Michael Rimov Centerline Computers Craig McClanahan Sun Microsystems OReilly Open Source Convention

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Michael RimovCenterline ComputersCraig
McClanahanSun MicrosystemsOReilly Open Source
ConventionJuly 7 - 11, 2003
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Introduction
Presentation Slides, Notes and Samples Available
Athttp//www.centercomp.com/beyondstruts/
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What Defines Struts?

• Lightweight Model 2 J2EE framework for the HTTP
  Servlet portion of the application.
• NOT Meant to dictate the entire J2EE
  implementation.

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Model 2 Typical Flow
MVC Based Model 2 Architecture Diagram
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Abbreviated Model
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What Makes Struts So Extensible?

• Lightweight and Focused Doesnt Try To Do
  Everything.
• Well Designed Very good separation of concerns,
  very clean coding implementation.
• Uses Java Reflection to allow freedom of objects.

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Case Studies
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Case Studies

• Struts and Expresso
• Struts and Macromedia Flash
• Struts and XML
• Struts and Java Server Faces

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Case Study Expresso 5http//www.jcorporate.com/
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Case Study Expresso 5
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Case Study Expresso 5

• Controller Extension
• Provided Application Level Security Matrix
• Added in-request routing ability.
• Provided mostly-Servlet Independent flow of
  control.

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Case Study Expresso 5

• Struts Action
• public ActionForward perform(
• ActionMapping mapping,ActionForm form,
• HttpServletRequest request,
• HttpServletResponse response)
• Expresso Version
• protected void runPromptLoginState(ControllerReq
  uest request, ControllerResponse response)

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Case Study Expresso 5

• Model Extension
• ControllerRequest / ControllerResponse objects.
• ControllerResponse is populated with
  Inputs/Outputs/Blocks/Transitions.
• Can use Struts Beans as well.
• Added Database Access Layer

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Case Study Expresso 5

• View Extension
• Default UI Renderer
• Customizable XSLT Processing Capabilities.
• Compatible with Struts Views.

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Case Study Expresso 5

• Integration Experiences
• Extremely supportive community
• Reaped Performance Improvements
• Partial Integrations still work well.
• Easy to extend even the Struts internals.

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Case Study Macromedia Flashhttp//www.macromedia
.com/software/flash
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Case Study Macromedia Flash
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Case Study Macromedia Flash

• Integration Methods
• XMLSocket and XML formatted pages.
• LoadVariables and property formatted pages.
• NOT covering Flash Remoting
• All Integration methods need some sort of
  template view system such as JSP or Velocity.

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Case Study Macromedia Flash

• Start Page
• Tell Flash Where To Get Its Data.
• ltobject classid"clsidD27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444
  553540000" codebase"http//download.macromedia.co
  m/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cabversion6,0
  ,29,0" width"445" height"244"gt
• ltparam name"movie" value mymovie.swf?datahtt
  p//www.example.org/MyAction.donexthttp//www.ex
  ample.org/NextAction.do"gt
• ltparam name"quality" value"high"gt
• ltembed src mymovie.swf?datahttp//www.example.o
  rg/MyAction.donexthttp//www.example.org/NextAct
  ion.do" quality"high" pluginspage"http//www.mac
  romedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type"application/x
  -shockwave-flash" width"445" height"244"gtlt/embed
  gt
• lt/objectgt

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Case Study Macromedia Flash

• XML Socket Method
• Create Flash Starting Page
• Load initial data through the data parameter.
• On-submit, the movie opens an XML Socket to the
  server and Struts.
• Struts formats return data as XML.

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Case Study Macromedia Flash

• XML Socket Method Drawbacks
• XML Parsing on the Client Side.
• XML Parsing on the Server Side
• Expansion of Bandwidth

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Case Study Macromedia Flash

• Load Variables Method
• Create Flash Starting Page
• Load initial data through the data parameter.
• On-submit, the movie opens an http request to the
  server.
• Struts formats return data in a propertyvalue
  format.

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Case Study Macromedia Flash

• Load Variables Method Drawbacks
• Simple format of return data only.
• Fancier formats require parsing again. Similar
  drawbacks as XMLSocket.
• Recommended you use simple beans for rendering
  only
• Flash 6 Only

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Quick ActionScript Sample

• on (release)
• LoadVars lv new LoadVars()
• LoadVars receiveVars new LoadVars()
• lv.loginNameLoginName
• lv.password Password
• receiveVars.onLoad processResult //Not
  Shown Here
• lv.sendAndLoad(data,receiveVars,"POST")

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Introducing Craig McClanahan
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Case Study Struts and XML
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Case Study Struts and XML

• Most Struts apps generate HTML
• With the Struts HTML tags (JSP)
• With alternative presentation systems like
  Velocity and Freemarker
• Templates accessed via RequestDispatcher.
  forward() call, but there's another way ...
• Action.execute() -- return null to indicate that
  the response has been created already
• Opens the door to XML-based output

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Struts and XML General Approach

