Struts 2 won't transfer params from ExtJS form to ActionSupport class - forms

Question

I am implementing a simple ExtJS form that submits to a Struts 2 ActionSupport class. The code for the various components is as follows:
MyAction.java:
//packaging and imports
public class MyAction extends ActionSupport {
private String aField;
private String anotherField;
public String execute() throws Exception {
System.out.println(afield + " " + anotherField); //just checking values, atm
return ActionSupport.SUCCESS;
}
public String getAField() {
return this.aField;
}
public void setAField(String aField) {
this.aField = aField;
}
public String getAnotherField() {
return this.anotherField;
}
public void setAnotherField(String anotherField) {
this.anotherField = anotherField;
}
}
myForm.js:
Ext.onReady(function() {
Ext.QuickTips.init();
// turn on validation errors beside the field globally
Ext.form.Field.prototype.msgTarget = 'side';
var myForm = new Ext.form.FormPanel({
id: 'myFormId',
url: 'submitMyForm.action',
defaults: {
xtype: 'textfield'
},
items: [
{
fieldLabel: 'A Field',
id: 'aField',
name: 'aField',
allowBlank: false
},
{
fieldLabel: 'Another Field',
id: 'anotherField',
name: 'anotherField',
allowBlank: false
}
],
renderTo: 'contentMain'
});
var submitButton = new Ext.Button({
text: 'SUBMIT',
handler: function(button, event) {
myForm.getForm().submit({
url: 'submitMyForm.action',
failure: function() {
Ext.Msg.alert('Error', 'Can not save data.');
}
});
}
});
});
struts.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE struts PUBLIC
"-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 2.0//EN"
"http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-2.0.dtd">
<struts>
<package name="myPackage" namespace="/" extends="json-default">
<action name="submitMyForm" class="mycodepackage.MyAction">
<result name="*" type="json">
<param name="includeProperties">aField</param>
</result>
</action>
</package>
</struts>
When the submit button is pressed, my action executes properly, and in addition to standard debugging data prints out:
null null
The JSON result is sent back correctly, but of course is also null:
14:22:17,046DEBUG JSONResult:68 - Adding include property expression: aField
14:22:17,052DEBUG JSONWriter:68 - Ignoring property because of include rule: anotherField
14:22:17,053DEBUG JSONUtil:68 - [JSON]{"aField":null}
Now, it's my understanding that the values entered in the form should be inserted into the instance variables for my action class. Am I wrong in this? If not, what could be going wrong? If so, what can I do to ensure that the form data is sent to my action handler?
Thanks.

Answer 1

Any parameters sent will be placed into the similarly named setters. Why don't you first check that the form parameters are getting sent correctly with LiveHttpHeaders Firefox plugin.

Answer 2

Once we realized the form data was not being correctly passed into the http request, my coworker developed a form data interceptor, which we use to load the data in manually. For more information, look into the <interceptor>, <interceptor-stack>, and <interceptor-ref> tags.