Classes supporting conversion of data values to and from string representations. This package is typically used by user interfaces. In Dataman it is used by the {@link gov.va.med.term.access.maint.command Command} package.

The conversion process implemented in this package is simple, powerful, and easy to apply.

Given a dictionary of input values and an object, the {@link gov.va.med.term.access.maint.conversion.Input Input} class populates all object attributes 'a' where an entry exists in the dictionary and a 'setA(value)' method exists in the object. If the dictionary name uses dot-notation, object references are automatically traversed (and possibly created).

Given an input String and a set method, the {@link gov.va.med.term.access.maint.conversion.StringConverter StringConverter} class converts the string to the type expected by the set method using one of three methods.

Dataman conversion differs from the form conversion provided by Struts in several important ways.

@.maintenance

{@link gov.va.med.term.access.maint.conversion.Input Input} is stable.

{@link gov.va.med.term.access.maint.conversion.StringConverter StringConverter} is expected to require maintenance to support String arrays, user-defined conversion routines, and new conversion patterns.