Introduction to Struts
Andrew J. Dick
Red Hook Group andrew@redhookgroup.com Colorado Software Summit
What Is Struts?
?Framework for writing applications using MVC architecture
?Open source
• Part of Apache’s Jakarta Project • Current production version 1.0.2
?Model 2 architecture implementation
?Provides standard framework infrastructure
?Makes no presumptions about business and application objects it deals with
• Could be EJBs, CORBA, directly from database, XML tree
What Is MVC?
?Stands for Model-View-Controller
?Design paradigm
• Originated in the Smalltalk community
?Decouples data access code, business logic code and presentation code
?Often ripple effects occur when changes are required in applications without this separation
What Is MVC?
?MVC Components
?Model
• Application data
?View
• Translates Model into readable form
?Controller
• Processes user input • Initiates change in state of Model • In web design also responsible for flow control
Struts & MVC
?MVC implementation
?Model – Business Services, Transfer Objects
• Business Services populate and return Transfer Objects
?View – JSPs, ActionForms
• JSP queries ActionForm for form data
?Controller – ActionServlet, Actions
• ActionServlet delegates control to Action class instances
Struts Components
?ActionServlet ?Actions ?ActionMappings ?ActionForwards ?ActionErrors ?ActionForms ?Resource Management ?Tag Libraries ?Configuration ?Logging
What Is the ActionServlet
?Manages application flow of control
?Primary controller for Struts framework
?Performs initialization for application such as
?Parses Struts configuration file
• Loads application message resources • Initializes:
?Action mapping cache ?Application defined data sources ?Servlet mapping information
What Does the ActionServlet Do?
?For each user request
?Identifies action to invoke from URI ?Instantiates ActionForm bean if required by mapping configuration
• Initialized with submitted form’s field values
?Calls the Action’s perform method
• May have to load and instantiate Action first
?HTTP GET and POST treated identically
ActionServlet Processing
?Segment of Struts ActionServlet request processing
? * Copyright (c) 1999-2001 The Apache Software Foundation. All rights reserved
protected void process(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)
… …
// Acquire the Action instance to process this request Action actionInstance = processActionCreate(mapping, request); ActionForward forward = processActionPerform(actionInstance, mapping, formInstance, request, response);
…
processActionForward(forward, mapping, formInstance, request, response);
Struts 1.1 ActionServlet
?Introduction of Request Processor
?Handles much of the functionality of the ActionServlet in Struts 1.0 ?Allows developers to more easily customize the request handling behavior
What Is an Action?
?Bridge between HTTP request and business services ?Typically performs single task or business operation ?Alternatively can group cohesive actions together within an Action class
?Reduces number of required Action classes
How Is an Action Used?
?Implements perform() method ?Executed by ActionServlet according to defined ActionMappings ?Single instance per Action class type
?Therefore must be threadsafe
What Does an Action Do?
?Processes request parameters ?Invokes appropriate business service ?Prepares business service results ?Determines path to follow
?Uses ActionMapping to determine where to dispatch the user based on
• Request parameters • Business service results
Action Relationships
ActionForm uses Action queries ActionMapping
invokes
Business Service
Action Interactions
ActionServlet 1: perform 2: getInput Action ActionForm Business Service ActionMapping
3: saveInput
4: findForward
5: return forward
Example Action
public ActionForward perform(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp) throws IOException, ServletException { … final EditPersonForm editPersonForm = (EditPersonForm) form; final String action = editPersonForm.getSelected(); if (WebConstants.SAVE.equals(action)) { savePerson(editPersonForm.getModifiedPerson()); return mapping.findForward("save"); } else { // Initial pass - forward to the view return mapping.findForward("view"); }
How Is an Action Configured?
Struts 1.1 Actions
?Method perform() replaced by execute()
?Backwards compatible ?Change necessary to support declarative exception handling
?Addition of DispatchAction class
?Supports multiple business methods instead of a single execute() method
• Allows easy grouping of related business methods
What Is an ActionMapping?
?Encapsulates mapping information
?Used to hold information that the ActionServlet knows about a mapping
?Allows meta information to be passed to Action object
?e.g. Configuration mappings for an Action
How Is an ActionMapping Used?
?Passed to Action class when perform() invoked
?Can be queried by Action class for information ?Used to determine where user should be forwarded or redirected
ActionMapping Interactions
ActionServlet 1: perform 2: Invoke Action ActionMapping Business Service ActionForward JSP
3: findForward
4: return
5: get URI
6: forward
Example ActionMapping Usage
?Used to look up ActionForwards with a lookup name
try { delegate.createPerson(personInfo); return mapping.findForward(“save”); }
?Can also be used to retrieve input source
catch (final DuplicatePersonException duplicatePersonException) { ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors(); ActionError error = new ActionError(“error.duplicate.name”); errors.add(“name”, error); saveErrors(request, errors); return mapping.findForward(mapping.getInput()); }
How Is an ActionMapping Configured?
?Parent element of Action in the application configuration
… … …
What Is an ActionForward?
