Select Default Value   

Question:

Here is a code fragment from a JSP page:


<html:select property="foodType">
  <html:option value=" ">Select a food type</html:option>
  <html:optionscollection="foodTypeList" property="keyString" labelProperty="valueString"/>
</html:select>


foodTypeList is a collection that has these elements:-

• 01 Entree
• 02 Snack
• 03 Dessert

How do I set Snack as the default?

Answer:

The html:select tag will show the option as "selected" that matches the current value of the ActionForm bean property that is specified in the "property" attribute of the tag.

So, if you want to set a default value, you have to set the ActionForm bean property. In your example, let's suppose that that myActionForm is a local variable that refers to your ActionForm bean, the following statement would do the job:

myActionForm.setFoodType("02");

Here are your options:

1. If a particular value is always supposed to be the default value, you can set this value in the reset() method of the ActionForm bean.
2. You can set it in an Action class that forwards to the JSP
3. You can set it in the JSP itself with a c:set tag.

Example:
<c:set target="myForm" property="foodType" value="02" />


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