Stuts PDF

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Struts Tutorial
The JSP Struts Tutorial will help new JSP developers understand the benefits of struts and how to program their first
struts program. Also included are JSP Struts movies to learn Struts by example. Struts source code is also included for
download. This is Part 1 of a 3 Part Struts tutorial. See the left hand menu for the other parts when you finish this part of
the Struts tutorial.
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What is Struts?
Struts is a popular open source framework from Apache Software Foundation to build web applications that integrate with
standard technologies such as Servlets, Java Beans and Java Server pages.
Struts offers many benefits to the web application developer,including the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design patterns
(best practice) in web applications.
The Model-View-Controller paradigm applied to web applications lets you separately display code (for example, HTML
and tag libraries) from flow control logic (action classes) from the data model to be displayed and updated by the
application.
Struts offers a set of tag libraries to support the faster development of the different layers of the web application.
The basic idea of the MVC architecture is to divide the application into three layers: Model that represents the data layer,
a view layer that represents the data processed by the model component; and a Controller component that is responsible
for interaction between the model and the controller.
So when we say Struts is an MVC framework for web based applications, we actually mean that it facilitates the rapid
development of applications by providing a Controller that helps interaction between the model and the view so that an
application developer has not to worry about how to make view and the model independent of each other and yet exist in
coordination.
Struts is basically a Controller. It depends on other things for the model and the view. It can communicate with Hibernate,
Enterprise Java Beans or any other java components for the model. JSP/Servlets are used for the view which use html
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front end internally. Struts provides several tag libraries to support the rapid development for the view layer.
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Why do we need Struts?
Although a dynamic web application can be developed using JSP and Servlet technology, there are many problems.
* Tightly coupled classes - one change affects other classes

* Business logic resides in both presentation and data access layer. So if there is a change in a business rule, needs
multiple places to find the business rules. Also promotes duplicate business rules.
* Data sources are difficult to change as data access methods may be used in the presentation layer.
* Logic to determine what to do next is across the application,no centralized decision.
To solve these problems,we need a mechanism that can separate the presentation layer of a web application from business
logic. Luckily we have MVC and we have Struts. MVC is a design pattern (best practice method) that separates the
application design into there main parts:
Model, View and Controller
* Model - data and logic (business logic methods).

* View - output displayed to the user
* Controller - takes the input from the user and passes it to the relevant model. The model returns and based on the
result, the controller decides which view (page) to show the user.
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Advantages of Struts
Struts offers many advantages to the application programmer while reducing the development time and making the
manageability of the application easier. Here are few key advantages of using Struts instead of managing the every layer
of the web application yourself.
Centralized File-Based Configuration
Rather than hard coding information into java programs,many Struts values are represented in XML or property files. This
loose coupling means that many changes can be made without modifying or recompiling Java code,and that wholesale
changes can be made by editing a single file. This approach also lets Java and Web developers focus on their specific
tasks (implementing business logic,presenting certain values to clients,etc.) without needing to know about the overall
system layout.
Form Beans
In JSP,you can use property=* with jsp:setProperty to automatically populate a JavaBean component based on incoming
request parameters. Unfortunately,however,in the standard API this capability is unavailable to servlets,even though with
MVC it is really servlets,not JSP pages,that should usually be the target of form submissions. Apache Struts extends this
capability to Java code and adds in several useful utilities,all of which serve to greatly simplify the processing of request
parameters.
Bean Tags
Apache Struts provides a set of custom JSP tags (bean:write,in particular) that let you easily output the properties of
JavaBeans components. Basically,these are concise and powerful variations of the standard jsp:useBean and
jsp:getProperty tags.
HTML tags
Apache Struts provides a set of custom JSP tags to create HTML forms that are associated with JavaBeans components.
This bean/form association serves two useful purposes:
o It lets you get initial form-field values from Java objects.
o It lets you redisplay forms with some or all previously entered values intact.
Form Field Validation
Apache Struts has built-in capabilities for checking that form values are in the required format. If values are missing or in
an improper format,the form can be automatically redisplayed with error messages and with the previously entered values
maintained.
This validation can be performed on the server (in Java),or both on the server and on the client (in JavaScript).
Struts 2.0 is currently in beta phase and contains the existing Struts features plus all the features of WebWorks framework.
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Setting up Eclipse for Web Development
1. Eclipse does not come with a bundled Java Development Kit. Download and install JDK 1.4 (Sun or IBM)
http://java.sun.com/j2se/downloads/index.html
2. Download and install Eclipse 3.2.1 from:
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/eclipse/downloads/drops/R-3.2.1-200609210945/eclipse-SDK-3.2.1-win32
3. By default,Eclipse supports only basic Java Development. Most of the advanced features are available in the form of
pluggins which may be downloaded and installed from there respective repositories. MyEclipse is a mini-IDE which is
installed as an add-on to the Eclipse. Download and install MyEclipse 5.1 from:
http://www.myeclipseide.com/Downloads%2Bindex-req-viewsdownload-sid-15.html
4. To deploy the web applications,we need a Servlet container like tomcat or JBoss. Download and install Tomcat 5.0.x
(or other compliant Servlet/EJB container) from
http://www.axint.net/apache/jakarta/tomcat-5/v5.0.28/bin/jakarta-tomcat-5.0.28.exe
If your Eclipse version is other than 3.2.1,please download an appropriate MyEclipse plug-in from
http://www.myeclipseide.com/
5. Download the source code used in this tutorial

http://www.visualbuilder.com/tutorials/jsp/struts/sourcecode/eclipse-project.zip
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Registration Case Study
Let us consider an example – a web based user registration application. Usually every web based application requires
secure login to access its critical resources therefore a user management is part of every web application.
Our first Struts application is a web based user registration application. The application is capable of displaying the list of
registered users and allowing the user to add a new user to the database. We’ll use a single table ‘users’ to store the user
information. Select any database of your choice,and create a table USERS with following fields:
Column Name Data Type Constraints

USER_ID TEXT PRIMARY KEY
FIRST_NAME TEXT NONE
LAST_NAME TEXT NONE
AGE NUMBER NONE
EMAIL TEXT NONE
PASSWORD TEXT NONE
We’ll use Microsoft Access database for this purpose. Use the following SQL to create table in Microsoft Access.
CREATE TABLE USERS(
user_id text primary key,
first_name text,
last_name text,
age number,
email text,
password text
);
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Setting up Struts project in Eclipse
We are using MyEclipse as a development environment which is an eclipse plugin. Let's create a new project in Eclipse
platform and configure it as shown below.
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Creating an ODBC Data source
Since Microsoft Access does not have a JDBC driver,we’ll connect using the JDBC-ODBC Bridge. Let’s create an ODBC
DSN first. If you are using a database that supports JDBC driver,you don’t need to do this,just replace the connection
URL while connecting to the database in next section.
Create the ODBC DSN as shown below.
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Configuring Application Server
We have configured the project for struts. But wait…we are missing something. We still don’t have an application server
ready to deploy our application. Do we have? Let’s configure the eclipse for the application server.
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Struts Configuration
Now that we have configured our project for struts,let’s have a look at the configurations MyEclipse has made for us.
Web.xml
Web.xml resides in application’s WEB-INF directory and contains the essential configuration for the web application like
the Servlet mappings,Authentications mechanisms,Tag libraries etc. Let’s see what is in web.xml right now.
<?xml version=1.0 encoding=UTF-8?>

<web-app xmlns=http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee axmlns:xsi=http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance
version=2.4 xsi:schemaLocation=http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee qqhttp://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd>
<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>0</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<url-pattern>*.do</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
</web-app>
As we can see,there is one Servlet configured and is mapped with URL pattern *.do. What is this ‘ActionServlet’ for?
This is the simple way how the Struts CONTROLER is plugged into the web application.
The basic reason of defining a servlet mapping for a web application is that whenever someone access a page that matches
the URL pattern defined in servlet mapping,Application Server will redirect the request to this servlet. That means,we
have configure Struts Action Servlet to receive all the request that end with a .do keyword. We can even configure it for
.html or .jsp or .abc,.do is the generally accepted token.
Struts-config.xml
<!DOCTYPE struts-config PUBLIC -//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 1.2//EN
http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-config_1_2.dtd>
<struts-config>
<data-sources />
<form-beans />
<global-exceptions />
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<global-forwards />
<action-mappings />
<message-resources parameter=com.visualbuilder.struts.ApplicationResources />
</struts-config>
We don’t have anything special in this file configured,but as you can see,we have the basic tags. We’ll add the appropriate
struts components to these tags as we develop them. One important thing in this file is the message-resources. This is a
resource bundle that will contain all the errors,labels or other messages that we want to display on the view (jsp pages).
The separation of the String messages from the jsp pages helps internationalization.
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Writing the User class
Let’s start with our first java class. Remember we have a table “users” in the database. Let’s write a simple bean that
represents this table.
package com.visualbuilder.struts.beans;
public class User {

private String userId = ;
private String firstName = ;
private String lastName = ;
private int age = 0;
private String email = ;
private String password = ;
public User(String userId) {

super();
this.userId = userId;
}
public int getAge() {
return age;
}
public void setAge(int age) {
this.age = age;
}
public String getEmail() {
return email;
}
public void setEmail(String email) {
this.email = email;
}
public String getFirstName() {
return firstName;
}
public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
this.firstName = firstName;
}
public String getLastName() {
return lastName;
}
public void setLastName(String lastName) {
this.lastName = lastName;
}
public String getUserId() {
return userId;
}
public void setUserId(String userId) {
this.userId = userId;
}
public String getPassword() {
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return password;
}
public void setPassword(String password) {
this.password = password;
}
}
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ResourceManager
As we have already discussed,one of the main concerns of the struts framework is to separate the string resources from the
view. For this purpose,we have already defined a message-resources property n struts-config.xml. Most of the struts
components will expect a property key where a string literal will be needed. To be consistent with the struts
framework,we will try to separate the string resources from our normal java classes where we are not using struts
components. To do this,we can use java.util.ResourceBundle class to pick the values from properties file against the
specified keys. To ease the manipulation of string resources where we are not using the struts components,we’ll write a
separate class.
package com.visualbuilder.struts;
import java.util.ResourceBundle;
public class ResourceManager {

private static ResourceBundle bundle=ResourceBundle.getBundle(com.visualbuilder.struts.ApplicationResources);
public static String getString(String key){

return bundle.getString(key)
}
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Writing the Struts Business Component
Now let us write our business class that has the ability to perform several actions on the user like adding a new user to the
database,updating an existing user,deleting a user or fetching a user from the database. Let us call this class a
UserManager.
package com.visualbuilder.struts.db;
public class UserManager {

private static UserManager mgr = null;
private UserManager()
{
}
public static UserManager getInstance()
{
if(mgr == null)
{
mgr = new UserManager();
}
return mgr;
}
}
Because for one application,there can exist only a single UserManager,we have made the UserManager a singleton. We will
use UserManager.getInstance() whenever we need an instance of UserManager.
Connecting to a database
The purpose of the UserManager is to provide an interface between the database and the client applications that need
access to the database. Let’s connect to the database and add the following code in the constructor.
String driverClass = ResourceManager.getString(database.driver);
String dbUrl = ResourceManager.getString(database.url);
String dbUser = ResourceManager.getString(database.user);
String dbPassword = ResourceManager.getString(database.password);

try{
Class.forName(driverClass);
con = DriverManager.getConnection(dbUrl,dbUser,dbPassword);
}catch(Exception exp){
System.err.println(Could not connect to dtabase.n exp.getMessage());
}
Where con is a global variable of type java.sql.Connection.

