Apache Struts 2 Web Application Development (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A beginner's guide for Java developers

• Design, develop, test, and deploy your web applications using Struts 2 framework
• No prior knowledge of JavaScript and CSS is required
• Apply the best of agile development techniques and TDD techniques
• Step-by-step instructions and careful explanations with lots of code examples

In Detail

Struts 2.1 is a modern, extensible, agile web application framework suitable for both small- and large-scale web applications.

The book begins with a comprehensive look at Struts 2.1 basics, interspersed with detours into more advanced development topics. You'll learn about configuring Struts 2.1 actions, results, and interceptors via both XML and Java annotations. You'll get an introduction to most of the Struts 2.1 custom tags and learn how they can assist in rapid application prototyping and development.

From there you'll make your way into Struts 2.1's strong support for form validation and type conversion, which allows you to treat your form values as domain objects without cluttering your code. A look at Struts 2.1's interceptors is the final piece of the Struts 2.1 puzzle, allowing you to leverage the standard Struts 2 interceptors as well as implement your own custom behavior.

After covering Struts 2.1 you'll journey into the world of JavaScript, a surprisingly capable language, the Document Object Model (DOM), and CSS, and learn how to create clean and concise client-side behavior. You'll leverage that knowledge as you move on to Struts 2 themes and templates, which give you a powerful way to encapsulate site-wide user interface behavior.

The book closes with a look at some tools that make the application development life cycle easier to manage, particularly in a team environment, and more automatic.

What you will learn from this book?

• Explore the features of Struts 2.1 to develop your application
• Enhance your web application by writing your own custom result type
• Create your own type converter to handle custom data types
• Automatically generate application and development documentation
• Learn good exception handling practices for your applications
• Implement rich client behavior using JavaScript, the DOM, and CSS
• Create custom themes and templates to make shorter, cleaner JSP pages
• Run many types of tests both to prove functionality and to make change safe

Approach

This book takes a clear approach, focusing on one topic per chapter, but interspersing other issues in the mainline text and in chapter detours. Taking a practical approach, it discusses agile web development using Struts 2, with plenty of examples for better understanding.

Who this book is written for?

This book is for Java developers who are interested in developing web applications using Struts. If you need a comprehensive introduction to Struts 2.1, along with the most important aspects of additional web application development technologies, agile programming practices, tool creation, and application life cycle management this book is for you. You don't need to know JavaScript and CSS to use this book as the author will teach you the required basics.

If you are a Struts 1 or WebWork user and wish to go ahead and migrate to Struts 2, this practical guide is also for you.

About the Author

Dave Newton

Dave Newton, a Struts PMC member, has been a professional developer for over twenty years, getting his start in Lisp and Smalltalk development, moving on to a lengthy stint in embedded system, game, and device driver development, before (confusingly) finding himself writing Java-based web applications for a variety of clients.

He is a strong proponent of agile practices and tool creation and use, particularly in relationship to documentation generation and testing. He's a regular (if crabby) fixture on the Struts user mailing list, prodding people to read the documentation and think outside the box.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Packt Publishing (June 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847193390
• ISBN-13: 978-1847193391
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #183,396 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not The Best Struts 2 Book For New Struts 2 Developers, September 4, 2009

By	Bruce Phillips (Kansas City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

DISCLOSURE: I received a free copy of the book from Packt Publishing in return for agreeing to write a review. I also know the author, Dave Newton, from his frequent and very useful contributions to the Struts 2 user mailing list. Dave also helped me on a Struts 2 - Jasper Reports project.

I completed reading and working through the code for Apache Struts 2 Web Application Development (Packt Publishing, 2009, ISBN 978-1847193-39-1) by Dave Newton. I was looking forward to reading this book as published books on learning Struts 2 are few, especially since the 2.1.X release of Struts 2.

I've been developing Java web applications using Struts 2 for approximately 18 months, so I'm not a Struts 2 beginner. Since the book's target audience is Java developers new to Struts 2 [page 3] I tried to read the book with a newbie mindset.

Overall, I give this book 3 stars out of 5. If you're brand new to Struts 2, I'd recommend you first read Struts 2 in Action ([...]) and then pick up Apache Struts 2.

My main criticism of Apache Struts 2 (and why I don't think it's the best book for newbies) is that this book quickly skims over some critical foundation subjects such as XML configuration, convention plugin, and annotations. Without a thorough understanding of how and when to use those key Struts 2 techniques, it will be difficult for someone new to Struts 2 to actually build a web application that uses the framework and even more important trouble-shoot a problem.

