Question

I have dynamic number of checkboxes in jsp page as given below.

<s:iterator value="details"  status="stat">
         <s:checkbox name="checkbox"  theme="simple" />
         <s:hidden name="hidden" value="%{top}" /> 
</s:iterator>

Let’s say 4 checkboxes.

and setter in action class is

public void setCheckbox(boolean s[])
{
    System.out.println(s.length);
}

If I don’t select any checkbox, s.length is zero.
If I select 3rd checkbox, s.lenght is 1 and it is initializing s[0] with true.
But problem is here how can I find whether 3rd checkbox is selected or another checkbox is selected.

I thought that setter would initialize s[]={false,false,true,false}, if I select third checkbox. But it is initializing s[]={true}.

Corresponding hidden values of those selected boxes are required to perform required action in database. But for that I need to find select checkboxes.
Please suggest me any solution.

Answer 1

Because your checkboxes are all named the same (checkbox), Struts2 is just passing the following:

checkbox=true&checkbox=true&checkbox=true

Does that mean that you omitted the second, third, or fourth checkbox?

What you actually want is not an array of booleans, but a map of Integer to Boolean. Here’s an example:

Example Action

public class MyAction extends ActionSupport {
  private Map<Integer, Boolean> checkboxes;

  ...

  public Map<Integer, Boolean> getCheckboxes() {
    return checkboxes;
  }

  public void setCheckboxes(Map<Integer, Boolean> checkboxes) {
    this.checkboxes = checkboxes;
  }
}

Example JSP

<s:iterator value="details" status="stat">
  <%-- this outputs checkboxes[0], checkboxes[1], etc. --%>
  <s:checkbox name="checkboxes[%{#stat.index}]"  theme="simple" />
</s:iterator>

Example Result

• 0 -> true
• 1 -> false
• 2 -> true
• 3 -> true