Now that we have connected to the database,let us add the necessary methods to manipulate the users. After adding these
methods,UserManager
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package com.visualbuilder.struts.db;
import java.sql.ResultSet;
import java.sql.Statement;
import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.SQLException;
import java.sql.PreparedStatement;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import com.visualbuilder.struts.ResourceManager;
import com.visualbuilder.struts.beans.User;
public class UserManager {

private static UserManager mgr = null;
private Connection con = null;
private UserManager()
{
String driverClass = ResourceManager.getString(database.driver);
String dbUrl = ResourceManager.getString(database.url);
String dbUser = ResourceManager.getString(database.user);
String dbPassword = ResourceManager.getString(database.password);
try{
Class.forName(driverClass);
con = DriverManager.getConnection(dbUrl,dbUser,dbPassword);
}catch(Exception exp){
System.err.println(Could not connect to dtabase.n exp.getMessage());
}
}
public void saveUser(User user) throws SQLException
{
if(user == null)
throw new SQLException(ResourceManager.getString(save.user.null));
Connection connection = getConnection();
PreparedStatement pstmt = connection.prepareStatement(insert into

users(user_id,first_name,last_name,age,email) values(?,?,?,?,?));
pstmt.setString(1,user.getUserId());
pstmt.setString(2,user.getFirstName());
pstmt.setString(3,user.getLastName());
pstmt.setInt(4,user.getAge());
pstmt.setString(5,user.getEmail());
pstmt.executeUpdate();
pstmt.close();
}
public User getUser(String userId) throws SQLException
{
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if(userId == null || userId.length() == 0)
throw new SQLException(ResourceManager.getString(retrieve.user.null));
Statement stmt = connection.createStatement();
ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(select * from users where user_id=' userId ');
User user = null;
if(rs.next())
{
user = new User(userId);
user.setFirstName(rs.getString(first_name));
user.setLastName(rs.getString(last_name));
user.setAge(rs.getInt(age));
user.setEmail(rs.getString(email));
}
rs.close();
stmt.close();
return user;
}
public List list() throws SQLException
{
Statement stmt = connection.createStatement();
ResultSet rs = stmt.executeQuery(select * from users);
User user = null;
List list = new ArrayList();
while(rs.next())
{
user = new User(rs.getString(user_id));
user.setFirstName(rs.getString(first_name));
user.setLastName(rs.getString(last_name));
user.setAge(rs.getInt(age));
user.setEmail(rs.getString(email));
list.add(user);
}
rs.close();
stmt.close();
return list;
}
private Connection getConnection() throws SQLException
{
if(con == null)
throw new SQLException(ResourceManager.getString(database.notConnected));
return con;
}
public static UserManager getInstance()
{
if(mgr == null)
{
mgr = new UserManager();
}
return mgr;
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}
public void finalize()
{
try{
con.close();
}catch(Exception exp){}
}
}
We have used several properties in this class. Add these properties in the ApplicationResources.properties file.
#database connection properties

database.driver = sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver
database.url = jdbc:odbc:users
database.user =
database.password =
#User operations messages
save.user.null = User is null

retrieve.user.null = User is null
user.notFound = User not found
database.notConnected = Not connected to a database
Now we have all the business functions available,we are ready to move to the formal development of the struts based
application.
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Creating the Action Class
The basic component of a struts based application is the Action class.
Let us create the action class as shown in the movie.
Click the movie below
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Adding ActionForward
The forward element in struts-config.xml describes an ActionForward that is to be made available to an Action as a return
value. An ActionForward is referenced by a logical name and encapsulates a URI. A forward element may be used to
describe both global and local ActionForwards. Global forwards are available to all the Action objects in the module.
Local forwards can be nested within an <action> element and only available to an Action object when it is invoked
through that ActionMapping. Let us add two forwards for LoginAction “success” and “fail”. After adding the two
forwards,the <action> tag looks like this:
<action
path=/login
type=com.visualbuilder.struts.action.LoginAction
validate=false>
<forward name=success path=/manageusers.jsp />
<forward name=failure path=/index.jsp />
</action>
Note the two forwards success and the failure. The path attribute in each forward tag is the resource to which the request
will be redirected when forwarded to a particular forward. Let us now program our action to return to “success” if the
entered user id and password is admin/admin. Right now we don’t have any action form associated with this action,let’s
get the parameters from request as we do in servlets.
String user = request.getParameter(userId);

String password = request.getParameter(password);
if(user!=null && password!=null && user.equals(admin) && password.equals(admin))
return mapping.findForward(success);
return mapping.findForward(failure);
Now create index.jsp so that we have a form to submit values to this form. Add the following form in the body section of
the jsp.
<form action=/login.do method=post>

<table border=0>
<tr>
<td>Login:</td>
<td><input type=text name=userId /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Password:</td>
<td><input type=text name=password /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=2 align=center><input type=submit value=Login/></td>
</tr>
</table>
</form>
We are almost ready to run the project. But let’s create a file manageusers.jsp so that if we enter a valid user id /
password,we can see the success page. Add a simple success message “You are logged into this page”.
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Deploy the Struts Application
Now its time to test the magic of our first struts application. First step towards this is to deploy the application to the
tomcat server we already configured in this tutorial.
Click to view the movie
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Adding the Form bean
In our LoginAction,we retrieved the form values using the conventional methods in HttpServletRequest. Struts provides
an easy way to retrieve these values with the help of form beans. A form bean is a simple JavaBean that extends from
org.apache.struts.action.ActionForm. We already have a JavaBean “User” but that does not extend from ActionForm. We
can reuse this JavaBean for this purpose. Let’s add the extends clause to the User class so that the signature of the class
becomes
public class User extends ActionForm
Also we need to add a no-argument constructor to the User class to enable the struts framework to instantiate the bean.
public User(){
super();
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Configuring Form Bean in struts-config.xml
Adding a form bean is a two step process. First of all we need to declare the form bean in the <form-beans> tag. Then we
can associate this form bean to as many actions as we want. To declare the form bean,add the following line in the
<form-beans> tag.
<form-bean name=loginForm type=com.visualbuilder.struts.beans.User />
Now we will associate this form bean with the LoginAction. Update the action tag in action-mappings so that it becomes
like this.
<action
name=loginForm
path=/login
scope=request
validate=false>
</action>
Now update the LoginAction to retrieve form values from form bean instead of request object though they are still
available in the request object s well. Execute method should look like this now.
public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping,ActionForm form,HttpServletRequest

request,HttpServletResponse response)
{
User userForm = (User)form;
String user = userForm.getUserId();
String password = userForm.getPassword();
if(user!=null && password!=null && user.equals(admin) && password.equals(admin))
}
Again deploy and run the project. You should get the same behavior as you got earlier.
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Using Struts Tag Libraries
The Struts framework provides a set of built-in Tag libraries that allow you to build the view part of the MVC without
embedding Java code directly within your application JSPs. Some commonly used struts tag libraries are described below.
The Bean Tags

The Tags within the Bean Library are used for creating and accessing JavaBeans and a few other general purpose uses.
Although these tags work with any standard JavaBean,they are often used with Objects that extend the Struts ActionForm
class.
The HTML Tags

The Tags within the Struts HTML Tag Library are used to create input forms for your application. There are also a few
other useful Tags used in the creation and rendering of HTML-based user interfaces.
The Logic Tags

The Logic Tag Library contains tags that are helpful with iterating through collections,conditional generation of
output,and application flow.
We have already used the ActionForm,but we actually have not enjoyed the blessings of struts. Let’s program our action
to return an appropriate error message called ‘ActionError’ when the user fails to login successfully. Also re-arrange our
view (the index.jsp) to use the struts tag libraries to manipulate the ActionForm values,and display the appropriate error
message on error.
After adding the mentioned code,the execute method of LoginAction becomes:
public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping,ActionForm form,

HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse response) {
User userForm = (User)form;
String user = userForm.getUserId();
String password = userForm.getPassword();
if(user.equals(admin) && password.equals(admin))
ActionMessages errors = new ActionMessages();
ActionMessage error = new ActionMessage(login.failed);
errors.add(error,error);
saveErrors(request,errors);
}
Note that we have created a new ActionMessage with a key “login.failed”. This key must exist in the
ApplicationResources.properties file. Add the following line in the resource file.
login.failed = The supplied user name / password does not match
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And the index.jsp becomes:
<%@ page language=java pageEncoding=ISO-8859-1%>
<%@taglib prefix=html uri=/WEB-INF/struts-html.tld %>

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC -//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN>
<html>
<head>
<title>Welcome to the registration case study</title>

</head>
<body>
<html:errors/>
<html:form action=/login>
<table border=0>
<tr>
<td>Login:</td>
<td><html:text property=userId /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Password:</td>
<td><html:text property=password /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=2 align=center><html:submit value=Login/></td>
</tr>
</table>
</html:form>
</body>
</html>
As you can see,we have declared a tag library ‘struts-html.tld’. This is the Html tag library we talked about a while ago.
The tag <html:errors/> is responsible for displaying the message that we may have saved in the request or the session.
We can specify the scope as an attribute to this tag.
Now re-deploy the application and see yourself the difference.
Did you notice the field values after submitting the invalid values? Yes! The values again appear in the field when the
error message is displayed. This is particularly important when submitting huge forms. And we have achieved all this
without any extra programming.
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Listing all Users - Struts Iterator Looping
Let us write a simple action and a view that displays the user list on our manageusers.jsp. First of all,create an Action
class named ‘ListAction’ and add the execute method as following.
public class ManageUsersAction extends Action {
public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping,ActionForm form,

HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse response) {
//Get a list of users and save to the request
try{
List list = UserManager.getInstance().list();
request.setAttribute(list,list);
}catch(SQLException sqle)
{
ActionMessage error = new ActionMessage(error.generic,sqle.getMessage());

}
}
}
Add the following line in ApplicationResources.properties file.
error.generic = An error prevented the operation. Error detail is:<br>{0}
Add the following code in manageusers.jsp

<%@taglib uri=/WEB-INF/struts-html.tld prefix=html %>
<%@taglib uri=/WEB-INF/struts-logic.tld prefix=logic %>
<%@taglib uri=/WEB-INF/struts-bean.tld prefix=bean %>

<html>
<head>
<title>Listing all users</title>
</head>
<body>
<center><h3>User List</h3></center>
<html:errors/>
<logic:present name=list>
<table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0 align=center width=70% style=border-collapse:collapse;>
<tr bgcolor=#98AFCC>
<th>User ID</th>
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<th>First Name</th>
<th>Last Name</th>
<th>Email</th>
</tr>
<%boolean even = false; %>
<logic:iterate id=user name=list>
<% even = !even; %>
<tr bgcolor=<%=even?#B7D3F5:#D6E0F5 %>>
<td>
<bean:write name=user property=userId />
</td>
<td>
<bean:write name=user property=firstName />
</td>
<td>
<bean:write name=user property=lastName />
</td>
<td>
<bean:write name=user property=email />
</td>
</tr>
</logic:iterate>
<tr>
<td colspan=6 align=center>
<a href=adduser.jsp>Add New User</a>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</logic:present>
</body>
</html>
Note that in this jsp,we have not performed any loop and still we are iterating over the list. Also note the separation of
view from the model (data).
Now We need to update the ‘success’ forward in struts-config.xml to forward to manageusers.do instead of
manageusers.jsp. Also we need to add the manageusers action entry in the struts-config.xml. Now the <action-mappings>
looks like this.
<action-mappings >
<action
name=loginForm
path=/login
scope=request
validate=false>
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<forward name=success path=/manageusers.do />
</action>
<action path=/manageusers type=com.visualbuilder.struts.action.ManageUsersAction >
</action>
</action-mappings>
On redeploying and running the application,you should be able to see a list of users on successful login. You don’t have
any data in the database right now,so you might be viewing a page with only one link “Add New User” but if you add few
records manually,you will see the list of users.
The variable even is used to indicate if the current row is even or odd to change the row background.
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Add User Action - New Struts Action Class
Now it’s time to add a new user to the database. Let’s write an action first that can save a user in the database. Create a
new Action class ‘AddUserAction’ and add the following code in its execute method.
User user = (User) form;

try{
UserManager.getInstance().saveUser(user);
}catch(SQLException sqle)
{
ActionMessage error = new ActionMessage(error.generic,sqle.getMessage());
}
Configure this action in the struts-config.xml as given below.
<action
attribute=loginForm
name=loginForm
path=/adduser
scope=request
type=com.visualbuilder.struts.action.AddUserAction
validate=false >
</action>
Note that we have associated the same form bean that we did when writing the LoginAction.
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Add User View
Now it is the time to write a view component for our AddUserAction. Create a jsp page ‘adduser.jsp’ with the following
code.

<%@ taglib uri=/WEB-INF/Struts-html.tld prefix=html %>

<html:html lang=true>
<head>
<html:base />
<title>Add new user</title>
</head>
<body>
<center><h3>Add New User</h3></center>
<CENTER><html:errors/></CENTER>
<html:form action=/adduser method=post>
<table border=0 align=center>
<tr>
<td>User ID:</td>
<td><html:text property=userId /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>First Name:</td>
<td><html:text property=firstName /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Last Name:</td>
<td><html:text property=lastName /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Age:</td>
<td><html:text property=age /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Email:</td>
<td><html:text property=email /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=2 align=center><html:submit /></td>
</tr>
</table>
</html:form>
</body>
</html:html>
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Run the application,login as admin/admin and click on Add New User link at the bottom of the page. You will find a
form. Enter the appropriate values,and click on submit button. You will again be redirected to the page showing the list of
users and notice that the new user has been added to the list.
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Validating Struts Form Bean
Try to create a user with invalid values. For example an invalid email address that does not follow email addresses rules.
You will see that the system does not check the validity of the data and the user still gets inserted into the database.
To solve this issue,we need to validate the data before inserting into the database or perform any operation on the data.
We have two options to do this.
1. Perform the validation in action class and return to failure if the validation fails.
2. Perform validation in form bean.
The first option is not feasible because one form bean may be used in many actions. So we will need to perform validation
in all actions where this form bean is used. The better choice is to perform validation in form bean.
Struts framework provides validation facility for form beans. If we need to perform validation on a form bean,we need to
override validate method in our ActionForm class. The validate method returns an instance of ActionErrors. We can
return ActionErrors instance with appropriate ActionError object if the validation fails,or simply return empty
ActionErrors instance to indicate that the validation has passed and the struts frame may forward the request to action
class. Let’s add the validation to our User class.
public ActionErrors validate(

ActionMapping mapping,HttpServletRequest request ) {
ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors();
if( getUserId().length()<1 ) {
errors.add(name,new ActionMessage(null.check,User ID));
}
if(getEmail().length()>0)
{{
//Yes! user entered email address. validate it
if(!getEmail().matches(^[a-zA-Z][\w\.-]*[a-zA-Z0-9]@[a-zA-Z0-9][\w\.-]*[a-zA-Z0-9]\.[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z\.]*[a-zA-Z]$)){
errors.add(name,new ActionMessage(email.invalid));
}
}
return errors;
}
Also we need to enable the validate=”true” and provide an input attribute in the action configuration in struts-config.xml
<action
attribute=loginForm
name=loginForm
path=/adduser
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scope=request
validate=true
input=/adduser.jsp
type=com.visualbuilder.struts.action.AddUserAction>
</action>
Also we have used two error messages if the validation fails. Add these two keys in the ApplicationResources.properties.
null.check = {0} cannot be null or empty

email.invalid = Email address does not pass the validation rules
Now run the application and try to create a user with empty User ID or invalid email address. You will see the system
does not insert the user into the database.
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Review of the Struts Tutorial
Let's review what you have learnt
After reading this tutorial you should have a good idea of how to write a Struts based web application using Eclipse and
MyEclipse platform.
In addition,we also covered a lot more concepts of what actually the MyEclipse did and how to do them manually even if
we don't have a sophisticated IDE.
After completing this tutorial,with just a few required libraries,a Standard Java Development Kit and an appropriate
installation of Tomcat,you should be able to develop and deploy a struts based application.
The approach used in this tutorial was using a 'registration' application as a case study.
Download the Source Code
What next?
Check out our related tutorials on VisualBuilder.com:
Struts Tutorial Part 2
Struts Tutorial Part 3
JSP Tutorial
Hibernate Tutorial
Java Web Component Tutorial
JSP Design Tutorial
Java Tutorial
We hope you enjoyed reading this tutorial.
Be sure to come back to get updates of this tutorial.
If you would like to discuss the topics or be kept up to date then sign up to the following groups and edit your email
update settings in your groups area in your profile. We will then notify you of updates.
JSP Group
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Java Group
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Introduction
This tutorial will help you to learn many features available with the struts framework. You will see how useful are
DynaActionForm and DispatchAction classes in struts framework.
The tutorial helps you to understand the Validation framework and its usefulness. You will see how the validation
framework can be used for both server side and client side validations with less effort. This tutorial also helps you to
understand how struts solves the the real life problem of duplicate form submission through its token mechanism.
Further this tutorial will help you to understand the exception handling mechanism available with the struts framework
and how do we create our own exception handlers in struts. Struts also provide the plug-in mechanism for creating the
custom plug-in for the application. This tutorial will also guide you how to create the plug-in for the application in struts.
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DispatchAction
The major component in the Struts based application is the Action class. Action class only defines the next steps and logic
processing for the application. The execute() method is called by the framework for the processing. All the business logic
and all the flow is derived from the execute() method in the Action class. There is a special Action class which will permit
the user to have more than one method which can be called by the framework and not just the execute() method. This class
is DispatchAction. The class is helpful to have all the methods related to a single UI page in one Action class and
developers need not to implement the logics in different classes. The method to be called on Action is decided with the
parameter attribute in the <action> tag of struts-config.xml. The code for the mapping is given below.
<action path=/dispatchActionExample
type=com.visualbuilder.DispatchActionExample
parameter=method
name=inputForm
input=/index.jsp />
Note:-The above mapping will check the method parameter and call the method with the name coming in the parameter.
Add the following keys in the messageresources.properties file under WEB-INF/classes
error.unspecified= Unspecified Called.

error.add= Add Called.
error.delete= delete Called.
error.view= View Called.
Example For DispatchAction
(1) Struts-config.xml file
<?xml version=1.0 encoding=ISO-8859-1 ?>

<struts-config>

<form-beans>
<form-bean name=inputForm type=com.visualbuilder.InputForm />
</form-beans>

<global-exceptions></global-exceptions>

<global-forwards></global-forwards>

<action-mappings>
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<action path=/dispatchActionExample
type=com.visualbuilder.DispatchActionExample
parameter=method
name=inputForm
input=/index.jsp />
</action-mappings>

<message-resources parameter=MessageResources />
</struts-config>
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DispatchAction Example Continued...
(2) ActionForm Class
package com.visualbuilder;
import org.apache.struts.action.ActionForm;
public class InputForm extends ActionForm{
(3) ActionClass
Note:- Now all the action classes must imherit the org.apache.struts.action.DispatchAction Class and not the
org.apache.struts.action.Action Class.
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
import org.apache.struts.action.ActionMessages;
import org.apache.struts.action.ActionForward;
import org.apache.struts.action.ActionMapping;
import org.apache.struts.action.ActionMessage;
import org.apache.struts.actions.DispatchAction;
public class DispatchActionExample extends DispatchAction{
protected ActionForward unspecified(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request,

HttpServletResponse response)
throws Exception {
ActionMessages message = new ActionMessages();
message.add(unspecified,new ActionMessage(error.unspecified));
saveMessages(request, message);
return mapping.getInputForward();
}
public ActionForward view(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request,

HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception{
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message.add(unspecified,new ActionMessage(error.view));
}
public ActionForward add(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception{
message.add(unspecified,new ActionMessage(error.add));
}
public ActionForward delete(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception {
message.add(unspecified,new ActionMessage(error.delete));
}
(4) JSP Page
<%@ taglib uri=http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean prefix=bean %>

