Question

I am initializing a WebDataBinder with a PropertyEditor to handle the conversion of a String to a Document object so that it can be saved to the database as such. (My Hibernate mapping requires it). This works fine.

My issue is when I display the DocumentRevision table, where the documentNumber is saved as a Document type, it displays something like the following: testapp.domain.document@1f93466

• Do I have to make a new PropertyEditor which converts a Document type
  into a String?
• How would I do that? (An example would be appreciated since I have only ever see the other way around, String –> Object)

I am using Spring 3.0 and Hibernate 3

Code:

Document.java mapping

@OneToMany(mappedBy="document_number", cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
private Set<DocumentRevision> documentRevisions;

public void setDocumentRevisions(Set<DocumentRevision> documentRevisions){
    this.documentRevisions = documentRevisions;
}

DocumentRevision.java mapping

@ManyToOne(cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
@JoinColumn(name="DOCUMENT_NUMBER")
private Document document_number; 

public void setDocument_number(Document document_number){
    this.document_number = document_number;
}

public Document getDocument_number(){
    return document_number;
}

The relationship between the two tables is that several DocumentRevisions can have the same DocumentNumber but a single DocumentRevision can only have one DocumentNumber

Part of the Controller:

class DocumentPropertyEditor extends PropertyEditorSupport {

@Override
public void setAsText(String text) throws IllegalArgumentException {
    Document value =  documentService.retrieveDocumentNumber(text);
    setValue(value);
}

@Override
public String getAsText() {
    Document d = (Document) getValue();
    return d != null ? String.valueOf(d.getDocumentNumber()) : "";
}
}
@InitBinder
public void initBinder(WebDataBinder binder) {
    binder.registerCustomEditor(Document.class, new DocumentPropertyEditor());
}

@RequestMapping(value="/list", method=RequestMethod.GET) 
public String getDocumentRevisionList(Model model) {
List<DocumentRevision> documentRevisions = documentRevisionService.retrieveAllDocumentRevisions();
model.addAttribute("documentRevisions", documentRevisions);
return "document-revision";

@RequestMapping(value="/add", method=RequestMethod.GET)
public String getDocumentRevision(Model model) {
DocumentRevision documentRevision = new DocumentRevision();
model.addAttribute("documentRevisionAttribute", documentRevision);
model.addAttribute("documentNumberList", documentService.retrieveAllDocumentNumbers());

return "new-documnent-revision";
}


@RequestMapping(value="/add", method=RequestMethod.POST)
public String postDocumentRevision(@ModelAttribute("documentRevisionAttribute") @Valid DocumentRevision documentRevision, BindingResult result) {

if(result.hasErrors()){
    return "new-document-revision";
}

documentRevisionService.createDocumentRevision(documentRevision);
return "redirect:/testapp/document-revision/list";  
}

the retrieveDocumentNumber(text) method:

public Document retrieveDocumentNumber(String text){
return (Document) this.sessionFactory.getCurrentSession().get(Document.class, text);
}

part of jsp page where DocumentRevision list is displayed:

 <c:forEach items="${documentRevisions}" var="documentRevision">
  <tr>
   <td><c:out value="${documentRevision.documentId}"/></td>
   <td><c:out value="${documentRevision.documentNumber}" /></td>
   <td><c:out value="${documentRevision.documentRState}" /></td>
   <td><a href="${addUrl}">Add</a></td>
  </tr>
 </c:forEach>

Thank you for your time and help!

/D

Answer 1

Look likes it calls default toString() method. You can redefine this method in document class. In this case it will output what you want.