JavaServer Faces

Using the Standard Validators

The expense report entry form part of the sample application contains a number of fields that require validation: all fields must have a value, a syntactically valid date must be entered in the Date field, and the Amount field must contain an amount larger than one. Figure 7-1 shows all these fields, with a couple of error messages, generated by the initial implementation of this form.

Figure 7-1. The first version of the report entry form area JSP page

The JSP file for this version of the form is shown in Example 7-2.

Example 7-2. Initial report entry form area JSP page (expense/stage1/entryFormArea.jsp)

<%@ page contentType="text/html" %>
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html" prefix="h" %>
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core" prefix="f" %>

<f:view>
  <h:form>
    Title: 
    <h:inputText id="title" size="30" required="true"
      value="#{reportHandler.currentReport.title}" />
    <h:message for="title" />
    <br>
    Entry:
    <br>
    Date: 
    <h:inputText id="date" size="8" required="true"
      value="#{entryHandler.currentEntry.date}">
      <f:convertDateTime dateStyle="short" />
    </h:input_text>
    <h:message for="date" />
    <br>
    Type:
    <h:selectOneMenu id="type" required="true"
      value="#{entryHandler.currentEntry.type}">
      <f:selectItems value="#{entryHandler.expenseTypeChoices}"/>
    </h:selectOneMenu>
    <h:message for="type" />
    <br>
    Amount:
    <h:inputText id="amount" size="8" required="true" ...