<%@ taglib uri=http://struts.apache.org/tags-html prefix=html %>
<%@ taglib uri=http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic prefix=logic %>
<html:html>
<logic:messagesPresent>
<html:messages id=msg>
<p><strong><font color=red><bean:write name=msg /></font></strong></p>
</html:messages>
</logic:messagesPresent>
<logic:messagesPresent message=true>
<html:messages message=true id=msg>
<p><strong><bean:write name=msg /></strong></p>
</html:messages>
<html:form action=/dispatchActionExample.do?method=add method=post>
<html:submit>Submit for add</html:submit>
</html:form>
<html:form action=/dispatchActionExample.do?method=view method=post>
<html:submit>Submit for view</html:submit>
</html:form>
<html:form action=/dispatchActionExample.do?method=delete method=post>
<html:submit>Submit for delete</html:submit>
</html:form>
<html:form action=/dispatchActionExample.do method=post>
<html:submit>Submit for unspecified</html:submit>
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</html:form>
</html:html>
Output:-
The following buttons will be displayed and on clicking the buttons the text delete called changes
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Introduction to DynaActionForm
In struts, every form control need to have one ActionForm class property and getter/setter method for it. DynaActionForm
will replace the ActionForm with the simple xml mappings so that the java form class can be eliminated and thus helps in
developing the application more quickly. The advantages of using the DynaActionForm are as follows:-
1. No ActionForm is required.
2. Replace the property mapping with the simple xml file so that if any property is to add and remove then there is
no need to compile the java class again.
The mapping is to be done in the struts-config.xml file in the <form-bean> tag for all the form properties.
<form-bean name=inputForm type=org.apache.struts.action.DynaActionForm >

<form-property name=name type=java.lang.String/>
<form-property name=email type=java.lang.String />
</form-bean>
Data Types :- The types supported by DynaActionForm include:
• java.math.BigDecimal
• java.math.BigInteger
• boolean and java.lang.Boolean
• byte and java.lang.Byte
• char and java.lang.Character
• java.lang.Class
• double and java.lang.Double
• float and java.lang.Float
• int and java.lang.Integer
• long and java.lang.Long
• short and java.lang.Short
• java.lang.String
• java.sql.Date
• java.sql.Time
• java.sql.Timestamp
Example For DynaActionForm :-

<struts-config>
<form-beans>
<form-bean name=inputForm type=org.apache.struts.action.DynaActionForm >
<form-property name=name type=java.lang.String/>
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<form-property name=email type=java.lang.String />
</form-bean>
</form-beans>
<action-mappings>
<action path=/dynaActionExample
type=com.visualbuilder.DynaActionFormExample
name=inputForm
input=/index.jsp />
</action-mappings>
</struts-config>
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DynaActionForm Example Continued...

2) ActionClass
import org.apache.struts.actions.Action;
import org.apache.struts.action.DynaActionForm;
public class DynaActionFormExample extends Action{
public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request,

throws Exception {
DynaActionForm inputForm = (DynaActionForm)form;
//Create object of ActionMesssages

//Check and collect errors
if(((String)inputForm.get(name)).equals()) {
errors.add(name,new ActionMessage(error.name.required));
}
if(((String)inputForm.get(email)).equals()) {
errors.add(email,new ActionMessage(error.email.required));
}
//Saves the error
}
(3) JSP Page
<%@ taglib uri=http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean prefix=bean %>

<%@ taglib uri=http://struts.apache.org/tags-html prefix=html %>
<%@ taglib uri=http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic prefix=logic %>
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<html:html>
<p><strong><font color=red><bean:write name=msg /></font></strong></p>
</html:messages>
<p><strong><bean:write name=msg /></strong></p>
</html:messages>
<html:form action=/dynaActionExample.do method=post>
<table>
<tr><td>Enter the name :- </td><td><html:text property=name/> </td></tr>
<tr><td>Enter the Email:- </td><td><html:text property=email/></td></tr>
</table>
<html:submit>Submit</html:submit>
</html:form>
</html:html>
Output:-
The following will be the output of the application.
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Struts solution to Duplicate Form Submission (Token mechanism)
The problem of duplicate form submission arises when a user clicks the Submit button more than once before the response
is sent back or when a client accesses a view by returning to a previously book marked page. The struts provide the
saveToken() and isTokenValid() to check whether the request is already submitted or not.
The method isValidToken() return true if there is a transaction token stored in the user's current session, and
the value submitted as a request parameter with this action matches it. Returns false under any of the
following circumstances:
• No session associated with this request

• No transaction token saved in the session
• No transaction token included as a request parameter
• The included transaction token value does not match the transaction token in the user's session
Note:- If the Action class is changed as per the following code then it will validate against the duplicate form submission.

throws Exception
{
if (!isTokenValid(request)) {
errors.add(error.duplicaterequest, new ActionMessage(error.duplicaterequest));
}
resetToken(request);
if (!errors.isEmpty()) {
saveErrors(request, errors);
saveToken(request);
return (mapping.getInputForward());
}
}
Output
Note:- The output changes as follows :-
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Introduction to Validation framework
We have seen the validate() method in ActionForm is used to validate the form properties, which are entered by the user
on the JSP pages. But each and every validation has to be implemented using the java code .In case the application has
similar kind of the validations for all the forms then the redundancy is increased. Also updating validation routines are
very cumbersome. The Validator framework was developed by David Winterfeldt as third-party add-on to Struts. The
advantages of the Validation Framework:-
1. It is XML based framework so it is very easy to modify the validation routines in the xml files as compared to the
Java files.
2. All the validations are at the same place so the reusability of the validations are very easy.
3. You can implement the validations in the Client Side as well as Server side with a little coding effort.
4. The validation framework is browser independent and needs no extra effort for the different browser in coding.
The Components of Validation Framework.
The basic components of the Validation Framework is as follows :-
• Validations.xml :- This is the basic class consist of all the validation rules applied for a form bean.
• Validator-rules.xml:- This is the file which contains all the validation rules which can be used to validate the
form bean data. A default file is also provided by the Struts framework which is in /org/apache/struts/validator/
path and contains the commonly used rules,
• Plugin mapping in Struts-Config.xml:- The mapping of the plugin is to be there in the struts-config file so that
Struts controller class will configure the plugin so that it can be used in the application.
Simple Example For Validations :-
Note :- We are using the default validator-rules.xml for this example.
(1) Validations.xml file

<!DOCTYPE form-validation PUBLIC -//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Commons Validator Rules Configuration
1.3.0//EN http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/dtds/validator_1_3_0.dtd>
<form-validation>
<formset>
<form name=inputForm>
<field property=name depends=required>
<arg key=inputForm.name.required />
</field>
<field property=phone depends=required,mask>
<arg key=inputForm.phone.required position=0 />
<arg key=inputForm.phone.format position=1 />
<var>
<var-name>mask</var-name>
<var-value>^[0-9]*$</var-value>
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</var>
</field>
<field property=email depends=required,email>
<arg key=inputForm.email.required position=0 />
<arg key=inputForm.email.format position=1 />
</field>
</form>
</formset>
</form-validation>
<!DOCTYPE struts-config PUBLIC

-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 1.3//EN http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-config_1_3.dtd>
<struts-config>
<form-beans>
</form-beans>
<action-mappings>
<action path=/validate
type=com.visualbuilder.ValidateAction
validate=true
name=inputForm
input=/index.jsp />
</action-mappings>


<plug-in className=org.apache.struts.validator.ValidatorPlugIn>
<set-property property=pathnames value=/org/apache/struts/validator/validator-rules.xml,
/WEB-INF/validation.xml/>
</plug-in>
</struts-config>
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Example Continued Validation Framework.
(3) Validator Form file
import org.apache.struts.validator.ValidatorForm;
public class InputForm extends ValidatorForm {
String name;
String email;
String phone;

return email;
}

this.email = email;
}
public String getName() {

return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {

this.name = name;
}
public String getPhone() {

return phone;
}
public void setPhone(String phone) {

this.phone = phone;
}
}
(3) Validator Action file
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import org.apache.struts.action.Action;
public class ValidateAction extends Action {

HttpServletResponse response)throws Exception {
}
(4) JSP file
<%@ taglib uri=http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean prefix=bean%>

<%@ taglib uri=http://struts.apache.org/tags-html prefix=html%>
<%@ taglib uri=http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic prefix=logic%>
<html:html>
<html:form action=/validate.do method=post>
<table>
<tr>
<td colspan=2>
<p>
<strong><font color=red><bean:write name=msg /></font></strong>
</p>
</html:messages>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=2>
<p>
<strong><bean:write name=msg /></strong>
</p>
</html:messages>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td>Enter the name</td>
<td><html:text property=name /></td></tr>
<tr><td> Enter the Phone</td>
<td> <html:text property=phone /></td></tr>
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<tr><td> Enter the Email</td>
<td><html:text property=email /></td></tr>
</table><html:submit>Submit </html:submit>
</html:form>
</html:html>
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Client Side Validation
Enabling Client Side Validation
The validation framework also gives the flexibility to use it on Client Side. The framework automatically generates the
browser specific JavaScript and validate the data only at the client side. Although it has some disadvantages as the client
side validations can be turn off by browser settings and also it is visible to the client. It also has some advantages like it
reduces the network congestion as the form is not submitted with the wrong data again and again and only the validated
data is submitted. It is also advisable if you are using the client side validation scripts then also use the validation at the
server side so that two way check will maintain the data integrity fully.
The following code if placed in the jsp file will generate the java script at the client side for the specified form based on
the validations.xml file.
<html:javascript formName=inputForm/>
To call the validation routines call the onSubmit=validateXXX(this) whereas XXX stands for the form name. In our case it
is inputForm. So the code is as follows :-
<html:form action=/validate.do method=post onSubmit=validateInputForm(this);>
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Introduction to Standard Validator-Rules.xml
The Inbuilt validation in the Validator-Rules.xml
The table will describe the validator rules available with the validator-rules.xml file provided by the Struts Community.
Rule Description
byte Checks value contained by field can be converted to java byte type
Checks value contained by field can be converted to java byte type using the number
byteLocale
formatting convention for the current locale.
Checks for the valid card number supplied by major companies like VISA,
creditCard
MASTERCARD etc.
date Checks value contained by field can be converted to java.util.Date.
double Checks value contained by field can be converted to double primitive type.
doubleRange Checks value contained by field can be fitted into the primitive double range or not.
email Checks value contained by field can be properly formatted email address or not.
float Checks value contained by field can be converted to float primitive type.
Checks value contained by field can be converted to java float type using the number
floatLocale
floatRange Checks value contained by field can be fitted into the primitive float range or not.
integer Checks value contained by field can be converted to int primitive type.
Checks value contained by field can be converted to java int type using the number
integerLocale
intRange Checks value contained by field can be fitted into the primitive int range or not.
long Checks value contained by field can be converted to long primitive type.
Checks value contained by field can be converted to java long type using the number
longLocale
longRange Checks value contained by field can be fitted into the primitive long range or not.
mask Validate the value with the given Regular Expression.
Validate the maximum length should not be exceeded of the value with the value given in
maxLength
the property.
Validate the minimum length should not be exceeded of the value with the value given in
minLength
the property.
required Checks whether the value contain by the field is other than the whitespace.
short Checks value contained by field can be converted to java short type
Checks value contained by field can be converted to java short type using the number
shortLocale
url Checks the given value is properly formatted URL or not.
validwhen Determine the field is validated or not based on the specified test condition.
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Standard validator-rules.xml file
The following is given the standard validator-rules.xml file. In the next section you will learn how to create your own
validator rules. Till the time we are using the same validator-rules.xml which is the standard file comes with standard
struts framework.

