How to create a struts application in Eclipse

Create a new Dynamic Web project in Eclipse
Unzip struts-blank.war
copy the content of src/java (MessageResources.properties) in src
copy all jsp pages to WebContent
copy META-INF and WEB-INF directories to WebContent
Edit web.xml and replace the DTD definition with an xmlns definition to enable expression language support.

<web-app id="WebApp_ID" 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">

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How to add a web page

Create the page.jsp file or copy the sample /pages/welcome.jsp
If needed, add the <%@ taglib declaration for the bean/html/logic tags

<%@ 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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Optionally, add a global forward that gives the page an alias

How to create a form

Define a jsp page containing the form: EditCompany.jsp

<html:form action="EditCompanyAction">

        Comany name: <html:text property="name"></html:text><br/>

        Company address: <html:text property="address"/>

        <html:submit/>

        </html:form>

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Create a form bean that extends ActionForm

public class CompanyForm extends ActionForm

{

        private String name;

        private String address;

        //set and get methods

}

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Optionally, define the validate method (see below)
Define the form bean in struts-config.xml

<form-bean

            name="companyForm"

            type="package.CompanyForm"/>

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Define an Action that receives the form,

public class EditCompanyAction extends Action 

{

        @Override

        public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping, 

                        ActionForm form,

                        HttpServletRequest request,

                        HttpServletResponse response)

                        throws Exception 

        {

                //cast the form object

                CompanyForm companyForm = (CompanyForm) form;

                //copy the companyForm data to a Company object

                //insert data in the db using a separate object 

                try{

                        companyManager.insert(company);

                        return mapping.findForward("success");

        catch(Exception e)

        {

                        return mapping.findForward("failure");

        }

}

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Define the Action in struts-config.xml

<action

            path="/EditCompanyAction"

            type="package.EditCompanyAction"

            scope="request"

            name="companyForm"

            validate="true"

            input="/pages/EditCompany.jsp">

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Define the forwards to the various pages that follow the Action

<forward

                name="success"

                path="/pages/CompanyEditSuccess.jsp"/>

            <forward

                name="failure"

                path="/pages/Error.jsp"/>

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How to validate a form

Write a method in ActionForm that overrides validate()

@Override

        public ActionErrors validate(ActionMapping mapping,

                        HttpServletRequest request) 

        {

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Create an ActionErrors object

ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors();

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Add ActionMessage objects to the error list

if (username == null || username.equals(""))
{
errors.add("username", new ActionMessage("username.missing"));
}

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return the error list

return errors;

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create the corresponding message keys in the resource.properties file

username.missing=Manca il nome utente

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How to create search/results pages

Create a page with a form containing one or more search fields: CompanySearch.jsp

<html:form action=�SearchCompanyAction�>

        <html:text property=�name� />

        <html:submit/>

</html:form>

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Optionally define a form bean with variables corresponding to the search fields

public class CompanySearchForm extends ActionForm

{

        private String name;

        //set and get

}

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Define the form in struts-config.xml and call it companySearchForm
Create a Search action where the execute method reads the search parameter either from the form bean or directly from the request

public class SearchCompanyAction extends Action 

{

        @Override

        public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping, 

                        ActionForm form,

                        HttpServletRequest request,HttpServletResponse response)

        {

                //cast the form object

                SearchCompanyForm scf = (SearchCompanyForm) form;

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Call a findBy() method in the model class

List<Company> list = companyManager.findByName(scf.getName());

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Put the list of items in the request scope (request.setAttribute(�listName�, listOfResults);

request.setAttribute(�companyList�, list);

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Forward the view to the result page

return mapping.findForward("company-list");

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Write a result page (e.g. UserList.jsp) that retrieves the elements from the list using the expression language or the

<logic:iterator> tag

        <logic:iterate id=�company� name=�companyList� type=�Company� >

                <bean write name=�company� property=�name�/> <br/>

                <bean write name=�company� property=�address�/> <br/>

        </logic:iterate>

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How to create a list page

Use the same steps as the search/result page but create an action (ListAllCompaniesAction) without parameters that returns the list of all items.
Typically, if the search action receives no parameters it returns all items.

Remember: the list page cannot be called directly! You must call ListAllCompaniesAction instead

<html:link action=�ListAllCompaniesAction� />

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How to add edit/delete actions to a list

Define an edit/delete action which accepts a parameter such as the object id or unique name
Dynamically generate for each element of the list a tag

<html:link action=�Edit�>

    <html:param name=�id� value=�${item.id}� /> 

</html:link>

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Struts13HowTo

How to create a struts application in Eclipse

How to add a web page

How to create a form

How to validate a form

How to create search/results pages

How to create a list page

How to add edit/delete actions to a list