Struts DynaValidatorForm and collections

[bill.manuel@xxxxxxxxxx]

All,
      I'm hoping I can find someone who has tried this before.  I am trying
to use the DynaValidatorForm, which I have used before, but not in the same
manner.

Lets say I have a class PurchaseOrder with several properties.  One of
those properties is an array of objects (PurchaseOrderLine).

PurchaseOrder:
properties: (all getters and setters are assumed)
      private String poNumber;
      .... a bunch of other properties
      private PurchaseOrderLine[] purchaseOrderLines;

PurchaseOrderLine:
      private String itemNumber;
      ... a bunch of other properties...


Struts config:
<form-bean name="purchaseOrderForm"
type="org.apache.struts.validator.DynaValidatorForm">
      <form-property name="purchaseOrder" type="somepackage.PurchaseOrder">
</form-bean>


JSP:  (assuming the action is mapped to my form)
      <html:form action="/someAction" method="post">
            <html:hidden property="purchaseOrder.poNumber"/>

            <c:forEach items="${purchaseOrder.purchaseOrderLines}
var="poLine" varStatus="status">
                  <html:hidden name="poLine" property="itemNumber"/>
            </c:forEarch>
      </html:form>


Heres the problem (finally):
The part in the c:forEach loop works (sort of).  It displays each element
in the array.  The problem comes when I try posting to the server.  The
lines in the html source look like this:
<input type="hidden" name="poLine[0].poNumber" value="000000"/>

I would expect it would only work if I get it to display like this:
<input type="hidden" name="purchaseOrder.purchaseOrderLines[0].poNumber"
value="00000"/>

I have tried several solutions to this with no success.   One person
suggested setting the scope of the form bean on the action to "session"
scope instead of request.  I haven't tried this yet, but I'm guessing it
won't work either.  I will try it tonight, but If anyone has an example of
this working somewhere, I would name my first child after them. (Well,
maybe not)

If this just looks like gibberish to you, please ignore me.


Thanks in advance.


Bill Manuel