Groovy/Grails validations and hasFieldErrors issue

Question

I have created a custom tag that looks like this:

def textField = { attrs ->
    def field = attrs.name.split('\\.')[-1]
    log.error("--------- Field is ${field}")
    if (attrs.bean && attrs.bean.errors.hasFieldErrors(field)) {
        def className = attrs.remove('class')
        def classStr = 'errors '
        if (className) {
            classStr += className
        }
        attrs.put('class', classStr)
        attrs.put('value', attrs.bean[field])
        attrs.remove('bean')
    }
    out << g.textField(attrs)
}

I'm calling it in my GSP like this:

<my:textField bean="${client}" name="client.firstName"/>
<my:textField bean="${client}" name="client.lastName"/>
...
<my:textField bean="${client}" name="client.workPhone"/>

And here is my domain-class

class Client {

    String email
    String address
    String city
    String state
    String zip
    String firstName
    String lastName
    String phone
    String workPhone
    String mobilePhone
    String birthCountry
    String citizenshipCountry
    String emergencyContactName
    String emergencyPhone
    String disabilities
    String experience

    static constraints = {
        email(email:true, unique:true, blank:false)
        address(blank:false)
        city(blank:false)
        state(blank:false)
        zip(blank:false)
        firstName(blank:false)
        lastName(blank:false)
        phone(blank:false)
        emergencyContactName(blank:false)
        emergencyPhone(blank:false)

        workPhone(blank:true, nullable:true)
        mobilePhone(blank:true, nullable:true)
        birthCountry(blank:true, nullable:true)
        citizenshipCountry(blank:true, nullable:true)
        disabilities(blank:true, nullable:true)
        experience(blank:true, nullable:true)
    }

    static mapping = {
        disabilities type: 'text'
        experience type: 'text'
    }

    static hasMany = [courses:ClientCourseMap]
}

The page loads fine except when I actually have a "client" bean. It loads all the way up to the last tag "client.workPhone". Then I get the following exception:

2010-03-06 18:32:35,329 [http-8080-2] ERROR view.GroovyPageView - Error processing GroovyPageView: Error executing tag : org.codehaus.groovy.grails.web.taglib.exceptions.GrailsTagException: Error executing tag : groovy.lang.MissingPropertyException: No such property: client for class: com.personal.Client at /Users/dean/Projects/PersonalGrails/grails-app/views/registration/index.gsp:98 at /Users/dean/Projects/PersonalGrails/grails-app/views/registration/index.gsp:145

The problem is when hasFieldErrors is called on the bean. It passes in "field" which should be "workPhone". Stepping through a debugger shows that field is exactly "workPhone". However, with further inspection into the field variable, it shows that the internal value of field is "client.workPhone" and offset = 7, count = 9, hash = 0. However, if you call toString(), you get back "workPhone" as you'd expect.

I'm wondering of Grails or maybe even Spring is not using this string correctly? It looks like it's trying to use the real value of that string instead of paying attention to the offset/count of that string and getting back what is intended.

Does anyone see something I'm doing wrong? Or do you know of a workaround? I can give whatever info is needed, just ask... This is driving me nuts!

Answer 1

It looks like the intention of your tag is to reduce the amount of boilerplate GSP code needed when rendering a form. Have you considered using the bean-fields plugin instead?