<!DOCTYPE form-validation PUBLIC -//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Commons Validator Rules Configuration
1.3.0//EN http://jakarta.apache.org/commons/dtds/validator_1_3_0.dtd>

<form-validation>
<global>
<validator name=required
classname=org.apache.struts.validator.FieldChecks
method=validateRequired
methodParams=java.lang.Object,
org.apache.commons.validator.ValidatorAction,
org.apache.commons.validator.Field,
org.apache.struts.action.ActionMessages,
org.apache.commons.validator.Validator,
javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest
msg=errors.required/>
<validator name=requiredif
method=validateRequiredIf
msg=errors.required/>
<validator name=validwhen
msg=errors.required
classname=org.apache.struts.validator.validwhen.ValidWhen
method=validateValidWhen
javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest/>
<validator name=minlength
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method=validateMinLength
depends=
msg=errors.minlength
jsFunction=org.apache.commons.validator.javascript.validateMinLength/>
<validator name=maxlength
method=validateMaxLength
depends=
msg=errors.maxlength
jsFunction=org.apache.commons.validator.javascript.validateMaxLength/>
<validator name=mask
method=validateMask
depends=
msg=errors.invalid/>
<validator name=byte
method=validateByte
depends=
msg=errors.byte
jsFunctionName=ByteValidations/>
<validator name=short
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method=validateShort
depends=
msg=errors.short
jsFunctionName=ShortValidations/>
<validator name=integer
method=validateInteger
depends=
msg=errors.integer
jsFunctionName=IntegerValidations/>
<validator name=long
method=validateLong
depends=
msg=errors.long/>
<validator name=float
method=validateFloat
depends=
msg=errors.float
jsFunctionName=FloatValidations/>
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<validator name=double
method=validateDouble
depends=
msg=errors.double/>
<validator name=byteLocale
method=validateByteLocale
depends=
msg=errors.byte/>
<validator name=shortLocale
method=validateShortLocale
depends=
msg=errors.short/>
<validator name=integerLocale
method=validateIntegerLocale
depends=
msg=errors.integer/>
<validator name=longLocale
method=validateLongLocale
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depends=
msg=errors.long/>
<validator name=floatLocale
method=validateFloatLocale
depends=
msg=errors.float/>
<validator name=doubleLocale
method=validateDoubleLocale
depends=
msg=errors.double/>
<validator name=date
method=validateDate
depends=
msg=errors.date
jsFunctionName=DateValidations/>
<validator name=intRange
method=validateIntRange
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depends=integer
msg=errors.range/>
<validator name=longRange
method=validateLongRange
depends=long
msg=errors.range/>
<validator name=floatRange
method=validateFloatRange
depends=float
msg=errors.range/>
<validator name=doubleRange
method=validateDoubleRange
depends=double
msg=errors.range/>
<validator name=creditCard
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method=validateCreditCard
depends=
msg=errors.creditcard/>
<validator name=email
method=validateEmail
depends=
msg=errors.email/>
<validator name=url
method=validateUrl
depends=
msg=errors.url/>

<validator name=includeJavaScriptUtilities
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Creating custom Valdator rules
Using validation framework in our application not only provide the basic routines for the validations but also gives the
user flexibility to create their own specific validator rules for the application. This is the powerful extensible feature as
this saves a lot more development and validation time during the application development. Below is given the complete
set of changes which should be performed while creating the custom validator rules for the application.
Steps to create the Validator rules :-
1. Create a class and add the static method for the validation.
2. Add the entry in the validator-rules.xml file.
3. Associate the rule with the form field.
4. Add the property in the MessageResources.properties for the error message.
Example
Note:- The example is merged with the Extending the Validation Rules with the inherited SubForm classes. You can see
the marks field which can only take values from 1 to 100. The below is the validation class for the example.
package com.visualbuilder.validator;
import java.io.Serializable;
import org.apache.commons.validator.Field;
import org.apache.commons.validator.Validator;
import org.apache.commons.validator.ValidatorAction;
import org.apache.commons.validator.util.ValidatorUtils;
import org.apache.struts.validator.Resources;
/**
* This class is a custom validator which when apply to the framework checks The
* field should contain only alphabets
*
*/
public class CustomValidator implements Serializable {
public static boolean checkForRange(Object bean, ValidatorAction va, Field field, ActionMessages errors, Validator
validator,
HttpServletRequest request) {
boolean result = false;
String value = evaluateBean(bean, field);
try {
if (Integer.parseInt(value) > 0 && Integer.parseInt(value) < 100) {
result = true;
}
} catch (Exception e) {
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}
if (!result) {
errors.add(field.getKey(), Resources.getActionMessage(validator, request, va, field));
}
return result;
}
private static String evaluateBean(Object bean, Field field) {

String value = null;
if (bean instanceof String) {
value = (String) bean;
} else {
value = ValidatorUtils.getValueAsString(bean, field.getProperty());
}
return value;
}
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Extending the Validator Rules with the inherited SubForm Classes.-2
Example Continued....
(4) ActionForm Classes
InputForm.java
String name;
String email;
String phone;

return email;
}

this.email = email;
}

return name;
}

this.name = name;
}

return phone;
}
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this.phone = phone;
}
}
RegistrationForm.java
public class RegistrationForm extends InputForm {
private String Address;
private String marks;
public String getMarks() {

return marks;
}
public void setMarks(String marks) {

this.marks = marks;
}
public String getAddress() {

return Address;
}
public void setAddress(String address) {

this.Address = address;
}
(5) Action Classes
ValidateAction.java
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public class ValidateAction extends Action {

}
RegisterAction.java
public class RegisterAction extends Action {

}
(6) Output
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Internationalization in struts application
Few years back, the sites are only developed using a single language and the developer only create the sites to their
specific languages. As the globalization occurs, many frameworks are developed to support the multiple languages at a
time. This can be achieved by having the multi language text in key/value pair. And at runtime the text is read from the
key as per the language required. This multilingual support is known as Internationalization. So Internationalization is
defined as the process of designing an application so that it can be adapted to various languages and regions without
engineering changes.
The following classes are used to implement Internationalization to any site.
• Locale - The fundamental Java class that supports internationalization is Locale . Each Locale represents a
particular choice of country and language, and also a set of formatting assumptions for things like numbers and
dates.
• ResourceBundle - The java.util.ResourceBundle class provides the fundamental tools for supporting messages in
multiple languages.
• PropertyResourceBundle - One of the standard implementations of Resource Bundle allows you to define
resources using the same name=value syntax used to initialize properties files. This is very convenient for
preparing resource bundles with messages that are used in a web application, because these messages are
generally text oriented.
• MessageFormat - The java.text.MessageFormat class allows you to replace portions of a message string with
arguments specified at run time. This is useful in cases where you are creating a sentence, but the words would
appear in a different order in different languages. The placeholder string {0} in the message is replaced by the
first runtime argument, {1} is replaced by the second argument, and so on.
• MessageResources - The framework class org.apache.struts.util.MessageResources lets you treat a set of
resource bundles like a database, and allows you to request a particular message string for a particular Locale
instead of for the default Locale the server itself is running in.
The below example will show the use of Internationalization in Struts.
Note :- The example only displays the text coming from the different properties files. The properties file
MessageResource.properties is created with different locale suffix example fr is for France, de for Germany etc.. So the
example is only having the MessagesResources.properties and not the whole program. you can download the complete
source from the file. You can change the locale in the IE by tools>internet options>General---Languages and check the
program.
(1)MessageResources.properties
This is the default properties file. If the locale specific file is not present then struts calls the default properties file.
welcome.text=default Welcome Text
(2) MessageResources_en.properties
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welcome.text=English Welcome Text
(3) MessageResources_fr.properties
welcome.text=French Welcome Text
(4) MessageResources_de.properties
welcome.text=German Welcome Text
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Exception Handling in Struts
Struts 1.3 provides a small, but effective exception-handling framework for the applications. There are two approaches
available for the exception handling in struts.
1. Declarative:- In this approach the exceptions are defined in the struts-config file and in case of the exception
occurs the control is automatically passed to the appropriate error page. The <exception> tag is used to define the
exception in the struts-config.xml file. The following are the attributes of the <exception> tag.
1. Key:- The key defines the key present in MessageResources.properties file to describe the exception
occurred.
2. Type:- The class of the exception occurred.
3. Path:- The page where the control is to be followed in case exception occurred.
4. Handler:- The exception handler which will be called before passing the control to the file specified in
path attribute
There are following two sections in struts-config.xml where you can define the exceptions.
♦ With Any Action mapping:- In this approach the action class is identified which may throw the exception
like password failure, resource access etc. For example:-
<action path=/exception
type=com.visualbuilder.ExampleAction
parameter=method
input=/index.jsp >
<exception key=error.system type=java.lang.RuntimeException path=/index.jsp />
</action>
♦ Defining the Exceptions Globally for the struts-config.xml :- If the application control is to pass on a
single page for all similar type of exception then the exception can be defined globally. So if in any
circumstance the exception occurs the control is passed globally to the exception and control is passed to
the error page. For Example:-
<global-exceptions>
<exception key=error.system type=java.lang.RuntimeException path=/index.jsp />
</global-exceptions>
2. Programmatic: - In this approach the exceptions are caught using normal java language try/catch block and
instead of showing the exception some meaningful messages are displayed. In this approach the flow of control is
also maintained by the programs. The main drawback of the approach is the developer has to write the code for
the flow of the application.
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Creating Custom Exception Handlers in Struts-1
The struts not only introduced the exception handling mechanism and pass the flow to the appropriate page automatically,
it also gives the flexibility to the programmers to create their own Exception Handlers. The struts provides
org.apache.struts.action.ExceptionHandler class for creating the custom exception handlers. All the custom Exception
Handlers should extend the ExceptionHandler class and override the execute() method.
The below example will demonstrate custom ExceptionHandler for the user program.
Note:- The below example will transfer the control to the index.jsp after calling the exception handler. In the
struts-config.xml we are adding the global exception for RuntimeException. You can add any exception like the previous
example to some actions only. The code for adding it as follows :-
<exception key=error.system type=java.lang.RuntimeException

handler=com.visualbuilder.handler.CustomExceptionHandler path=/index.jsp />
Example For ExceptionHandler :-
(1) Creating the Exception Handler Class
package com.visualbuilder.handler;
import javax.servlet.ServletException;
import org.apache.struts.action.ExceptionHandler;
import org.apache.struts.config.ExceptionConfig;
public class CustomExceptionHandler extends ExceptionHandler {
public ActionForward execute(Exception exception, ExceptionConfig config, ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm

formInstance,
HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException {
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try {
// TODO CustomeCode
System.out.println(Exception Handler for the specific error);
}catch (Exception e) {
}
return (super.execute(exception, config, mapping, formInstance, request, response));
}
}

