Struts Fundamentals,create a blog using java, struts,jsp Custom tags

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Struts Fundamentals

This chapter is going to focus on installing the Struts framework, configuring it, and building the first screen in the JavaEdge( is a very simple weblog (that is, a blog) that allows the end users to post their stories and comment on the other stories) application. The application is going to be written completely in Java. In addition, all the technologies used to build this application will be based on technology made available by the Apache Software Foundation. We cover the following topics in this chapter:
• A brief history of the Struts development framework.
• A Struts-based application walkthrough.
• Setting up your first Struts project, including the physical layout of the project, and an explanation of all the important Struts configuration files.
• Configuring a Struts application. Some of the specific configuration issues that will be dealt with here include
•Configuring the Struts ActionServlet.
•Configuring Struts actions in the struts-config.xml file
• Best practices for Struts configuration.
In addition to our brief Struts configuration tutorial, we are going to discuss how Struts can be used to build a flexible and dynamic user interface. We will touch briefly on some, but not all, of the custom JSP tag libraries available to the Struts developer. Some of the things you can do with tag libraries that will be covered in this chapter include
• Manipulating JavaBeans by using the Struts Bean tag library
• Making JSP pages dynamic by leveraging the conditional and iterating power of the Struts Logic tag library
Let’s begin our discussion with some of the common problems faced while building an application.