How to set up a global prefix and suffix used in each error field in Spring ?

Question

Hi,

In Struts, you can confire a global prefix and suffix in a resource bundle file. Something like:

errors.prefix=<div class="error">
errors.suffix=</div>

So <div class="error"> will be added before each <html:errors and </div> will be added after each one.

So how can i get the same effect by using Spring form tags <form:errors ?

regards,

Answer 1

Why would you? Spring renders errors inside a <span> tag whose css class you specify via cssClass attribute of <spring:errors>. You can then style it however you want via CSS.

<span> itself is customizable too, apparently (I've just looked, never needed to change it myself):

<spring:errors element="div" cssClass="errorBox" path="..."/>

would wrap errors in <div class="errorBox"></div>

Answer 2

Hi,

There is a workaround, but you have to implement a custom MessageSource

public class CustomMessageSource extends ResourceBundleMessageSource {

    private String prefix;
    private String suffix;

    public void setPrefix(String prefix) {
        this.prefix = prefix;
    }

    public void setSuffix(String suffix) {
        this.suffix = suffix;
    }

    public String getMessage(String code, Object[] args, String defaultMessage, Locale locale) {
        if(code.startsWith("typeMismatch"))
            return this.prefix + super.getMessage(resolvable, locale) + this.suffix;

        if(code.startsWith("errors"))
            return this.prefix + super.getMessage(resolvable, locale) + this.suffix;

        return super.getMessage(code, args, defaultMessage, locale);
    }

    public String getMessage(String code, Object[] args, Locale locale) throws NoSuchMessageException {
        if(code.startsWith("typeMismatch"))
            return this.prefix + super.getMessage(resolvable, locale) + this.suffix;

        if(code.startsWith("errors"))
            return this.prefix + super.getMessage(resolvable, locale) + this.suffix;

        return super.getMessage(code, args, locale);
    }

    public String getMessage(MessageSourceResolvable resolvable, Locale locale) throws NoSuchMessageException {
        String [] errors = resolvable.getCodes();
        for(String error: errors) {
            if(error.startsWith("typeMismatch"))
                return this.prefix + super.getMessage(resolvable, locale) + this.suffix;

            if(error.startsWith("errors"))
                return this.prefix + super.getMessage(resolvable, locale) + this.suffix;
        }

        return super.getMessage(resolvable, locale);
    }

}

Now you have to define your custom MessageSource

<bean id="messageSource" class="br.com.some.CustomMessageSource">
    <property name="prefix" value="<div class=\"error\">"/>
    <property name="suffix" value="</div>"/>
    <property name="basenames">
        <list>
             <value>messages</value>
             <value>errors</value>
        </list>
    </property name="basenames">
</bean>

regards,