Form and Bean with Collection Property doesn't work out of the box

hi folks,

I found out that Form API works with a workaround for Beans with Collection properties ...

I must fill the UI element (i.e. a Table) for the Collection property with the content of that property?! All other "simple field" filled automatically by the form :)

See com.vaadin.ui.Form.setItemDataSource(Item, Collection<?>) line 770 ...

I marked the problem in the code below:

public class FormTestApplication extends Application {

  public static class Contact {
    String name;
    public Contact(final String name) {
      this.name = name;
    }
    public String getName() {
      return name;
    }
    public void setName(final String name) {
      this.name = name;
    }
  }

  public static class Person {
    String name;
    Collection<Contact> contacts = new ArrayList();
    public Person(final String name, final Collection<Contact> contacts) {
      this.name = name;
      this.contacts = contacts;
    }
    public Collection<Contact> getContacts() {
      return contacts;
    }
    public String getName() {
      return name;
    }
    public void setContacts(final Collection<Contact> contacts) {
      this.contacts = contacts;
    } 
    public void setName(final String name) {
      this.name = name;
    }
  }

  @Override
  public void init() {
    final Window mainWindow = new Window("Vaadin_faq Application");
    final Label label = new Label("Hello Vaadin user");
    mainWindow.addComponent(label);
    setMainWindow(mainWindow);
    final Form form = new Form(new VerticalLayout(), new DefaultFieldFactory() {
      @Override
      public Field createField(final Item item, final Object propertyId, final Component uiContext) {
        if ("contacts".equals(propertyId)) {
          final Table table = new Table();
          table.setSizeFull();
          // XXX here I must fill the table with the content --- but why? all other "simple field" filled automatically by the form
         table.setContainerDataSource(new BeanItemContainer<Contact>(Contact.class,(Collection<? extends Contact>) item.getItemProperty(propertyId).getValue()));
          // What I expect is something like this:
          // table.setPropertyDataSource(item.getItemProperty(propertyId));
          // but if I debug the application I see that com.vaadin.ui.Form.bindPropertyToField(Object, Property, Field)
          // is this a bug?
          return table;
        } else {
          return super.createField(item, propertyId, uiContext);
        }
      }
    });
    final Person p = new Person("Hans Karl", Arrays.asList(new Contact[]{
        new Contact("Musterstrasse 3"),
        new Contact("Sonstwo 123")
    }));
    form.setItemDataSource(new BeanItem<Person>(p));
    mainWindow.addComponent(form);
  }
}

Kind regards
Andreas

Hmm, I just remembered that here's an example of such form. Notice that the value of a Table is its selection, not its contents, while the Form expects a value of the collection type. So it's not just as simple as filling the table .

The example also handles read-only mode properly (click the button to see the form in read-only mode).