IN PROGRESS - issue SWF-720: Multiple checkboxes to Collection mapping

http://jira.springframework.org/browse/SWF-720

spring-binding/src/main/java/org/springframework/binding/convert/ConversionService.java

@@ -39,4 +39,12 @@ public interface ConversionService {
 	public ConversionExecutor getConversionExecutor(Class sourceClass, Class targetClass)
 			throws ConversionExecutorNotFoundException;
 
+	/**
+	 * Lookup a class by its fully qualified name or alias. As an example, for Long.class the fully qualified class name
+	 * is <code>java.lang.Long</code> and the alias is <code>long</code>.
+	 * @param name the fully qualified class name or alias
+	 * @return the class
+	 */
+	public Class getClassByName(String name);
+
 }

spring-binding/src/main/java/org/springframework/binding/convert/service/DefaultConversionService.java

@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@
  */
 package org.springframework.binding.convert.service;
 
+import java.math.BigDecimal;
+import java.math.BigInteger;
+import java.util.Date;
+
 import org.springframework.binding.convert.ConversionService;
 import org.springframework.binding.convert.converters.StringToBigDecimal;
 import org.springframework.binding.convert.converters.StringToBigInteger;
@@ -29,6 +33,7 @@ import org.springframework.binding.convert.converters.StringToInteger;
 import org.springframework.binding.convert.converters.StringToLabeledEnum;
 import org.springframework.binding.convert.converters.StringToLong;
 import org.springframework.binding.convert.converters.StringToShort;
+import org.springframework.core.enums.LabeledEnum;
 
 /**
  * Default, local implementation of a conversion service. Will automatically register <i>from string</i> converters for
@@ -48,6 +53,7 @@ public class DefaultConversionService extends GenericConversionService {
 	 */
 	public DefaultConversionService() {
 		addDefaultConverters();
+		addDefaultAliases();
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -69,6 +75,23 @@ public class DefaultConversionService extends GenericConversionService {
 		addConverter(new StringToDate());
 	}
 
+	protected void addDefaultAliases() {
+		addAlias("byte", Byte.class);
+		addAlias("boolean", Boolean.class);
+		addAlias("character", Character.class);
+		addAlias("short", Short.class);
+		addAlias("integer", Integer.class);
+		addAlias("long", Long.class);
+		addAlias("float", Float.class);
+		addAlias("double", Double.class);
+		addAlias("bigInteger", BigInteger.class);
+		addAlias("bigDecimal", BigDecimal.class);
+		addAlias("class", Class.class);
+		addAlias("labeledEnum", LabeledEnum.class);
+		addAlias("date", Date.class);
+		addAlias("string", String.class);
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Returns the shared {@link DefaultConversionService} instance.
 	 */

spring-binding/src/main/java/org/springframework/binding/convert/service/GenericConversionService.java

@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ import org.springframework.binding.convert.converters.ObjectToArray;
 import org.springframework.binding.convert.converters.ReverseConverter;
 import org.springframework.binding.convert.converters.TwoWayConverter;
 import org.springframework.util.Assert;
+import org.springframework.util.ClassUtils;
 
 /**
  * Base implementation of a conversion service. Initially empty, e.g. no converters are registered by default.
@@ -47,6 +48,11 @@ public class GenericConversionService implements ConversionService {
 	 */
 	private final Map sourceClassConverters = new HashMap();
 
+	/**
+	 * Indexes classes by well-known aliases.
+	 */
+	private final Map aliasMap = new HashMap();
+
 	/**
 	 * An optional parent conversion service.
 	 */
@@ -89,6 +95,13 @@ public class GenericConversionService implements ConversionService {
 		}
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Add an alias for given target type.
+	 */
+	public void addAlias(String alias, Class targetType) {
+		aliasMap.put(alias, targetType);
+	}
+
 	private Map getSourceMap(Class sourceClass) {
 		Map sourceMap = (Map) sourceClassConverters.get(sourceClass);
 		if (sourceMap == null) {
@@ -147,6 +160,26 @@ public class GenericConversionService implements ConversionService {
 		}
 	}
 
+	public Class getClassByName(String name) throws IllegalArgumentException {
+		Class clazz = (Class) aliasMap.get(name);
+		if (clazz != null) {
+			return clazz;
+		} else {
+			if (parent != null) {
+				return parent.getClassByName(name);
+			} else {
+				try {
+					return ClassUtils.forName(name);
+				} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
+					IllegalArgumentException iae = new IllegalArgumentException(
+							"No Class alias or instance found with name '" + name + "' in this ConversionService");
+					iae.initCause(e);
+					throw iae;
+				}
+			}
+		}
+	}
+
 	// subclassing support
 
 	/**