Writing the first Struts application

By: Norman Chap  

Let's start with developing your first Struts application. Here are the steps involved in creating the Struts application.
  1. Add relevant entries into the web.xml

    a. Add ActionServlet Configuration with initialization parameters
    b. Add ActionServlet Mapping
    c. Add relevant taglib declaration
  2. Start with a blank template for the struts-config.xml. In the struts-config.xml, add the following

    a. Declare the RequestProcessor
    b. Create a properties file and declare it as Message Resource Bundle
    c. Declare the Message Resource Bundle
    d. Declare the Form-bean
    e. Declare the ActionMapping for the Form-bean
    f. Add the forwards in the ActionMapping
  3. Create the Form-bean class
  4. Create the JSP with Struts tags
  5. Create the Action class
  6. For every <bean:message> tag in the JSP, add key value pairs to the Message Resource Bundle (properties file) created in Step 2b
  7. Add Validation in the Form-bean
  8. Define the error messages in the Message Resource Bundle
  9. Create the rest of the JSPs.

Next, you will find the steps to build the Struts application. You will find more explanation & rationale for the steps in the book Struts Survival Guide.

1. Add relevant entries into the web.xm

web.xml for the Struts Application

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.3//EN" "http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd">
<web-app>
<display-name>Hello World Struts Application</display-name>
<servlet>
<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>config</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/struts-config.xml</param-value>
</init-param>
<init-param>
<param-name>debug</param-name>
<param-value>3</param-value>
</init-param>
<init-param>
<param-name>detail</param-name>
<param-value>3</param-value>
</init-param>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*.do</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>
<taglib>
<taglib-uri>/WEB-INF/struts-html.tld</taglib-uri>
<taglib-location>/WEB-INF/struts-html.tld</taglib-location>
</taglib>
<taglib>
<taglib-uri>/WEB-INF/struts-bean.tld</taglib-uri>
<taglib-location>/WEB-INF/struts-bean.tld</taglib-location>
</taglib>
</web-app>

2) Create the struts-config.xml

struts-config.xml for the Struts Application

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<!DOCTYPE struts-config PUBLIC "-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 1.1//EN" "http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/dtds/struts-config_1_1.dtd">
<struts-config>
<form-beans>
<form-bean name="CustomerForm" type="struts.example.CustomerForm"/>

</form-beans>
<global-forwards>
<forward name="mainpage" path="index.jsp" />

</global-forwards>
<action-mappings>
<action path="/submitCustomerForm"
type="struts.example.CustomerAction"
name="CustomerForm"
scope="request"
validate="true"
input="CustomerForm.jsp">
<forward name="success" path="Success.jsp" />
</action>

</action-mappings>
<controller processorClass="org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor"/>
<message-resources parameter="struts.example.MessageResources"/>

</struts-config>

3) Create the ActionForm

CustomerForm

public class CustomerForm extends ActionForm {
private String firstName;
private String lastName;
public CustomerForm() {
firstName = “”;
lastName = “”;
}
public String getFirstName() {
return firstName;
}
public void setFirstName(String s) {
this.firstName = s;
}
public String getLastName() {
return lastName;
}
public void setLastName(String s) {
this.lastName = s;
}
}

4) Create the CustomerForm JSP using Struts Tags

CustomerForm.jsp

<%@ page contentType="text/html;charset=UTF-8" language="java" %>
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/struts-html.tld" prefix="html" %>
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/struts-bean.tld" prefix="bean" %>
<html:html xhtml="true">
<head>
<title><bean:message key="exercise01.formpage.title"/></title>
<html:base/>
</head>
<body background="images/blueAndWhiteBackground.gif">
<h2><bean:message key="exercise01.formpage.title"/></h2>
<html:errors/>
<html:form action="/submitCustomerForm">
<bean:message key="prompt.customer.firstname"/>:
<html:text property="firstName" size="16" maxlength="16"/>
<BR>
<bean:message key="prompt.customer.lastname"/>:
<html:text property="lastName" size="16" maxlength="16"/>
<BR>
<html:submit property="step">
<bean:message key="button.save"/>
</html:submit>
&nbsp;
<html:cancel>
<bean:message key="button.cancel"/>
</html:cancel>
</html:form>
</body>
</html:html>

5) Create the Action class

CustomerAction class

public class CustomerAction extends Action
{
public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form,
HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception
{
ActionForward nextPage = null;
if (isCancelled(request)) {
System.out.println("Cancel Operation Performed");
return mapping.findForward("mainpage");
}
CustomerForm custForm = (CustomerForm) form;
if ("Save".equals(custForm.getStep()))
{
String firstName = custForm.getFirstName();
String lastName = custForm.getLastName();
System.out.println("Customer First name is " + firstName);
System.out.println("Customer Last name is " + lastName);
nextPage = mapping.findForward("success");
}
return nextPage;
}
}

6) Add properties to MessageResources.properties

Message Resource Bundle

########################################
# Exercise01 index page strings
########################################
exercise01.indexpage.title=Welcome to Exercise01

########################################
# Exercise01 CustomerForm strings
########################################
exercise01.formpage.title=Please enter your details
prompt.customer.firstname=First Name
prompt.customer.lastname=Last Name
button.save=Save
button.cancel=Cancel

