Programming Jakarta Struts

Web tier frameworks have really taken off in the past year or so. Developers who used to spend hours and hours writing low-level features have realized the enormous benefits of using well-written frameworks to build the presentation tier so they can get to coding the "good stuff", the business logic at the core of the program.

The Struts Framework, originally created by Craig R. McClanahan and donated to the Apache Software Foundation's Jakarta project in 2000, has become one of the most popular presentation frameworks for building web applications with Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages (JSP) technology. It encourages application architecture based on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design paradigm, colloquially known as the Model 2 approach.

As popular as Struts is becoming, the online documentation is inadequate, focusing on the most basic functionality and leaving out information crucial to developers writing today's complex web applications. O'Reilly's Programming Jakarta Struts was written by Chuck Cavaness after his internet company decided to adopt the framework, then spent months really figuring out how to use it to its fullest potential. He calls the books, "the culmination of lessons learned (the hard way) during the building of our application."

Readers will benefit from the real-world, "this is how to do it" approach Cavaness takes to developing complex enterprise applications using Struts, and his focus on the 1.1 version of the Framework makes this the most up-to-date book available.

• An overview of the concepts involved in writing web applications
• Detailed installation and configuration instructions to get Struts up and running quickly
• A thorough discussion of how Struts implements the Model-View-Controller pattern, and how to interface with that pattern in your own applications
• JSP and Jakarta Tag Libraries for authoring complex web pages
• Logging, Validation, and Exception Handling with Struts
• Using the new Struts template framework, Tiles.
• Writing internationalization and localization code using Struts
• Practical, real-world best practices for web applications

Craig McClanahan, originator of Struts, says of the book, "One thing a lot of open source packages lack is a comprehensive guide to all of the features -- something that goes far enough past "hello, world" to get you into solving real application design problems, and it looks like you've hit just the right level for a lot of people."

Contents

• A Brief History of the Web
• What Are Java Servlets?
• JavaServer Pages
• JSP Model 1 and Model 2 Architectures
• Why Is Model-View-Controller So Important?
• What Is a Framework?
• Creation of the Struts Framework
• Alternatives to Struts

• An Architecture Overview
• The HTTP Request/Response Phase
• Struts and Scope
• Using URL Parameters
• Forward Versus Redirect

• A Banking Account Example
• Looking at the Big Picture
• Struts Controller Components
• Struts Model Components
• Struts View Components
• Multiple Application Support
• Summary

• The Storefront Application
• What Is a Web Application?
• The Web Application Directory Structure
• The Web Application Deployment Descriptor
• Configuring the web.xml File for Struts
• The Struts Configuration File
• The org.apache.struts.config Package
• The Digester Component
• The Struts Console Tool
• Reloading the Configuration Files

• The Controller Mechanism
• The Utilities Classes

• The "M" in MVC
• What Is a Business Object?
• Persistence
• What Does Struts Offer for the Model?
• Building the Storefront Model

• What Is a View?
• What Are ActionForms?
• Using ActionErrors
• Performing Presentation Validation
• Using the DynaActionForm Class
• Looking Ahead to JavaServer Faces

• Custom Tags Overview
• Tag Libraries Included with Struts
• Using JavaBeans with Struts Tags
• Struts HTML Tags
• Logic Tags
• Bean Tags
• Template Tags
• Nested Tags
• Other Useful Tag Libraries
• The JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL)

• What Are Extension Points?
• General Extension Points
• Controller Extension Points
• Extending View Components
• Extending Model Components
• Downsides to Extending the Framework

• Java Exception Handling
• System Versus Application Exceptions
• Using Chained Exceptions
• Exception Handling Provided by Struts
• Tying Up the Loose Ends
• Conclusion

• The Need for a Validation Framework
• Installing and Configuring the Validator
• Using an ActionForm with the Validator
• Creating Your Own Validation Rules
• The Validator and JSP Custom Tags
• Internationalizing the Validation
• Using the Validator Outside of Struts

• What Is Internationalization?
• Support for I18N in Java
• Internationalizing Your Struts Applications
• Exception Handling and Internationalization

• Implementing the Storefront Service Using EJB
• Interfacing Struts to EJB
• Conclusion

• Understanding Templates
• Installing and Configuring Tiles
• Overview of Tiles
• The Tiles Tag Library
• Using Definitions
• Internationalization Support with Tiles

• Logging in a Web Application
• Using the Servlet Container for Logging
• Jakarta Commons Logging
• Using the log4j Package
• Using Commons Logging in JSP Pages
• The Performance Impact of log4j
• Third-Party log4j Extensions
• Java 1.4 Logging API

• To Package or Not to Package
• Deciding How to Package Your Application
• Packaging the Application as a WAR File
• Building Your Struts Applications with Ant
• Creating an Automated Build Environment
• Restarting Your Server Remotely

• What Is Good Performance?
• Performance Versus Load Testing
• Performance- and Stress-Testing Tools
• Testing the Storefront Application
• Performance and Scalability Gotchas