Adding another item to collection object

Question

State:
<html:select property="product.stateId" size="1" onchange="loadProducts();loadProducts2();">
    <html:options collection="stateList" property="id" labelProperty="name"/>
</html:select>

I want to add another option to the list of states such as, "Please select state," in the drop down menu. I think I need to modify the Java collection object..

Answer 1

Just add a <html:option> tag which represents that. The TLDDOC allows that:

This tag can be used multiple times within a single <html:select> element, either in conjunction with or instead of one or more <html:option> or <html:optionsCollection> elements.

Answer 2

In my opinion, I would rather set that "Please select state" directly into your stateList in your model before you come to the JSP page. Basically, after you populate your stateList, you will add this statement something like this:-

stateList.add(0, new IdName("-1", "Please select state"));

This way...

1. Your Struts/JSP code can remain the way it is.
2. Less clutter in your JSP code.
3. You can ensure if the form validation fails, Struts will correctly prefill the right value back.