Parameter Type Coercions
Tapestry automatically handles type coercions for parameters.
Type coercions occur when a value passed into a parameter (as bound in template or in an annotation) does not match the type of the parameter.
For example, consider the Count component:
public class Count { @Parameter private int start = 1; @Parameter(required = true) private int end; @Parameter private int value; . . .
Here, the type of all three parameters is int.
However, it is likely that the component will be used as so:
Merry Christmas: <t:count end="3"> Ho! </t:count>
A bare whole number is interpreted by the prop binding prefix as a long. So this is the long value 3.
Tapestry will automatically coerce the bound value, a long, to the parameter's type, int. This may be a lossy coercion (if the long represents a number larger than can be stored in an int).
TypeCoercer Service
The TypeCoercer service is responsible for this type coercion. This service is part of the tapestry-ioc module, and is documented there. The service is quite extensible, allowing for new types and coercions to be added easily. The TapestryModule contributes a few additional coercions into the TypeCoercer service.