?Logical abstraction of a web resource
?Minimizes coupling of an application to physical resources
?Encapsulates URI that ActionServlet can redirect control to
?Three properties
• Name – lookup key • Path – URI • Redirect – whether to redirect or forward
How Is an ActionForward Used?
?Defined as local to an action or global to the application ?Look up via ActionMapping class
?findForward
?Can also be dynamically created by specifying URI
ActionForward Interactions
ActionServlet 1: perform 2: Invoke Action ActionMapping Business Service ActionForward JSP
3: findForward
4: return
5: get URI
6: forward
Example ActionForward
public ActionForward perform(…) throws IOException, ServletException { … String action = form.getSelected(); ActionForward forward; if (action.equals(“login”)) { forward = mapping.findForward(“login”); } else { forward = new ActionForward( “http://authserver:7001/authcontrol”, true); } return forward; }
How Is an ActionForward Configured?
? Can be configured globally
? Or relative to an action
…
What Is an ActionError?
?Represents an error condition detected during application workflow ?Passed through the system in a container object
?ActionErrors
How Is an ActionError Used?
?Created in ActionForm validate() or Action perform() method ?Created with error message key and parameters ?Added to error container with key
?Represents form field causing the error
?ActionErrors is a request scope object
?Only exists until the input JSP is redisplayed with the error messages
What Does an ActionError Do?
?Used to transport error messages to the user ?Supports internationalization of error messages ?Allows user to be notified of multiple error conditions
?Prevents a cycle of submit, display error, resubmit, display next error…
ActionError Relationships
Action ActionForm
Creates ActionError
Creates JSP Displays
0..* ActionErrors
ActionError Interactions
Client 1: Submit 2: Validate 3: new () ActionErrors ActionServlet ActionForm JSP
4: new ()
ActionError
5: Add
6: return
7: Forward 8: Get error
9: Get message
10:
Display message
How Is an ActionError Configured?
?Error messages defined in resource bundle
?ApplicationResources.properties by default ?Can be parameterized with up to five parameters
• e.g. error.invalid.date=Date {0} is not valid
?Error header and footer defined
?errors.header and errors.footer ?If present, added before and after error messages
Example ActionError - Creation
?Created in ActionForm validate method
public ActionErrors validate(ActionMapping mapping, HttpServletRequest request) { ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors(); try { DateFormat.parse(getBirthDate()); } catch (final ParseException parseException) { ActionError error = new ActionError(“error.invalid.date”), getBirthDate()); errors.add(“birthDate”, error); } return errors; }
Example ActionError - Creation
?Can also be created in Action perform method
?Generally if business validation is necessary
• e.g. Uniqueness of input
… try { personDelegate.createPerson(personInfo); } catch (final DuplicatePersonException duplicatePersonException) { ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors(); ActionError error = new ActionError(“error.duplicate.name”); errors.add(“name”, error); saveErrors(request, errors); return mapping.findForward(mapping.getInput()); }
Example ActionError - Display
Struts 1.1 ActionErrors
?New ActionMessage super class introduced
?Used for more general purpose messages
• Action ‘Error’ implies improper to use for informational or warning messages
?Introduction of declarative exception handling
?Allows definition of exception handling policy externally
What Is an ActionForm?
?Defines an abstract class for managing forms
?Standard callback for form validation ?Standard callback for resetting a form
?Supports form management by
?Capturing input data ?Validation of form data ?Returning error message on validation failure ?Transferring data to Action class ?Determining which action was submitted
• If multiple submits in the form
How Is an ActionForm Used?
?Defines accessors and mutators for form being maintained ?Implements validate and reset methods
?Validate performs validation of data
• Only called if form configured for validation
?Reset allows recycling of forms
?Two levels of scope – session (default) and request
?Session used to support multi-page wizards
?Form passed into Action class when invoked
What Does an ActionForm Do?
?When a form is submitted, the ActionServlet will:
?Detect which ActionForm subclass is associated with the mapping (if any) ?Find an existing instance or instantiate one ?Populate it with form data from the request ?Invoke the ActionForm’s validate method ?Pass the ActionForm instance to the Action instance
• If validation successful
ActionForm Relationships
populated from ActionForm invokes ActionServlet
creates
JSP
displays
ActionError
ActionErrors
ActionForm Interactions
Client ActionServlet ActionForm JSP 1: submit 2: validate 3: new () ActionErrors 4: new () ActionError 5: add 6: return
7: forward
8: display errors
Example ActionForm
public ActionErrors validate(ActionMapping mapping, HttpServletRequest request) { ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors(); try { DateFormat.parse(getBirthDate()); } catch (final ParseException parseException) { errors.add(“birthDate”, new ActionError(“error.invalid.date”), getBirthDate()); } if ((getName() == null) || (getName().equals(“”))) { errors.add(“name”, new ActionError(“error.name.required”)); } return errors; }
How Is an ActionForm Configured?