<struts-config>
<form-beans>
</form-beans>
<global-exceptions>
<exception key=error.system type=java.lang.RuntimeException

handler=com.visualbuilder.handler.CustomExceptionHandler path=/index.jsp />
</global-exceptions>
<action-mappings>
<action path=/exception
type=com.visualbuilder.ExampleAction
input=/index.jsp />
</action-mappings>
</struts-config>
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Creating Custom Exception Handlers in Struts.-2
Exception Handlers in Struts Example Continued ......
(3) Creating the Action Class
The Action class is same as we have learned just with a small change. We are throwing an error from the Action Class. so
the code for the execute method is as follows:-

if(true){
// Throwing exception to call the Exception Handler

throw new RuntimeException(No Action);
}
}
(4) JSP Page:- index.jsp
Note :- The below jsp will only call the Exception.do and then exception handler will pass the control again to this page.
<%@ page language=java contentType=text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1

pageEncoding=ISO-8859-1%>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1>
<title>Insert title here</title>
</head>
<body>
<form action=exception.do>
<input type=submit value=Click>
</form>
</body>
</html>
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(5) Output:-
The program will print Exception Handler for the specific error in the console window which shows that the
CustomExceptionHandler is called before redirecting to the specific page.
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Creating Plugin for the Struts Application. -1

A Plugin is defined as the component which are easily integrated with the applications and helps to enhance the
functionality of the system. A plug-in is any Java class that is initialized when struts application starts up and destroy
when application shuts down. We have already seen many plugin available for the struts like validations, tiles etc. The
struts framework also gives the developer flexibility to create their own plugin classes and then implement in the struts
applications.
Example For Custom Plugins :-
(1) Creating the Plugin Class
The struts provide org.apache.struts.action.PlugIn interface. All the custom Plugin should implement the PlugIn interface
and override the init() and destroy() methods.
package com.visualbuilder.plugin;
import org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet;
import org.apache.struts.action.PlugIn;
import org.apache.struts.config.ModuleConfig;
public class CustomPlugin implements PlugIn {

public CustomPlugin() {
super();
}
public void destroy() {
System.out.println(The plug in Destroyed);

}
public void init(ActionServlet controller, ModuleConfig config) throws ServletException {

controller.getServletContext().setAttribute(testPlugin,Testing for the object);
System.out.println(The plug in initialized);
}

<struts-config>
<form-beans></form-beans>
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<action-mappings>
<action path=/plugin
type=com.visualbuilder.TestPluginAction
input=/index.jsp >
<forward name=SUCCESS path=/index.jsp/>
</action>
</action-mappings>

<plug-in className=com.visualbuilder.plugin.CustomPlugin></plug-in>
</struts-config>
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Creating Plugin for the Struts Application. -2
Example Continued....
(3) Action Class to Access the Attribute Set in the Plugin
public class TestPluginAction extends Action {

System.out.println(servlet.getServletContext().getAttribute(testPlugin));
return mapping.findForward(SUCCESS);
}
}
(4) Output
Note:-The program will just print The plug in initialized when the server starts and Print Testing for the object when you
call the /plugin.do action.
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WildCard Character mapping for the Actions-1.
Now a days the complex application are always bigger in size. So the number of action mappings will also increases.
Wildcards can be used to combine similar mappings into one more generic mapping and helps to reduce the size of the
config files.
Wildcard patterns can contain one or more of the following special tokens:
* Matches zero or more characters excluding the slash ('/') character.

** Matches zero or more characters including the slash ('/') character.
The backslash character is used as an escape sequence. Thus * matches the character asterisk ('*'), and \ matches
character
the character backslash ('').
Note :-In the action mapping and action forwards, the wildcard-matched values can be accessed with the token {N} where
N is a number from 1 to 9 indicating which wildcard-matched value to substitute. The whole request URI can be accessed
with the {0} token.
The action mapping attributes that will accept wildcard-matched strings are:
• attribute
• catalog
• command
• forward
• include
• input
• multipartClass
• name
• parameter
• prefix
• roles
• suffix
• type
The action forward attributes that will accept wildcard-matched strings are:
• catalog
• command
• path
The below example will demonstrate the Use of wildcard characters.
(1) Struts-config.xml
Note:- In the action mapping the parameter is passed as {1}. The jsp which invoked the action replaces the parameter with
the name ofthe jsp in all places.
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<struts-config>
<form-beans>
<form-bean name=InputForm type=com.visualbuilder.InputForm />
<form-bean name=RegisterForm type=com.visualbuilder.RegisterForm/>
</form-beans>
<action-mappings>
<action path=/submit*
type=com.visualbuilder.Submit{1}Action
name={1}Form
scope=request
validate=false
input=/{1}.jsp/>
</action-mappings>

</struts-config>
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(2) Action Classes
SubmitRegisterAction.java file
public class SubmitRegisterAction extends Action {

throws Exception {
System.out.println(Called SubmitRegisterAction file );
}
SubmitInputAction.java file
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public class SubmitInputAction extends Action {

System.out.println(Called SubmitInputAction file );

}
(3)Action Forms
InputForm.java file
String name;
String email;
String phone;

return email;
}

this.email = email;
}
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return name;
}

this.name = name;
}

return phone;
}

this.phone = phone;
}
}
RegisterForm.java file
public class RegisterForm extends InputForm {
private String Address;
private String marks;
public String getMarks() {

return marks;
}
public void setMarks(String marks) {

this.marks = marks;
}
public String getAddress() {

return Address;
}
public void setAddress(String address) {

Address = address;
}
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(4) Input.jsp File

<html:html>
<html:form action=/submitInput.do method=post>
<table>
<tr>
<td colspan=2>
<p>
</p>
</html:messages>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=2>
<p>
</p>
</html:messages>
</td>
</tr>
</html:form>
</html:html>
(5) Regsiter.jsp File

<html:html>
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<html:form action=/submitRegister.do method=post>
<table>
<tr>
<td colspan=2>
<p>
</p>
</html:messages>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td colspan=2>
<p>
</p>
</html:messages>
</td>
</tr>
<tr><td> Enter the Address </td>
<td><html:text property=address /></td></tr>
<tr><td> Enter the Marks </td>
<td><html:text property=marks /></td></tr>
</html:form>
</html:html>
(6) Output
Note:- When user submits the Register form and calls the submitRegister.do action then automatically the control calls
the submitRegisterAction class and prints Called SubmitRegisterAction file and same as for the submitInput.do calls the
submitInputAction class and prints Called SubmitInputAction file on the console.
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Uploading the Files to Server Using Struts-1
Many applications gives the utility to upload the data from client applications to the server. Struts also gives the flexibility
to upload the files using the org.apache.struts.upload.FormFile class. The org.apache.struts.upload.FormFile class is a
special class in struts which represent the property type of file. The following example will demonstrate to upload any txt
file and place it in the upload folder by the name of temp.txt.
Example:-

<struts-config>
<form-beans>
</form-beans>
<action-mappings>
<action
path=/submit
type=com.visualbuilder.InputAction
name=inputForm
scope=request
validate=false
input=/index.jsp/>
</action-mappings>
<controller maxFileSize=2M />

</struts-config>
(2) InputForm.java File
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import org.apache.struts.upload.FormFile;
private FormFile fileName;
public FormFile getFileName() {
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Uploading the Files to Server Using Struts-2
(3) InputAction.java file
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import org.apache.struts.Globals;
import org.apache.struts.upload.FormFile;
public class InputAction extends Action {

throws Exception {
InputForm inputForm = (InputForm) form;

// retrieve the file representation
FormFile file = inputForm.getFileName();
// retrieve the file name
String fileName = file.getFileName();
// retrieve the content type
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Introduction to Modules in Struts Application
Generally, all the applications and systems are modularized so that the time of development and complexity can be
reduced. The struts also give the flexibility to have more than one independent modules in the application. The separate
struts-config files are introduced for each module. This helps developers to develop the complex applications more
effectively as different independent applications can be developed separately and then combined together to make a
complete system. The struts gives a special Action class, SwitchAction , which is used for the switching between the
modules. The below example will demonstrate the modules in the Struts Applications.
The following things needs to be changed to make more than one modules in the application.
• All the module specific config files should be kept on the module specific directories under WEB-INF folder.
• All the jsp files for the module should be kept under the module folder.
• All the module specific files should be passed in the ActionServlet in the Web.xml file.
There are three approaches for switching from one module to another.
• You can use the org.apache.struts.actions.SwitchAction from the Extras JAR,

• you can use a <forward> (global or local) and specify the contextRelative attribute with a value of true,
• or you can specify the module parameter as part of any of the Struts JSP hyperlink tags (Include, Img, Link,
Rewrite, or Forward).
Note:- The coming example will demonstrate the all three approaches for the application
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Modules Example-1
Note:- In the below example we are creating the admin and register module. You can download the whole source from
download link. We only show the code which is written for the modules so that you can understand the exact logic to
switch the modules.
(1) Web.xml file Changes
<servlet>
<init-param>
</init-param>
<init-param>
<param-name>config/admin</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/admin/struts-admin.xml</param-value>
</init-param>
<init-param>
<param-name>config/register</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/register/struts-register.xml</param-value>
</init-param>
</servlet>
(2) Struts-config.xml for default Module.