7) Add validation to the Form bean

validate() method for CustomerForm

public ActionErrors validate(ActionMapping mapping, HttpServletRequest request) {
ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors();
// Firstname cannot be empty
if (firstName == null || firstName.trim().equals("")) {
errors.add("firstName", new ActionError("error.cust.firstname.empty"));
}
// Lastname cannot be empty
if (lastName == null || lastName.trim().equals("")) {
errors.add("lastName", new ActionError("error.cust.lastname.empty"));
}
return errors;
}

8) Add ActionError keys to the Message Resources

ActionError keys to Message Resources

########################################
# Common
########################################
errors.header=<h3><font color="red">Validation Error</font></h3>You must
correct the following error(s) before proceeding:<ul>
errors.footer=</ul><hr>
errors.prefix=<li>
errors.suffix=</li>

########################################
# Exercise01 CustomerForm ActionErrors
########################################
error.cust.firstname.empty=First Name is Required
error.cust.lastname.empty=Last Name is Required

9) Create the rest of the JSPs - index.jsp and Success.jsp. Notice that index.jsp uses the regular html:link tag that just forwards to another JSP. The Success.jsp uses the MVC compliant action mapping as the link. Define entries in MessageResource.properties for each of the bean:message keys in the JSPs.

index.jsp

<%@ page contentType="text/html;charset=UTF-8" language="java" %>
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/struts-html.tld" prefix="html" %>
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/struts-bean.tld" prefix="bean" %>
<html:html xhtml="true">
<head>
<title><bean:message key="exercise01.indexpage.title"/></title>
<html:base/>
</head>
<body background="images/blueAndWhiteBackground.gif">
<div align="center">
<html:link page="/CustomerForm.jsp">Go to Customer Form</html:link>
</div>
</body>
</html:html>

Notice the usage of bean:write tags in Success.jsp. They let you access certain beans in appropriate scope and write their properties to the Servlet/JSP OutputStream

Success.jsp

<%@ page contentType="text/html;charset=UTF-8" language="java" %>
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/struts-html.tld" prefix="html" %>
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/struts-bean.tld" prefix="bean" %>
<html:html xhtml="true">
<head>
<title><bean:message key="exercise01.successpage.title"/></title>
<html:base/>
</head>
<body background="images/blueAndWhiteBackground.gif">
<h2><bean:message key="exercise01.successpage.title" />
<bean:write name="CustomerForm" property="firstName" />
<bean:write name="CustomerForm" property="lastName" />
</h2>
<h3><bean:message key="exercise01.successpage.message" /></h3>
<html:img src="images/beerchug.gif"/>
<html:link page="/showCustomerForm.do">Go Back</html:link>
</body>
</html:html>




Archived Comments

1. where i can find Messageressourse.properties......
and getting error cannot find symbol class

View Tutorial          By: sanjiv at 2013-09-07 06:59:19

2. The coding which is given is easy to understand but I found one thing is missing in CustomerForm i.e
View Tutorial          By: Chandra Sekhar Bodireddy at 2013-03-08 06:02:17

3. I am new to this concept..It is really very useful for me to develop a strut framework concept..Than
View Tutorial          By: karthiga at 2013-01-02 11:20:38

4. Really appreciate, after a long time, I am able to recollect struts stuff easily. thanks a lot.
View Tutorial          By: Senthil at 2012-09-16 06:03:15

5. very nice content
View Tutorial          By: sarat at 2012-08-22 12:17:26

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View Tutorial          By: srujan at 2012-07-09 09:09:10

7. veryyyyyyyyyyy gooooooood tx.....................
View Tutorial          By: eswar at 2012-06-19 08:23:36

8. Thank you I have understood the flow now.


-

View Tutorial          By: Shyam at 2012-05-17 13:14:40

9. its very helpful and understandable.thanq
View Tutorial          By: Deepika darapaneni at 2012-03-24 14:16:39

10. This is very helpfull to us.........thnq
View Tutorial          By: lavanya at 2012-03-17 05:43:12

11. Nice post. I am learning so much things from your website and getting good information compared to o
View Tutorial          By: Umesh Kumar at 2012-03-15 11:16:24

12. Simple and easy to understand
View Tutorial          By: Baji at 2011-09-10 18:24:48

13. Hi This is very fine to understanding struts flow
View Tutorial          By: Abinash at 2011-06-28 08:27:18

14. Its tooo good to others.......& easy
View Tutorial          By: Abhishek at 2010-03-31 23:57:07

15. Very easy and simple to understand....good article for people starting out with struts
View Tutorial          By: Ashish at 2009-10-07 00:58:08

16. Really help ful. To read abt jsp and servlet chk out my link.
View Tutorial          By: Raju at 2009-07-13 11:25:41

17. i got really nice help from the code. Thanks.
View Tutorial          By: Amit at 2009-04-10 08:18:40

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View Tutorial          By: Manoj Kapil at 2009-02-10 11:38:45

19. Ya this is very fine.
View Tutorial          By: Pradip at 2008-12-20 04:06:30

20. Thanks..
It is so easy to understand...

View Tutorial          By: Rahul Meshram at 2008-09-11 13:18:41

21. very helpful to me.thanks.very very useful to me.
View Tutorial          By: viji at 2007-12-21 03:17:14


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