Raible's Wiki: XdocletActionForms

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!!Should ''Xdoclet'' Generate ''Struts ActionForms''?

!!Should ''XDoclet'' Generate ''Struts ActionForms''?

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In Appfuse, you may notice that the ActionForms are autogenerated from the model's entity beans using __@struts__ xdoclet tags. After trying every which way to wrap my application design around this approach, it finally became obvious to me that this is one case xdoclet over steps it's bounds. Read on to find out why...

In [AppFuse], you may notice that the ActionForms are autogenerated from the model's entity beans using __@struts__ [XDoclet] tags. After trying every which way to wrap my application design around this approach, it finally became obvious to me that this is one case XDoclet over steps it's bounds. Read on to find out why...

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As much as it just seems so tempting and beautiful and quick, I truly, truly believe that generating ActionForms dynamically with xdoclet is just not the right way to go. I believe that the relationship between a model's entity beans and the ActionForms is a forced association, one of those things that you want to believe so badly that you will do whatever you can to make it seem like an association, when really there is little similarity at all.

As tempting, beautiful and quick it may seem, I truly believe that generating ActionForms dynamically with XDoclet from custom tags in the model's entity beans is just not the right way to go. I believe that the relationship between these entity beans and the ActionForms is a forced association, one that you would like to believe so badly that you will convince yourself there is a direct tie when really there is little similarity at all.

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Entities are almost exactly the same as ActionForms in many cases, but the exceptions are enough to prove they should not be parallel (and even Ted Husted thinks so, one example being

http://husted.com/struts/tips/005.html but I have also read his comments elsewhere on the subject). ActionForms should be flexible to suit the view, not necessarily to suit the model. In fact, it is only your manager class (business delegate) that should care how you designed your ActionForms, so that even the DAO cares only about the entity design. Here are several reasons why xdoclet should not be used to make ActionForms from entities.

Entities have virtually the same fields as ActionForms in many cases, but the exceptions are enough to prove they should not be parallel (and even [Ted Husted|http://husted.com/struts/tips/005.html] thinks so). ActionForms should be flexible to suit the view, not necessarily to suit the model. In fact, it is only your manager class (business delegate) that should care how you designed your ActionForms, so that even the DAO cares only about the entity design. Here are several reasons why XDoclet should ''__NOT__'' be used to make ActionForms from entity beans:

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~ [mojavelinux]

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