…
Struts 1.1 ActionForms
?Dynamic Forms introduced
?Configured in configuration file rather than coding ?Version exists that works with validator package to provide automatic validation
Struts 1.1 Validation
?Validator framework from Jakarta
?Part of Commons sub-project
?Struts 1.1 includes this by default
?Allows declarative validation for many fields
• e.g. Formats
?Dates, Numbers, Email, Credit Card, Postal Codes
• Lengths
?Minimum, maximum
• Ranges
?Can also be configured for Struts 1.0
Struts Resource Management
?Centralizes resource administration for
?Internationalization ?Error treatment ?Standard labeling
?By default ApplicationResources.properties
?Can be changed in web.xml configuration ?Must be located on class path
• Typically in WEB-INF/classes
ResourceManagement – ApplicationResources.properties
# Titles title.welcome=Genealogy Tree # Labels label.first.name=First Name: # Links link.add.person=Add a new person # Resources resource.image.save=/images/save.gif # Errors error.invalid.date=Date {0} is not valid.
Struts Resource Management
?Can be accessed from JSP through tag libraries
?Can also be accessed in Action objects through MessageResources
MessageResources messages = getResources(); Locale locale = getLocale(request); messages.getMessage(“label.name", locale);
Struts & TagLibs
?Struts supports four tag libraries
?Not mandatory
• Renders cleaner pages • Not limited to these four
?Provides flexible way to
• Access application and framework objects under different scopes • Render objects to output stream, handle validation and processing errors • Support internationalization capabilities • Create page templates that support reusable design
Struts & TagLibs
?What is required to use them?
?web.xml tag library declaration for each library
/WEB-INF/tlds/struts-bean.tld /WEB-INF/tlds/struts-bean.tld
?Taglib directive on each target page
<%@ taglib uri='/WEB-INF/tlds/struts-bean.tld' prefix='bean' %>
Bean Tag Library
?Provides ways to access and expose beans and properties in the application ?Provides internationalization functionality
?Includes parametric replacement
?Bean references can be created ?String constants can be defined
HTML Tag Library
?Provides support for rendering html controls
?Input controls, images, forms, etc.
?Includes support for:
?JavaScript event handling ?Cascading Style Sheets ?Navigation attributes
?Supports display of errors found during form validation
Logic Tag Library
?Conditional generation of content
?Supports comparison properties equality to a constant ?Conditional on presence (or lack) of variables or properties
• Includes cookies, roles, etc.
?Navigational forwarding or redirection ?Iteration of collection elements
Template Tag Library
?Allows atomic views to be created
?i.e. Section, Header, Footer, Content
?Views can then be added to a defined layout
Struts & TagLibs
?Can also use other tag libraries
?Jakarta TagLibs ?JSTL ?Custom Tags
?Struts 1.1
?Tile TagLib supercedes Template TagLib
• Provides more extensive layout support
?Nested TagLib
• Extends base Struts Taglibs to support relation to each other in a nested manner
Configuration
?Two aspects to Struts configuration
?web.xml ?struts-config.xml
Configuration – Web.xml
action org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet application ApplicationResources config /WEB-INF/struts-config.xml 1 …
Configuration – Web.xml
… action *.do index.jsp
Configuration – Web.xml
… /WEB-INF/tlds/struts-bean.tld /WEB-INF/tlds/struts-bean.tld
Configuration – Struts-config.xml
Configuration – Struts-config.xml
Configuration – Struts-config.xml
Struts 1.1 Configuration
?Adds support for
?Multiple application modules ?Declarative exceptions ?Plug in elements ?Multiple message resource elements
?Visual configuration tools can also be found
?Both commercial and open-source
• http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/resources/guis.html
Logging
?Important aspect of applications
?3rd party logging frameworks used pre JDK 1.4
• i.e. log4j
?Logging API introduced with JDK 1.4
• Similar to log4j
?Hierarchical categories ?Logging levels
Logging
?What does Struts provide?
?Nothing
?Jakarta project provides thin logging wrapper
?Part of Commons subproject ?Provides wrappers for standard logging frameworks
• JDK 1.4, log4j, etc.
?Can also develop wrapper for custom logging API
Logging
?Why use Jakarta Common Logging?
?Can declaratively switch logging frameworks ?Implementation wrapper class declared in a properties file
?Must still configure logging framework in typical way
?i.e. log4j.properties
?Jakarta also provides logging tag library
?Useful for debugging
• Allows dump of scope attributes
Resources
?JSP and Tag Libraries for Web Development
by Wellington L.S. da Silva, New Riders Publishing ISBN: 0-73571-095-3
?Programming Jakarta Struts
By Chuck Cavaness, O’Reilly & Associates (October 2002) ISBN: 0-59600-328-5
?Struts in Action: A Practical Guide to the Leading Java Web Framework
by Ted Husted et al., Manning Publications Company ISBN: 1930110502
Websites
? http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/index.html ? http://www.husted.com/struts ? Sample app can be found at:
? http://www.redhookgroup.com/downloads/css/genealogy.zip
?Thank you. ?Any questions
?andrew@redhookgroup.com