IntroductionCourse Outline
Objectives
 
  • Understand and explain the Jakarta Struts framework
  • Design and build Struts based applications
Topics
 
  • Struts Architecture and Overview
  • A Simple Struts Application
  • Struts Development Cycle
  • Struts Tag Libraries
  • Struts Extensions, Internationalization, Error Handling and Logging
  • Miscellaneous Advanced Features such as Validators and DynaActionForm
  • Database Programming
  • Templates and Tiles
  • Unit Testing Struts Applications - StrutsTestCase
  • JSTL
Audience
  This course is intended for programmers and designers who want to design and develop applications using the Jakarta Struts Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework.
Prerequisites
 
  • A good understanding of HTML.
  • A good understanding of object-oriented programming using Java.
  • Experience with JSPs and servlets with some understanding of JavaBeans or EJBs.
Duration
  Three days.
Lab Setup Guide

Outline for Introduction to Struts 1.1 using Eclipse

1. Struts Architecture and Overview
 
  • Introduction to Struts
  • Objectives
  • Review: MVC model
  • What is Struts?
  • Struts flow
  • Components in Struts?
    • The Model
    • The View
    • The Controller
  • struts-config.xml
    • The <data-sources> element
    • The <form-beans> element
    • The <global-forwards> element
    • The <action-mappings> element
    • Sample
  • The role of web.xml for the application
  • Configuring Struts in web.xml
    • web.xml content
    • Steps to configuring Struts in web.xml
    • Sample
  • Summary
2. A Simple Struts Application
 
  • The Goal of the Application
  • The input form· The struts-config.xml
  • The Form Bean class
  • The Action class
  • The result page
3. Struts features in Eclipse
 
  • Objectives
  • Struts binary distribution
  • Directory structure of Struts application
    • Example
  • Eclipse support for Struts
  • Developing a web application using Eclipse features of Struts
4. Struts Development Cycle
 
  • Objectives
  • Struts development cycle
  • Gathering requirements
  • Defining screen requirements
    • Data vs. FormBean
    • define FormBean
  • Determining the screen flow
  • Defining the ActionMappings in struts-config.xml
  • Developing the FormBean
    • The reset ( ) method
    • Form validation using the validate ( ) method
    • ActionError
    • Define message key
  • Developing Action Class
    • Action and Action Class
    • The execute() method
    • ActionForward
    • ActionMapping class
    • execute() example
    • Example execute() method
    • Developing business logic - EJB
  • Developing JSPs
  • Configuring struts-config.xml and web.xml
  • Build, pack and deploy
5. Struts Tag Libraries
 
  • Objectives
  • JSP taglib directive
  • Components of a tag library
  • The JSP File
  • The tag library descriptor
  • The tag Handler Class
  • An example
    • The TLD File - carPrice.tld
    • TDL File - example
    • The Handler Class - CarPriceHandler.java
    • The Handler Class - example
    • The JSP File - Carprice.jsp
  • Tag Lib Handler life cycle
  • Directory structure: where custom tag libraries fit
  • Struts TagLib
  • Bean tags
    • bean:message
    • bean:define
    • bean:page
    • bean:include
    • bean:cookie
    • HTML tags
      • html:form
      • html:submit
      • html:text
      • html:link
      • html:password
    • Logic tags
      • Functionality
      • logic:equal
      • logic:iterate
    • Template tags
6. Struts Plugin, Internationalization and Error Handling
 
  • Objectives
  • Struts plugins
    • Creating a plugin
    • Configuring a plugin
  • Internationalization
    • Struts Internationalization Mechanisms
    • Adding internationalization to the example application
    • Formatting messages
  • Error Handling
    • Struts Error Handling Mechanisms
    • ActionError and ActionErrors
    • Error handling from a form bean
    • Error handling from an action
    • Formatting error messages
    • Struts exception handling
    • Adding error handling to the example application
7. Miscellaneous Advanced Features
 
  • Objectives
  • HTTP Redirection
  • Dealing with check boxes
  • Context sensitive form validation
  • DispatchAction
  • BeanUtils package
  • Digester package
  • DynaActionForms
  • Multi-application support
  • Validators
8. Database Programming
 
  • Configuring and using a Struts Data Source
  • Using a J2EE Data Source
  • Transaction management from an action
  • Sharing a connection with the model classes
  • Pre-populating a form for editing data
  • Paginated listing of large amounts of data
9. Templates, Tiles and JSTL
 
  • Objectives
  • Struts Templates
  • Template tags - insert, get and put
  • Struts 1.1 tiles support
  • Inheritance in tiles definitions
  • JSTL overview
  • JSTL and Struts
10. Unit Testing Struts Applications - StrutsTestCase
 
  • Objectives
  • What is JUnit?
  • A sample JUnit test case
  • A simple StrutsTest test case
  • Executing a StrutsTest test
  • Testing strategies
11. JSTL
 
  • Objectives
  • The future of Struts Tags
  • JSTL - What does it provide?
  • JSTL actions
    • Core JSTL tags
    • Formatting tags
    • Database tags
    • XML tags
  • JSTL Expression Language
  • JSTL Implicit Objects