ITP863A - Jakarta Struts
Course description
This advanced course shows JSP and servlet programmers how to build “Model-2” web applications using the Jakarta Struts project from Apache. Learn the Struts architecture and see how it captures a great deal of pre-existing best practice in web application development. You will also build applications from scratch using the Struts 1.1 code base, advancing through actions and action mappings, form beans, and request forwarding. They use relational data at the model layer and learn to configure JDBC data sources under Struts. Throughout, the course emphasizes the great facility in Struts of using XML declarations to replace boilerplate Java coding.
The course then shifts from these controller techniques to a focus on presentation. Students learn to use various libraries of custom JSP tags: the JSP Standard Tag Library (which supersedes a number of Struts tags), Struts HTML tags for form-building and validation, and the Tiles library for robust and reusable page layouts.
Two chapters near the end of the course treat issues of effective Struts development: one focuses on “under the hood” coding techniques, while the other focuses on best practices at a design level. By the end of the course, you will be building complex, internationalized web applications that validate user input; handle error conditions gracefully; and make best use and reuse of control and presentation logic through actions, form beans, validators, business and persistence JavaBeans, and Tiles.
Prerequisites
- Java programming
- Servlets programming
- JSP
- Basic knowledge of XML
What you will achieve
- 1. 1. Struts Architecture
- MVC and Model 2
- Command Pattern
- Jakarta Struts
- More XML, Less Java!
- Action Mappings
- JavaBeans in Struts
- Working with Forms
- Validation
- Relational Models
- Presentation Technology
- Tiles
2. 2. Action Mappings
- Command Pattern for Web Applications
- ActionServlet
- Action
- ActionMapping
- Struts Configuration
- Selecting a Forward
- Global Forwards
- Forwarding Actions
- Other Action Subtypes
- Declarative Exception Handling
3. 3. Forms
- Working with HTML Forms
- What Not To Do
- Action Forms
- Relationship to Input
- Relationship to Actions
- Relationship to the Model
- Relationship to Output
- DynaActionForm and Map-Backed Forms
- Validation
- Coarse-Grained Form Beans
4. 4. Relational Data
- JDBC
- Drivers
- DriverManager (JDBC 1.0)
- DataSource (JDBC 2.0)
- Connection
- Statement
- ResultSet
- The Struts Data-Source Manager
- Multi-Tier Design
- Business Logic Beans
- Persistence Logic
- EJB
5. 5. Struts Tag Libraries
- Building View Components
- Struts Tag Libraries
- Attributes
- Building Forms
- Forms and Form Beans
- Scope and Duration of Form Data
- Managing Hyperlinks
- Error Messages
- Logic Tags
6. 6. The JSP Standard Tag Library
- JSTL Overview
- JSP Expression Language
- Core Tags
- Formatting Tags
- XML Tags
- SQL Tags
- Mixing JSTL, EL, Scripts and Actions
7. 7. Internationalization and Localization
- i18n in Java
- Locale
- ResourceBundle
- i18n in Actions
- i18n in JSTL
- i18n in Validation
8. 8. Input Validation
- Validation in Web Applications
- Validation in Struts
- The Struts Validator Plug-In
- Validating ActionForm Subtypes
- Configuring Validation
- Validators
- Rules
- Is Necessary?
- Reporting Errors
- Multi-Page Validation
- Client-Side Validation
- Limitations on the Client Side
- Implementing a Validator
- Implementing ActionForm.validate
9. 9. Under the Hood
- Global Objects and Keys
- Modules
- ActionServlet, RequestProcessor, ExceptionHandler
- Struts Configuration in Depth
- The org.apache.struts.config Package
- Plug-Ins
- Logging with Commons and Log4J
- Configuring Log4J
- Logging in Web Applications
- The org.apache.struts.util Package
- Commons BeanUtils
10. 10. Best Practices
- Cardinalities in Struts Design
- Coarse-Grained Form Beans
- Many Actions from One View
- Multiple Forwards
- Many Mappings to One Action
- Chaining Actions
- Dynamic Forwarding
- Form Beans as Mediators
- Using Reflection and BeanUtils
- Reusing Validation Rules
- Mapping-Based Validation
- Graceful Validation
11. 11. Tiles
- Consistent Look and Feel
- Reusable Layouts and Content
- The Tiles Framework
- Instantiating Layouts
- Body-Wrap Insertions
- Tiles and Stylesheets
- Working with Tiles Attributes
- The Tiles Context
- Definitions
- Aggregation and Inheritance
- The Tiles Plug-In
- Forwarding to Definitions
- Performance Considerations
What you will learn
- How to use Struts actions and action mappings to take control of HTTP requests/responses
- How to manage HTML form input and output with form beans, and use these beans to simplify data handling in the controller
- How to use persistent data in a Struts application with JDBC
- How to use JSTL and Struts custom tags to build robust and reusable JSP presentation logic
- How to support multiple client locales with various internationalization techniques
- How to define validation rules for input forms, and provide clear user feedback
- How to build complex presentations using decoupled, reusable tiles, screens and layouts
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