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Subject: RE: Constants for property names
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 17:29:10 -0000
Message-ID: <83761BD133421248A07B9D0303827B0C2AD828@LNWEXMB12.msad.ms.com>
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Thread-Topic: Constants for property names
Thread-Index: AcUQJ/gV7xKfGuJ9QJ6jdtiBum2+cgANSGGQ
From: "Daffin, Miles (Company IT)" <Miles.Daffin@morganstanley.com>
To: "Struts Users Mailing List" <user@struts.apache.org>

My responses are interspersed.=20

> Daffin, Miles (Company IT) wrote:
> > What do people feel about using constants for property names?
>
> I can't really see the point. A property name is like a=20
> variable name, it will never be displayed or localized, so=20
> why would you ever want to change it?
=20
e.g. Refactor --> rename. (Do you always get it right first time?)=20
e.g. Misspelling a property name. How would you tell you had until you
get a run time error of some kind? (String literal constants are evil.)
=20
> > <html:text property=3D"<%=3DKeys.Section0.APPLICANT_NAME%>"/>
>=20
> Can you think of a case where this value won't be "applicantName"?

I think you have missed my point, such as it was. The property name here
is defined by the bean. To ensure I don't misspell it I can use a
constant. This makes it easier to maintain the property: rename or
remove.
=20
> > - jstl tags
> > - xml files (e.g. struts-config, validation)
>=20
> Worse: if you have an ActionForm, you can't have a property=20
> whose name depends on a constant!! And what about getters and setters.

What do you mean by 'depends on a constant'? ActionForms have
properties. These have names. These names are used in many places: java,
jsp, xml.

> > Should I forget about defining
> > constants?
>=20
> Yes :)

I am unconvinced.

-Miles=20
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