The introduction to using the convention plugin and annotations is only 4 pages long. If I did not already have prior experience with those techniques I would have been lost trying to understand the examples in the following chapters. The book does provide external references at the end of each chapter where the user can go to learn more. The online documentation on the Struts convention plugin and annotations was updated in August so readers of Apache Struts 2 will find referring to that web page ([...]) very helpful.

The problem with Apache Struts 2 not providing a more complete coverage of how to configure a Struts 2 application is compounded by the code examples. In one chapter the code examples use extensive annotations, other examples just use the convention plugin, and even other examples use an XML configuration.

Another criticism I have is that (as of early September 2009) the code examples are not easy to run after you download them from the book's web site. There were some issues in the Maven configuration and the application's start page that I had to fix before I could run the projects using Maven (even though each project uses Maven and Jetty).

Also the code examples in later chapters that are focused on the continued theme of each chapter (designing a recipe web application) don't work because of a problem with the recipe form and its model and Action classes. The publisher is aware of these problems and hopefully an improved code download will be available. But again as someone new to Struts 2, being able to have trouble-free code examples out-of-the-box is important since most Struts 2 newbies are not going to have the knowledge to fix any problems.

Additionally, in some of the code examples the author uses the bang operator (!) to dynamically call a method in a Struts 2 Action class. However, I couldn't find anywhere in the text where the author explains the dynamic method invocation (which uses the bang operator). Also using the dynamic method invocation isn't a good practice for Struts 2 developers to follow ([...]). The author might have better explained and shown examples for the wildcard method selection technique.

The book could really use an appendix on using Maven to build and run the example applications. Each chapter's example is a Maven project that also uses the Jetty Servlet container. For someone who hasn't used Maven or Jetty, an appendix on how to use them to build and run the chapter examples would be important. The author states he "takes a non-committal approach to its source" [page 15]. I'm not sure what he means by that, but the easier you make for someone to get your code running (and using Maven and Jetty make that pretty easy if you're familiar with those tools) the more learning that person can accomplish.

For developers who already have experience with Struts 2, the book does provide several useful techniques. Examples of how to use the Struts 2 configuration plugin were very helpful and something I quickly applied to my own Struts 2 applications. The code examples provide insights into how to use Struts 2 annotations (though you'll need to refer to the Struts 2 online documentation to get more background).

The chapter on validation explains how to use OGNL to include dynamic information in your error messages which was something I hadn't seen before. The chapter on comprehensive testing provides an example of how to unit test a custom interceptor. I found the code hard to follow but with further study I may be able to use it to create my own unit tests.

Lastly, the code examples and book's discussion focus on the latest release of Struts (2.1.6) as of early September. That's very helpful as there are many changes from early Struts 2 releases and the post 2.1.X releases. The Struts 2 in Action book provides a good foundation, but it is getting more and more out-of-date. Additionally, if you know Maven and Jetty then running the code examples (provided the other issues I mention above are corrected) is easy.

Apache Struts 2 Web Application Development is a good book for developers already familiar with Struts 2. For Java developers brand-new to Struts 2, I recommend first reading the Struts 2 in Action book (and the latest documentation on the Struts 2 web site [...]) prior to reading Apache Struts 2.

3.0 out of 5 stars struts2 & process for web developers, October 12, 2009

By	Jeanne Boyarsky (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

"Apache Struts 2" is like two books in one. The first part is a 200 page book on Struts. The second part is a 150 page series of essays on related technologies and good practices in web application development.

If you've read my previous reviews of Packt books, you'll know I tend to like their shorter books better. This book kept the attributes of a short book that I like since it's like the book was only 200 pages. The longest code example was 1.5 pages and even that length was rare. There were the collection of typos I've seen in most Packt books though which unfortunately precludes a higher rating.

The first/main part covers Struts 2 clearly and succinctly. It is fast moving, includes gotchas/tips and provides opportunities for further exploration. I particularly liked the discussion of tradeoffs with techniques when it comes to maintenance. There are notes for Struts 1 developers.

The second part is a mix. It includes things like intro to JavaScript, why version control/testing/documentation matter and how to use Struts with AJAX. I'm not clear on what some of this has to do with Struts, but it is things everyone should know. The beginning of the book is written for experienced people (along with side notes on cool techniques) and later part as if for people without training. Or maybe for people who haven't been exposed to practices?

Overall, I did learn Struts 2 from the book and was entertained throughout.

And to make the FTC happy: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of JavaRanch.