<struts-config>
<form-beans></form-beans>
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Modules Example-2
(5) index.jsp file for Default Module.

<html:html>
This is the default Module Application<br/>
Links created for own Forward action <br/>
<a href=switchAdmin.do>Admin</a><br/>
<a href=switchRegister.do>Register</a><br/>
Links created for the SwitchAcion<br/>
<a href=switchtoAdmin.do?prefix=/admin&page=/index.jsp>Admin</a><br/>
<a href=switchtoRegister.do?prefix=/regsiter&page=/index.jsp>Register</a><br/>
Links created for the html:link tag<br/>
<html:link module=/admin page=/index.jsp>admin</html:link>
<html:link module=/register page=/index.jsp>register</html:link>
<br/>
</html:html>
(6) index.jsp file for Admin Module.

<html:html>
This is the Admin Module File

<a href=/switchToRegister.do?prefix=/register&page=/index.jsp>Register</a>
</html:html>
(7) index.jsp file for Register Module.

<html:html>
This is the Regsiter Module File

<a href=/switchToAdmin.do?prefix=/admin&page=/index.jsp>Admin</a>
</html:html>
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(8) Output:-
Note:- On running the default module index.jsp file the following output will be displayed on the screen.
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Customizing the ActionServlet Class for the application-1.
Struts follow the Model-View-Controller pattern. ActionServlet provides the controller in the MVC design pattern for
web applications that is commonly known as Model 2. The standard version of ActionServlet is configured based on the
following servlet initialization parameters,
• config - Comma-separated list of context-relative path(s) to the XML resource(s) containing the configuration
information for the default module. (Multiple files support since Struts 1.1) [/WEB-INF/struts-config.xml].
• config/${module} - Comma-separated list of Context-relative path(s) to the XML resource(s) containing the
configuration information for the module that will use the specified prefix (/${module}). This can be repeated as
many times as required for multiple modules.
• configFactory - The Java class name of the ModuleConfigFactory used to create the implementation of the
ModuleConfig interface.
• convertNull - Force simulation of the Struts 1.0 behavior when populating forms. If set to true, the numeric Java
wrapper class types (like java.lang.Integer ) will default to null (rather than 0). (Since Struts 1.1) [false]
• rulesets - Comma-delimited list of fully qualified classnames of additional org.apache.commons.digester.RuleSet
instances that should be added to the Digester that will be processing struts-config.xml files. By default, only the
RuleSet for the standard configuration elements is loaded.
• validating - Should we use a validating XML parser to process the configuration file (strongly recommended)?
[true]
• chainConfig - Comma-separated list of either context-relative or classloader path(s) to load commons-chain
catalog definitions from. If none specified, the default Struts catalog that is provided with Struts will be used.
The main power of struts is that you can customize the controller behaviour if needed by your application. The below
example will demonstrate to override the default functionality of the controller and do some application specific
processing before and after the request has been processed.

<struts-config>
<form-beans>
</form-beans>
<action-mappings>
<action
path=/submit
type=com.visualbuilder.SubmitAction
name=inputForm
scope=request
validate=false
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input=/index.jsp/>
</action-mappings>
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web.xml file
The mapping for the ActionServlet class is written in the web.xml file so we have to change it for mapping our
CustomActionServlet class.

<web-app version=2.4 xmlns=http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee xmlns:xsi=http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance
xsi:schemaLocation=http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd>
<servlet>
<servlet-class>com.visualbuilder.CustomActionServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
</init-param>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
</servlet-mapping>
<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>
</web-app>
(3)CustomActionServlet.java file
This is the file which is the replaces the Struts Controller class. We extends the Struts ActionServlet to get the default
behaviour and override the process method.
import java.io.IOException;
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public class CustomActionServlet extends ActionServlet {
private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
public void process(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException, ServletException

{
//TODO You can put the Code before the request handling.
System.out.println(Before Handling Request);
super.process(request,response);
//TODO You can put the Code after the request handling.
System.out.println(After Handling Request);
}
}
(4)InputForm.java file
String name;
String email;
String phone;

return email;
}
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this.email = email;
}

return name;
}

this.name = name;
}

return phone;
}

this.phone = phone;
}
}
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(5) SubmitAction.java file
public class SubmitAction extends Action {

throws Exception {
System.out.println(Called Submit file );
}
(6)Index.jsp file

<html:html>
<table>
<tr>
<td colspan=2>
<p>
</p>
</html:messages>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td colspan=2>
<p>
</p>
</html:messages>
</td>
</tr>
</html:form>
</html:html>
(7)Output
Note:- Whenever the request is submitted to the application you see two line Before Handling Request and After Handling
Request printing on the console and the line Called Submit file is printed in between. This shows that for every request the
code of CustomActionServlet gets called.
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(5) SubmitAction.java file
public class SubmitAction extends Action {

throws Exception {
System.out.println(Called Submit file );
}
(6)Index.jsp file

<html:html>
<table>
<tr>
<td colspan=2>
<p>
</p>
</html:messages>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
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<td colspan=2>
<p>
</p>
</html:messages>
</td>
</tr>
</html:form>
</html:html>
(7)Output
Note:- Whenever the request is submitted to the application you see two line Before Handling Request and After Handling
Request printing on the console and the line Called Submit file is printed in between. This shows that for every request the
code of CustomActionServlet gets called.
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Customizing RequestProcessor Class for the application-1.
The previous example has shown you to customize the controller before and after any request processed. But Struts
provide a class named RequestProcessor which actually done all the processing for a particular request. In Struts 1.0 the
whole things are done by the ActionServlet class. But with the next release the request processing code shifted to
RequestProcessor class. RequestProcessor contains the processing logic that the ActionServlet performs as it receives
each servlet request from the container. You can customize the request processing behavior by subclassing this class and
overriding the method(s) whose behavior you are interested in changing. the following methods are available in the
RequestProcessor Class.
• processMultipart():- Handles the multipart request containing the images etc.

• processPath():- Identify and return the path component
• processLocale():- Automatically select a Locale for the current user, if requested.
• processContent():- Set the default content type with character encodings for all responses
• processNoCache():- Set the no-cache headers for all responses, if requested.
• processPreprocess():- General-purpose preprocessing hook that can be overridden as required by subclasses.
• processMapping():- Select the mapping used to process the selection path for this request.
• processRoles():- If this action is protected by security roles, make sure that the current user possesses at least
one of them.
• processActionForm():- Retrieve and return the ActionForm associated with this mapping, creating and retaining
one if necessary.
• processPopulate():- Populate the properties of the specified ActionForm instance from the request parameters
included with this request.
• processValidate():- If this request was not cancelled, and the request's ActionMapping has not disabled
validation, call the validate method of the specified ActionForm, and forward to the input path if there were any
errors.
• processForward():- Process a forward requested by this mapping (if any).
• processInclude():- Process an include requested by this mapping (if any).
• processActionCreate():- Return an Action instance that will be used to process the current request, creating a
new one if necessary.
• processActionPerform():- Ask the specified Action instance to handle this request.
• processForwardConfig():- Forward or redirect to the specified destination, by the specified mechanism.
Note:- The below example will demonstrate the overriding of methods in the RequestProcessor class. The example will
override processPreprocess() method of the RequestProcessor Class. >
(1)Struts-config.xml file
Note - RequestProcessor mapping is given by the <controller> tag in the struts-config.xml file.

<struts-config>
<form-beans>
</form-beans>
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<action-mappings>
<action
path=/submit
name=inputForm
scope=request
validate=false
input=/index.jsp/>
</action-mappings>


<controller contentType=text/html;charset=UTF-8 locale=true debug=1 nocache=true
processorClass=com.visualbuilder.CustomRequestProcessor />
</struts-config>
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Customizing RequestProcessor Class for the application.-2
(2) CustomRequestProcessor.java file
import org.apache.struts.action.RequestProcessor;
public class CustomRequestProcessor extends RequestProcessor {
public boolean processPreprocess(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) {
System.out .println(Called the preprocess method before processing the request);

return super.processPreprocess(request,response);
}
}
Note:- Only the above specified files are addition to the previous example i.e.Customizing the ActionServlet Class for the
application.
(3) Output
The text Called the preprocess method before processing the request gets printed each time the request is processed by the
Struts. This shows that it is calling the CustomRequestProcessor and not the RequestProcessor class.
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ComposableRequestProcessor in Struts 1.3
Introduction :- A popular technique for organizing the execution of complex processing flows is the Chain of
Responsibility pattern. In this pattern the different “commands” are combined into a single chain with a series of
processing elements and the context parameter is passed along with all the parameter. All the commands contain a single
execute method. A Boolean variable determines whether the command executes successfully or not. This pattern promotes
the idea of loose coupling, a common programming practice.
From the version 1.3, the struts replaces the RequestProcessor with ComposableRequestProcessor class which follows the
Chain of Responsibility pattern (CoR) design pattern. It is configured via the following context initialization parameters:
• org.apache.struts.chain.CATALOG_NAME - Name of the Catalog in which we will look up the Command to be

executed for each request. If not specified, the default value is struts.
• org.apache.struts.chain.COMMAND_NAME - Name of the Command which we will execute for each request,
to be looked up in the specified Catalog. If not specified, the default value is servlet-standard.
Each step of the processing is represented as a separate Command in the Chain. User can easily customize by changing,
removing and replacing the chain commands. The Command classes are following packages:-
1. org.apache.struts.chain.commands.
2. org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet packages.
The following table will listed out all the command objects of CoR.
Command Description
Select a locale for this request, if one hasn't already been selected, and place it in the
SelectLocale
request.
SetOriginalURI Store the URI of the original request in the request.
RequestNoCache If appropriate, set the following response headers: Pragma, Cache-Control, and Expires.
Removes any ActionMessages object stored in the session under Globals.MESSAGE_KEY
RemoveCachedMessages and Globals.ERROR_KEY if the messages' isAccessed method returns true. This allows
messages to be stored in the session, displayed one time, and be released.
SetContentType Set the default content type (with optional character encoding) for all responses if requested.
SelectAction Determine the ActionMapping associated with this path.
If the mapping has a role associated with it, ensure the requesting client has the specified
AuthorizeAction
role. If the client does not, raise an error and stop processing of the request.
Instantiate (if necessary) the ActionForm associated with this mapping (if any) and place it
CreateActionForm
into the appropriate scope.
PopulateActionForm Populate the ActionForm associated with this request, if any.
ValidateActionForm Perform validation (if requested) on the ActionForm associated with this request (if any).
SelectInput If validation failed, select the appropriate ForwardConfig for return to the input page.
ExecuteCommand Lookup and execute a chain command if the current ActionConfig is so-configured.
SelectForward If this mapping represents a forward, forward to the path specified by the mapping.
SelectInclude Select the include uri (if any) for the current action mapping.
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PerformInclude If selected, include the result of invoking the path in this request.
CreateAction Instantiate an instance of the class specified by the current ActionMapping (if necessary).
ExecuteAction This is the point at which your Action's execute method will be called.
ExecuteForwardCommand Lookup and execute a chain command if the current ForwardConfig is so-configured.
Finally, the process method of the RequestProcessor takes the ActionForward returned by
PerformForward your Action class, and uses it to select the next resource (if any). Most often the
ActionForward leads to the presentation page that renders the response.
The default Chain-config file supplied by the apache is as follows:-
<?xml version=1.0 ?>



