Is it possible to use one and the same class for both purposes... or
maybe one extends the other...

Or should they just be two different classes, and have to copy data
back and forth between them?

What is "best practice" here?

Your form bean must extend ActionForm, and you don't want your
persistent entities to depend on Struts, so your form bean can't be a
subclass of your entity. Moreover, if you want your form to be
validateable, it must be able to contain invalid dates, numbers, etc.,
so all its properties should be Strings. The best practice is to have
separate classes and copy data back and forth.

JB.

 

[grz01]

Your form bean must extend ActionForm, and you don't want your
persistent entities to depend on Struts, so your form bean can't be a
subclass of your entity. Moreover, if you want your form to be
validateable, it must be able to contain invalid dates, numbers, etc.,
so all its properties should be Strings. The best practice is to have
separate classes and copy data back and forth.

JB.

Thanks for input, JB.
Yes, that makes sense now

Regards,