• Form submitted to Action, as usual
• Action creates result beans, as usual, or renders
  XML objects
• Action renders XML directly (or forwards to an
  XML-generating template)
• Template incorporates dynamic data from result
  beans or rendered XML objects
• XSLT stylesheet(s) transform to HTML or other
  markup language

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Struts and XML Resources

• JSP and JSTL can be used directly instead of HTML
  tags
• Two Popular Struts and XML Extensions
• StrutsCX
• Http//it.cappuccinonet.com/strutscx/
• Stxx
• http//www.openroad.ca/opencode/
• More information online, on the Struts Resources
  pages
• http//jakarta.apache.org/struts/resources/

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Case Study Struts and JavaServer Faces
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Case Study JavaServer Faces

• What Is JavaServer Faces?
• Server-side user interface component framework
  for Java-based web apps
• Under development in the Java Community Process
  (JSR-127)
• Currently at Public Draft 2 in the process
• Early Access 4 of Reference Implementation is
  available
• http//java.sun.com/j2ee/javaserverfaces/

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JavaServer Faces Goals

• Accessible to corporate developers
• Usable via tools and by hand
• Usable with and without JSP
• Usable with and without HTML
• Usable with servlet and portlet APIs
• Can be adopted immediately
• Minimum platform Servlet 2.3, JSP 1.2
• Final 1.0 version 4QCY2003

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JavaServer Faces Features

• Extensible UI component model
• Flexible rendering model
• Standard HTML renderkit included
• Event and listener model
• Validation framework
• Basic page navigation support
• Internationalization and accessibility

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JavaServer Faces Sample Page

• ltfuse_facesgt
• lthform formNamelogonFormgt
• lthpanel_grid columns2gt
• lthoutput_text valueUsername/gt
• lthinput_text idusername length16
• valueReflogonBean.username/gt
• lthoutput_text valuePassword/gt
• lthinput_secret idpassword
• length16
• valueReflogonBean.password/gt

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JavaServer Faces Sample Page

• lthcommand_button typesubmit
• labelLog On
• actionReflogonBean.logon/gt
• lthcommand_button typereset
• labelReset/gt
• lt/hpanel_gridgt
• lt/hformgt
• lt/fuse_facesgt

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JavaServer Faces Managed Bean

• ltmanaged-beangt
• ltmanaged-bean-namegt
• logonBean
• lt/managed-bean-namegt
• ltmanaged-bean-classgt
• mypackage.mybeans.LogonBean
• lt/managed-bean-classgt
• ltmanaged-bean-scopegt
• request
• lt/managed-bean-scopegt
• lt/managed-beangt

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JavaServer Faces Bean Class

• public class LogonBean // No base class!
• // The usual property getters/setters
• public String getUsername() ...
• public void setUsername(String username)
• ...
• public String getPassword() ...
• public void setPassword(String password)
• ...

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JavaServer Faces Bean Class

• ...
• // Getter returns Action for button
• public Action getLogon()
• // Anonymous inner class used here
• return new Action()
• public String invoke()
• // Invoke method on bean class
• return (logon())

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JavaServer Faces Bean Class

• ...
• protected String logon()
• // Business logic can access form fields
• // as instance variables
• if (username/password combo is ok)
• return (success) // Logical outcome
• else
• return (null)

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JavaServer Faces Navigation

• ltnavigation-rulegt
• // Wildcard and global patterns ok
• ltfrom-tree-idgt /logon.jsp lt/from-tree-idgt
• ltnavigation-casegt
• ltfrom-action-refgt // Optional
• logonBean.logon lt/from-action-refgt
• ltfrom-outcomegt // Optional
• success lt/from-outcomegt
• ltto-tree-idgt
• /mainmenu.jsp lt/to-tree-idgt
• lt/navigation-casegt
• lt/navigation-rulegt

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JavaServer Faces and Struts

• So, is JavaServer Faces Replacing Struts?
• NO!!!
• Struts 1.1 is and remains very popular
• Struts will continue to innovate advance
• Then, can I use them together?
• YES!!!
• With the Struts-Faces Integration Library
• http//jakarta.apache.org/builds/jakarta-struts/
• release/struts-faces/

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JavaServer Faces And Struts

• Replaces Struts HTML Tags With More Powerful
  JavaServer Faces Components
• Continue to use struts-config.xml file
• Integrates with Struts RequestProcessor
• Supports Standard Struts Features
• Form Beans and Actions
• Validator Framework
• Tiles Framework (coming soon ...)

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JavaServer Faces and Struts

• To use the library with an existing app
• Get the JavaServer Faces RI
• Drop it and struts-faces.jar into your
  /WEB-INF/lib directory
• Change HTML tags on one page at a time
• Tweak your forward paths, and
• Don't touch your form beans or actions
• MVC works ... what a concept -).

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Conclusion
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Presentation Information

• Michael Rimov rimovm_at_centercomp.com
• Craig McClanahancraigmcc_at_apache.org
• Slides, Notes and Sample Code Available
• http//www.centercomp.com/beyondstruts/

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