Programming Jakarta Struts

by Cavaness, Chuck

• ISBN13: 9780596006518
• ISBN10: 0596006519
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-06-30
• Publisher: Oreilly & Associates Inc

Summary

The open source Struts Framework is incredibly popular, and sales of the first edition of Programming Jakarta Struts show that this is, by far, the top choice for documentation. Readers especially benefit from the real- world "this is how to do it" approach of author Chuck Cavaness, who spent months determining ways to use the framework to its full potential. This new edition provides a complete "refresher" for the book, bringing all code up to date with the latest releases, and includes new information on tag libraries and the new JSF APIs.

Author Biography

Chuck Cavaness is a graduate from Georgia Tech with degrees in computer engineering and computer science, has built Java-based enterprise systems in the healthcare, banking, and B2B sectors. Working at an Internet company to design and develop software architecture, Chuck has spent many frustrating hours figuring out the dos and the don'ts of web applications. With each enterprise system he's developed, Chuck has learned several valuable lessons about building "real-world" web applications, information that he's made available to developers who haven't had the opportunity to work on large systems. Chuck is the co-author of Special Edition Using Java 1.3 and Special Edition Using EJB 2.0, both available from QUE.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
1. Introduction	1	(16)
A Brief History of the Web	1	(1)
What Are Java Servlets?	2	(3)
JavaServer Pages	5	(2)
JSP Model 1 and Model 2 Architectures	7	(1)
Why Is Model-View-Controller So Important?	8	(2)
What Is a Framework?	10	(2)
Alternatives to Struts	12	(5)
2. Inside the Web Tier	17	(19)
An Architecture Overview	17	(3)
The HTTP Request/Response Phase	20	(5)
Struts and Scope	25	(2)
Using URL Parameters	27	(1)
Forward Versus Redirect	28	(8)
3. Overview of the Struts Framework	36	(28)
A Banking Account Example	36	(4)
Looking at the Big Picture	40	(2)
Struts Controller Components	42	(7)
Struts Model Components	49	(4)
Struts View Components	53	(10)
Multiple Application Support	63	(1)
Summary	63	(1)
4. Configuring Struts Applications	64	(40)
The Storefront Application	64	(1)
What Is a Web Application?	65	(1)
The Web Application Directory Structure	66	(3)
The Web Application Deployment Descriptor	69	(2)
Configuring the web.xml File for Struts	71	(10)
The Struts Configuration File	81	(19)
The Digester Component	100	(1)
The Struts Console Tool	101	(2)
Reloading the Configuration Files	103	(1)
5. Struts Controller Components	104	(31)
The Controller Mechanism	104	(27)
The Utilities Classes	131	(4)
6. Struts Model Components	135	(32)
The "M" in MVC	135	(4)
What Is a Business Object?	139	(2)
Persistence	141	(1)
What Does Struts Offer for the Model?	142	(25)
7. Struts View Components	167	(26)
What Is a View?	167	(6)
What Are ActionForms?	173	(10)
Using ActionErrors	183	(4)
Performing Presentation Validation	187	(1)
Using the DynaActionForm Class	188	(3)
Looking Ahead to JavaServer Faces	191	(2)
8. JSP Custom Tag Libraries	193	(26)
Custom Tags Overview	193	(4)
Tag Libraries Included with Struts	197	(1)
Using JavaBeans with Struts Tags	198	(1)
Struts HTML Tags	199	(8)
Logic Tags	207	(5)
Bean Tags	212	(3)
Nested Tags	215	(1)
Other Useful Tag Libraries	215	(1)
The JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL)	216	(3)
9. Extending the Struts Framework	219	(14)
What Are Extension Points?	219	(1)
General Extension Points	220	(3)
Controller Extension Points	223	(5)
Extending View Components	228	(3)
Downsides to Extending the Framework	231	(2)
10. Exception Handling	233	(24)
Java Exception Handling	233	(3)
Performance Impact of Exception Handling	236	(1)
System Versus Application Exceptions	237	(1)
Using Chained Exceptions	238	(4)
Exception Handling Provided by Struts	242	(12)
Tying Up the Loose Ends	254	(2)
Conclusion	256	(1)
11. The Validator Framework	257	(24)
The Need for a Validation Framework	257	(1)
Installing and Configuring the Validator	258	(8)
Using an ActionForm with the Validator	266	(5)
Creating Your Own Validation Rules	271	(2)
The Validator and JSP Custom Tags	273	(3)
Internationalizing the Validation	276	(1)
Using the Validator Outside of Struts	277	(4)
12. Internationalization and Struts	281	(16)
What Is Internationalization?	281	(2)
Support for I18N in Java	283	(8)
Internationalizing Your Struts Applications	291	(5)
Exception Handling and Internationalization	296	(1)
13. Struts and Enterprise JavaBeans	297	(27)
Implementing the Storefront Service Using EJB	298	(14)
Interfacing Struts to EJB	312	(11)
Conclusion	323	(1)
14. Using Tiles	324	(24)
Understanding Templates	324	(6)
Installing and Configuring Tiles	330	(2)
Using Tiles	332	(3)
The Tiles Tag Library	335	(7)
Using Definitions	342	(4)
Internationalization Support with Tiles	346	(2)
15. Logging in a Struts Application	348	(27)
Logging in a Web Application	348	(1)
Using the Servlet Container for Logging	349	(10)
Jakarta Commons Logging	359	(4)
Using the log4j Package	363	(7)
Using Commons Logging in JSP Pages	370	(2)
The Performance Impact of log4j	372	(2)
Third-Party log4j Extensions	374	(1)
Java 1.4 Logging API	374	(1)
16. Packaging Your Struts Application	375	(19)
To Package or Not to Package	375	(9)
Packaging the Application as a WAR File	384	(2)
Building Your Struts Applications with Ant	386	(6)
Creating an Automated Build Environment	392	(1)
Restarting Your Server Remotely	393	(1)
17. Addressing Performance	394	(15)
What Is Good Performance?	394	(2)
Performance Versus Load Testing	396	(2)
Performance- and Stress-Testing Tools	398	(1)
Testing the Storefront Application	399	(5)
Performance and Scalability Gotchas	404	(5)
18. JavaServer Faces	409	(6)
Struts and JavaServer Faces	409	(2)
Overview of JSF Architecture	411	(2)
Installing and Running the Example Struts-Faces Application	413	(1)
Converting Existing Struts Applications to JSF	414	(1)
Further Reading	414	(1)
A. Changes Since Struts 1.0	415	(7)
B. Downloading and Installing Struts	422	(6)
C. Resources	428	(3)
Index	431