Struts 1 Losing Request Parameters after Failed Form Validation with Multipart/Form-Data Enctype

Question

I have a simple Struts form. It has a few text fields and a file field. The enctype is multipart/form-data on my form. I validate in the actionform 's validate method. If the text fields are empty, I return errors that they are required. Along with the visible fields, I pass a few hidden fields that are needed as request params when the form is processed and returned to the JSP. The JSP needs these request params .

Everything works great when there are no validation errors as the request params get returned by using the ActionRedirect class in the action. But if there are errors returned, I lose the request params . (I am able to access them in the actionform validate method or in the action).

How can I make sure the request params are passed back upon validation error in multipart form? Is there any sort of workaround?

Action-mappings (slightly edited for obfuscation) below:

   <action
    path="/saveQuestion"
    type="blahblahblah.QuestionAction"
    parameter="save"
    name="QuestionForm"
    input="populateQuestion.do"
    scope="request"
    validate="true">
    <set-property property="cancellable" value="true"/>
    <forward name="success" path="viewSurvey.do" redirect="true"/>
  </action>
  <action
    path="populateQuestion"
    type="blahblahblah.QuestionAction"
    parameter="populateRequest"
    name="ItemForm"
    scope="request">
      <forward name="success" path=".editing.Question"/>
  </action>

And my JSP form line:

<html:form styleId="QuestionForm" action="/saveQuestion" enctype="multipart/form-data" method="POST">

Answer 1

I believe you have two options to solve this problem:

• Change the scope to session: This way the data will be stored in session and you won't lose any data.
• Implement the reset method of your validation: This way, when the reset method is called in your validation, you can repopulate the data of the form.

I hope this helps somehow. I might have some other suggestions in my old code files, but i don't have access to them right now. If I have time I'll check them out later.