I am trying to get a varchar message from a database to display the selected values of a checkbox field in a jsp for patient's medication's dosage frequency. The possible values will be saved in comma-delimited string in the varchar. For most form fields there is simply a one form value to one database field ratio, but in this case, I am needing to merge the values that would come as a string[] into the comma-delimited string and then when retrieving that record for that medication of that patient, display the selected values from the comma-delimited string as selected from the selectableDosageFrequencyList.

You assistance in this is greatly appreciated as I am not sure what I am missing here.

In the application context, I created the list of possible values as part of the ServiceBean.

    <property name="selectableDosageFrequencyList">
        <set>
            <value>On an empty stomach</value>
            <value>Every other day</value>
            <value>4 times daily</value> 
            <value>3 times daily</value>
            <value>Twice daily</value>
            <value>At bedtime</value> 
            <value>With meal</value>
            <value>As needed</value>
            <value>Once daily</value>               
        </set>
    </property>

This is set up in the flow as requestscope.

<view-state id="addEditMedication" model="medication">

    <on-render>
        <set name="requestScope.selectableDosageFrequencyList" value="memberService.buildSelectableDosageFrequencyList(patient)" />     
    </on-render>
...
    <transition on="next" to="assessment" >
        <evaluate expression="memberService.updateMedication(patient, medication)" />
    </transition>
</view-state>

I have helper methods in the memberService that need to be executed when the form is init and then when the form is completed.

    //get the form fields selected and build the new string for db
public String setSelectedDosageFrequency(String [] dosageFrequencies){
    String frequencies = null;
    if (dosageFrequencies != null){
        for (String s : dosageFrequencies){
            frequencies = frequencies + "," + s;
        }
    }
    return frequencies;
}
//get value from database and build selected Set
public LinkedHashSet<String> getSelectedDosageFrequencyList(String dosageFrequency){
    String copyOfDosages =dosageFrequency;//may not need to do this
    LinkedHashSet<String> setofSelectedDosageFrequency = new LinkedHashSet<String> ();
    while (copyOfDosages!= null && copyOfDosages.length()>0){
        for (String aFrequency: selectableDosageFrequencyList){
        if (copyOfDosages.contains(aFrequency)){
            setofSelectedDosageFrequency.add(aFrequency);
            if (!copyOfDosages.equals(aFrequency) && copyOfDosages.endsWith(aFrequency)){
                copyOfDosages.replaceAll(","+aFrequency, "");       
            }else if (!copyOfDosages.equals(aFrequency) && copyOfDosages.contains(aFrequency=",")){
                copyOfDosages.replaceAll(aFrequency+",", "");
            }else
                copyOfDosages.replaceAll(aFrequency, "");
            copyOfDosages.trim();
        }
        }
    }   
    return setofSelectedDosageFrequency;        
}

The Medication class that backs the form will have a variable for dosage-frequency as a string.

private String dosageFrequency;

The jsp I currently am doing this.

        <div class="formField">
            <form:label path="dosageFrequency">Dosage Frequency</form:label>
            <ul class="multi-column double" style="width: 550px;">
                <form:checkboxes path="dosageFrequency" items="${selectableDosageFrequencyList}" itemLabel="${selectableDosageFrequencyList}" element="li" />
            </ul>
        </div>