<catalog name=struts>
<define name=lookup className=org.apache.commons.chain.generic.LookupCommand/>


<chain name=servlet-standard>


<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.ExceptionCatcher catalogName=struts
exceptionCommand=servlet-exception/>
<lookup catalogName=struts name=process-action optional=false/>
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<lookup catalogName=struts name=process-view optional=false/>
</chain>


<chain name=process-action>


<lookup catalogName=struts name=servlet-standard-preprocess optional=true/>
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<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.SelectLocale/>

<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.SetOriginalURI/>


<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.RequestNoCache/>

<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.SetContentType/>


<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.RemoveCachedMessages/>


<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.SelectAction/>


<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.AuthorizeAction/>

<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.CreateActionForm/>


<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.PopulateActionForm/>


<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.ValidateActionForm/>

<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.SelectInput/>

<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.ExecuteCommand/>

<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.SelectForward/>

<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.SelectInclude/>


<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.PerformInclude/>

<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.CreateAction/>


<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.ExecuteAction/>
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</chain>


<chain name=process-view>

<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.ExecuteForwardCommand/>


<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.PerformForward/>
</chain>

<chain name=servlet-exception>



<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.ExceptionHandler/>


<command className=org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.PerformForward/>
</chain>
</catalog>
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Adding New Command Objects in Struts CoR Pattern
The Struts new CoR(Chain of Responsibility) structure gives us more flexibility to add our commands in between the
request processing and also with less effort. All the user needs is to extend
org.apache.struts.chain.commands.ActionCommandBase class and override the execute() method in it.
The below example will demonstrate how do we insert our own command objects in the existing Struts CoR without
changing the actual flow and the ComposeableRequestProcessor will call the file implicitly. For any type of addition and
deletion of the commands only the chain-config.xml file is changed and the Struts automatically take care of the flow.
(1) Struts-config.xml

<struts-config>
<form-beans>
</form-beans>
<action-mappings>
<action
path=/submit
name=inputForm
scope=request
validate=false
input=/index.jsp/>
</action-mappings>

processorClass=org.apache.struts.chain.ComposableRequestProcessor />

</struts-config>
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(2) CustomCommand.java File
Note:- The following file is created for the command object. If it returns true it means some exception occurred so it wont
call the next Command in the chain and returns to the input jsp file.
package com.visualbuilder.command;
import org.apache.struts.chain.commands.ActionCommandBase;
import org.apache.struts.chain.contexts.ActionContext;
public class CustomCommand extends ActionCommandBase {
@Override
public boolean execute(ActionContext ctx) throws Exception {
boolean result=true;
System.out.println(Called the logic for the Custom Command);
return false;
}
(3) Chain-config.xml file
Note :- The following command will be added in the chain-config.xml file anywhere in the process-action chain.


<command className=com.visualbuilder.command.CustomCommand/>
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Security in Struts
Implementation For Container Managed Implementation For Application Managed
• Authentication and Authorization are specified in • Extending RequestProcessor (in previous

web.xml. versions)or AuthorizeAction (After 1.3).
• It uses multiple authentication schemes, such as • Cookies
Password Authentication Form-based • Using Servlet Filters.
Authentication Client side Digital Certificates etc.. • Using SSLEXT with Struts to enable HTTPS.
• Redirects are handled automatically.
• User data can be provided by a variety of stores xml
file or flat files. In tomcat the Data is provided in
TOMCAT_HOME/conf/tomcat-users.xml
The following is the Example to implement the Container Specific Security in Tomcat.
(1) tomcat-user.xml File
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

<tomcat-users>
<role rolename=tomcat/>
<role rolename=role1/>
<role rolename=admin/>
<user username=tomcat password=tomcat roles=tomcat/>
<user username=both password=tomcat roles=tomcat,role1/>
<user username=role1 password=tomcat roles=role1/>
<user username=visualbuilder password=test roles=admin/>
</tomcat-users>
(2) Web.xml file

<web-app version=2.4 xmlns=http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee xmlns:xsi=http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance
xsi:schemaLocation=http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd>
<servlet>
<init-param>
</init-param>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
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</servlet-mapping>
<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>
<security-constraint>
<web-resource-collection>
<web-resource-name>application</web-resource-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</web-resource-collection>
<auth-constraint>
<role-name>admin</role-name>
</auth-constraint>
</security-constraint>
<login-config>
<auth-method>BASIC</auth-method>
<realm-name>securityapp</realm-name>
</login-config>
<security-role>
<description>Testing the Application Security</description>
<role-name>admin</role-name>
</security-role>
</web-app>
Output:-
The following screen appears when you try to run the application. It will ask for username and password and once you
enter visualbuilder as username and test as password then only it will display the pages of the application.
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Example for the Application Managed Security-1

The same way we extends the default behaviour of the Struts application, we can validate the user and authorize them to
some resources in the application. We have to just mention the role for the resource in the struts-config.xml file. The
following example will demonstrate the Application managed security. If the user enters the role as admin only then the
submit will be called otherwise the exception page is displayed on the screen.
(1) Struts-config.xml File

<struts-config>
<form-beans>
</form-beans>
<action-mappings>
<action path=/submit
scope=request validate=false
name=inputForm input=/index.jsp
roles=admin/>
</action-mappings>
processorClass=org.apache.struts.chain.ComposableRequestProcessor />

</struts-config>
(2) chain-config.xml File
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Note:- The only change with in this file is to replace line number 1 by the line number 2.
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Example for the Application Managed Security-2
(3) CustomCommand.java File
Note:- If any security check application is to be created in the struts 1.3 or higher then
org.apache.struts.chain.commands.AbstractAuthorizeAction is to be extended but in case of previous versions the
RequestProceesor's method processRoles() is to be overridden to check the security setting of the user.
package com.visualbuilder.command;
import org.apache.struts.chain.commands.AbstractAuthorizeAction;
import org.apache.struts.chain.contexts.ActionContext;
import org.apache.struts.chain.contexts.ServletActionContext;
import org.apache.struts.config.ActionConfig;
import org.apache.struts.util.MessageResources;
public class CustomCommand extends AbstractAuthorizeAction {

// ------------------------------------------------------- Protected Methods
protected boolean isAuthorized(ActionContext context, String[] roles, ActionConfig mapping) throws Exception {
// Identify the HTTP request object
ServletActionContext servletActionContext = (ServletActionContext) context;
HttpServletRequest request = servletActionContext.getRequest();
// Check the current user against the list of required roles

if(request.getParameter(user) != null && request.getParameter(user).equals(admin) ){
return (true);
}
// Default to unauthorized
return (false);
}
protected String getErrorMessage(ActionContext context, ActionConfig actionConfig) {

ServletActionContext servletActionContext = (ServletActionContext) context;
// Retrieve internal message resources

ActionServlet servlet = servletActionContext.getActionServlet();
MessageResources resources = servlet.getInternal();
return resources.getMessage(notAuthorized, actionConfig.getPath());

}
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Note:- Rest all the same as the previous composablerequestprocessor example for the application.
Output:-
Note:- If the role admin is entered only then the submit action gets called otherwise the following exception comes to the
screen.
Date entered : 24th Mar 2007

Rating :No Rating
Submitted by : visualbuilder
Copyright Visualbuilder.com 1999-2006

Document created date: 14 Jan 2011
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01/14/11 00:22:21

* Tightly coupled classes - one change affects other classes

Model, View and Controller

* Model - data and logic (business logic methods).

Centralized File-Based Configuration

o It lets you get initial form-field values from Java objects.

Form Field Validation

Setting up Eclipse for Web Development

2. Download and install Eclipse 3.2.1 from:

5. Download the source code used in this tutorial

Registration Case Study

Column Name Data Type Constraints

CREATE TABLE USERS(

user_id text primary key,

Setting up Struts project in Eclipse

Creating an ODBC Data source

Create the ODBC DSN as shown below.

Configuring Application Server

<?xml version=1.0 encoding=UTF-8?>

Writing the User class

public class User {

public User(String userId) {

public class ResourceManager {

public static String getString(String key){

Writing the Struts Business Component

public class UserManager {

String driverClass = ResourceManager.getString(database.driver);

String dbUrl = ResourceManager.getString(database.url);

String dbUser = ResourceManager.getString(database.user);

String dbPassword = ResourceManager.getString(database.password);

Where con is a global variable of type java.sql.Connection.

public class UserManager {

PreparedStatement pstmt = connection.prepareStatement(insert into

#database connection properties

#User operations messages

save.user.null = User is null

Creating the Action Class

The basic component of a struts based application is the Action class.

Let us create the action class as shown in the movie.

Click the movie below

String user = request.getParameter(userId);

<form action=/login.do method=post>

Deploy the Struts Application

Click to view the movie

Adding the Form bean

public class User extends ActionForm

Configuring Form Bean in struts-config.xml

<form-bean name=loginForm type=com.visualbuilder.struts.beans.User />

<forward name=failure path=/index.jsp />

<forward name=success path=/manageusers.jsp />

public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping,ActionForm form,HttpServletRequest

Using Struts Tag Libraries

The Bean Tags

The HTML Tags

The Logic Tags

After adding the mentioned code,the execute method of LoginAction becomes:

public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping,ActionForm form,

login.failed = The supplied user name / password does not match

And the index.jsp becomes:

<%@ page language=java pageEncoding=ISO-8859-1%>

<%@taglib prefix=html uri=/WEB-INF/struts-html.tld %>

Now re-deploy the application and see yourself the difference.

Listing all Users - Struts Iterator Looping