spring initbinder example that registers custom editor

One of the nice features in Spring is the automatic databinding that occurs if you use one of the subclasses of BaseCommandController such as AbstractCommandController or SimpleFormController. By automatic databinding, I mean Spring initializing your command object based on the request parameters. The magic behind this feature is Spring's builtin property editors which do things like convert strings to integers. Sooner or later, however, you'll run into a situation where you need to do some custom databinding by registering your own PropertyEditor through the initBinder() method.

Suppose this is my command class:


class FootballPlayer {

static enum POSITION {RB, WR, QB, DB, LB}



POSITION _position;



public POSITION getPosition() {

return _position;

}



public void setPosition(POSITION position) {

_position = position;

}

}




So if my request parameter is ?positon=rb and I want my command class to have the correct enum set, do the following:
First, create a custom property editor.

class FootBallPlayerEditor extends PropertyEditorSupport {

public String getAsText() {

FootballPlayer editor = (FootballPlayer) getValue();

return editor.getPosition().name();

}



public void setAsText(final String text) {

setValue(FootballPlayer.POSITION.valueOf(text));

}

}



then override initBinder

protected void initBinder(HttpServletRequest request,

ServletRequestDataBinder binder) {

binder.registerCustomEditor(FootballPlayer.POSITION.class, new FootBallPlayerEditor());

}



And you're all set.