Create Struts2 Project Using MyEclipse

Create a struts project
Create a new struts project with File > New > Project or use the shortcut Strg + n.
Select the Wizard in J2EE Web Project



Create a nice name for your project



After creating the project, your Package Explorer looks like the picture below.


For now your project is a normal J2EE project, so we need to add the struts capabilityies.
Right click on the project and add the capabilityies for struts with Add Struts Capabilityies.




Change the properties Base package for new classes and Default application resource


Create a default welcome page
Ok, now we want to create a default page. Right click (yes again) on the Folder WebRoot in the Project and choose New > JSP.





Set the name to index.jsp and choose on template to use > Standard JSP using Struts 1.1 MyEcplise will use the template to create the JSP File.



You will find the file index.jsp in the folder WebRoot of the project. On the top of the file you will
find the struts tag libraries. These includes will be use to access the tags of struts. In your case we only need the logic tag library.




Global Action Forwards and Action Mappings

What is an action forward?
A action forward can be used to forward to a jsp or action mapping. There are two different action forwards. The global action forward and the local action forward. You can access a global action forward on each jsp or action class. A local action forward can only be accessed by the assigned action class.

What is a action mapping?
The action mapping is the heart of struts. It managed all actions between the application and the
user. You can define which action will be executed by creating a action mapping.

The diagram show you, how the application server manage the request of the index.jsp or a
non existing action mapping.



In the first step we create a new action mapping. Open the struts-config.xml, you will find it in the folder WebRoot/WEB-INF. Right click in the outline window on action-mapping.



Choose Use Case default and Action Type Forward. The Forward Path is the welcome page /jsp/index.jsp



In the second step you create a global action forward. Go back to the outline window of MyEclipse and choose Global Forward



Choose the Forward Scope Global Forward. For name use the same you have set in your default page. The Global Forward refers to your action mapping.



Create a object class „book“ Create a new class Book in the package de.laliluna.tutorial.library.




Create a getter and setter for each variable. Right click in your class, Source > Generate Getters and Setters


Create a form bean, action form and jsp
Open the struts-config.xml. Right click on Form Bean in the outline window.



Create an action mapping and action class
Open the struts-config.xml and create a new action mapping.




Test the application
Start the jboss and deploy the project as package archiv.




Call the project in your favorite web browser. http://localhost:8080/LibraryWeb/

create struts2 HelloWorld Application

Create Struts 2 - Hello World Application

Recently I’ve started learning the Struts 2 framework. Struts 2 was little tricky as the ‘Hello World sample application’ provided by Struts 2 site is little confusing. So, I was searching for a simple ‘Hello world example for Struts 2′ and after going through many different sites, finally I was able to run my first Struts 2 application. Here are the steps that I did to start with Struts 2. I am using Eclipse IDE and all the steps explained below are in referring to Eclispe 3 IDE.

Struts 2 Hello World Application - Getting started with Struts 2

1. Create New → Project → Dynamic Web Project and give a name to your project and the location to save your project. For this example, I gave HelloWorld as my project name.
2. Second step will be including JAR files required by Struts 2 framework to our project’s WEB-INF/lib folder. You can either download below JARs separately or simple copy them from the lib folder of struts2-blank-application provided by Struts 2 website. Note that the version numbers in the JAR files are the latest ones when this article written. You may use the latest JARs if they are available.
• commons-logging-1.0.4.jar
• freemarker-2.3.8.jar
• ognl-2.6.11.jar
• struts2-core-2.0.11.jar
• xwork-2.0.4.jar
3. Next step will be configuring struts 2 filter in web.xml file. Have a look at the below sample configuration.

4. Now we will create a struts action class HelloWorld.java. To do this, create a new package tutorial under the project’s source folder and inside the tutorial package, create a new class file and name it HelloWorld.java. Below is the source code for this class file.

package tutorial;

import com.opensymphony.xwork2.ActionSupport;

public class HelloWorld extends ActionSupport {

private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

private String message;

public String execute()
{
setMessage("Hi there! This is a warm hello from Struts 2");
return SUCCESS;
}

public String getMessage() {
return message;
}

public void setMessage(String message) {
this.message = message;
}

}

5. Notice that above class extends ActionSupport and it implements the execute() method. As per Struts 2, any class which does these two things are considered as Struts action classes.
6. We have our action class is ready. Now it’s the time to create the presentation page, i.e JSP. Create a new JSP file HelloWorld.jsp inside the WebContent folder and type in below code in this JSP file.

7. Now we will create the very important struts.xml file which glues our action class with the presentation JSP file. Since Struts 2 requires struts.xml to be present in classes folder, we will create stuts.xml file inside the source folder, so that when building the WAR file, struts.xml will be put in classes folder. Below is the code for struts.xml file.

8. We are just one step behind in seeing our application in action. After doing all the above steps, finally the project workspace will looks something like this.
   
9. Now we are good to go. Right click on the project name and click Export → WAR File. Then deploy this WAR in the Tomcat’s webapps directory. Now start Tomcat server and point your browser to the URL http://localhost:8080/HelloWorld/HelloWorld.action and Tada! Your first struts 2 application is delivering the JSP page with a hello message to you!!

So, that’s it. Now the Hello World application is done using this latest Struts framework.