I'm trying to make a complex application form that lets a user save their progress as they go through it, without finishing it.
I made a separate table in my database for the application. This table holds all the fields of the application, and allows blank entries, but also does the hibernate validator validation on the fields.
When the application is finally submitted, I can't have any blank fields. Since I'm not using the JSF required=true, it seems awfully clunky to go through each field manually and check for blank. I guess this is what I'll have to deal with though...
I'd like to split the form up over multiple pages, but this seems even harder to validate at the end. When I find a blank field, do I redirect to the appropriate page of the form? It would be nice if I could change modes somehow... maybe some kind of flag that would indicate if it should be checking for blanks or not.
Anyway, advice is appreciated. I know this is all kind of vague.
Is there any way to get all of the form fields as a list that I can loop through programatically?
Any suggestions on how to do something like this more smoothly? I'm kinda expecting a lot of pain and suffering on my part as I go forward with this. The application is about 10 pages long on paper =/
