Programming Jakarta Struts (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you've adopted Java as your organizational language, you're probably using, or planning to use, some sort of multitier design to maximize maintainability while making your data store accessible to as many applications as possible. The Jakarta engine ranks as the interface server of choice in that environment, and the Jakarta Struts Framework 1.1 makes it far easier to implement multitier information systems. Programming Jakarta Struts is the best how-to documentation around--in print or on the Internet--on the subject of using Struts to their greatest potential. Chuck Cavaness's book is comprehensive, detailed, critical of its subject where appropriate, and generally invaluable to anyone implementing the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern in Java with the assistance of Struts.

Thankfully, Cavaness opens with an overview of the MVC pattern with a focus on how you're meant to implement it under Struts. For anyone thinking that implementing MVC sounds like more trouble than it's worth, this clarifies why such design usually pays off in the long run. After that, it's into the particulars, which include code listings (lots of them, delightfully commented) and crystal-clear block diagrams that show the flow of messages among objects. There are also many database schema charts that show how the authors structure data in the storefront and shopping cart application that spans the whole of this volume. --David Wall

Topics covered: The Jakarta Struts Framework 1.1 and how to use it to implement the Model-View-Controller (MVC) software design pattern. All the important features of Struts 1.1 get attention, including exception handling, the validation framework, internationalization, logging, and templating with the Tiles framework.

Product Description

The Struts Framework, originally created by Craig R. McClanahan and donated to the Apache Software Foundation's Jakarta project in 2000, has become one of the most popular presentation frameworks for building web applications with Java Servlet and JavaServerPages (JSP) technology. It encourages application architecture based on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design paradigm, colloquially known as the Model 2 approach. As popular as Struts is becoming, the online documentation is inadequate, focusing on the most basic functionaity and leaving out information crucial to developers writing today's complex web applications. O'Reilly's Programming Jakarta Struts was written by Chuck Cavaness after his internet company decided to adopt the framework, then spent months really figuring out how to use it to its fullest potential. He calls the books, "the culmination of lessons learned (the hard way) during the building of our application." Readers will benefit from the real-world, "this is how to do it" approach Cavaness takes to developing complex enterprise applications using Struts, and his focus on the 1.1 version of the Framework makes this the most up-to-date book available.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 462 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (October 31, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596003285
• ISBN-13: 978-0596003289
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (77 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #755,983 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Advanced Guide to Struts, January 11, 2003

By	Lee Miller - See all my reviews

This book is a must have! I've been programming with Struts for about 6 months and I didn't want a beginners guide. This book hits the perfect level with me and covers the stuff that I wanted to know about. It's definitely not a beginners guide, although I think even beginning Struts developers should read it to save themselves time later.

Here's why I'm giving it five stars:

Chapter 1 - Covers MVC and Model 2 Background and Trivia
Chapter 2 - Covers Request/Response and Forward/Redirect Info
Chapter 3 - Good overview of the framework with the Bank example (All banking code is provided, including Ant scripts)

Chapter 4 - A complete chapter on configuring the web.xml and struts-config.xml (Some parameter are missing because of changes after book release)

Chapter 5 - A great chapter on explaining the controller of Struts

Chapter 6 - The reason to buy this book! Everything you ever wanted to know about how to build the model for Struts

Chapter 7 - Dynamic Forms Coverage (Good Coverage)
Chapter 8 - Tags (This chapter could have been better!)

Chapter 9 - The explanation of why and how to extend Struts if neccessary for any real Struts applications.

Chapter 10 - Great coverage of the declarative and programmatic exception handling

Chapter 11 - Coverage of the validator framework. Also covers how to create your own rules and to use it outside of Struts

Chapter 12 - Good I18N Coverage
Chapter 13 - Excellent chapter on EJBs and Struts (A must read!!!)

Chapter 14 - Tiles, but I've not read this chapter close enough to comment.

Chapter 15 - The best information available on Logging in a web application (A must read by all!)

Chapter 16 - Solid coverage of using Ant to package Struts. (Ant scripts are included)

Chapter 17 - Decent chapter on Performance

Overall, each chapter covers exactly what more advanced Struts users want and need.

You can't go wrong buying this book!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Agreed... not as good for beginners, April 24, 2004

By	cassian78 "cassian78" (Orlando, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This book does an excellent job of laying out the Struts framework at a high level and then explaining each individual component of the framework in detail. It provides clear examples of good design patterns separating the business model from the view/controller of the application, and decent documentation of the use of each parameter in the configuration files.

What it does not do is provide easy, step by step, "this is what we just did and this is the result"-style tutorials on building your first Struts application.

I read most of the book without attempting to sit down and write any code. When I finished reading, I had a clear understanding of how the framework operated and a good idea about how I wanted to build my first Struts application. However, when I sat down to actually code the application using the book as a reference, I was completely lost.

I must say that I am disappointed because the book does seem to market itself to all levels of Struts developers, but I think it's really only useful to somebody who has already gone through a few tutorials. I learned more about building my first Struts application by following tutorials in the MyEclipse IDE, and reading the code and configuration files from existing Struts applications.

I give this book 1 star for beginners and 5 for experienced developers - so let's call it a 3.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment, January 7, 2003

By	"bitbucket44" - See all my reviews

I've relied on O'Reilly books to provide the gist for any number of topics but this one disappoints on a number of levels. Too much filler material (if you don't know about EJBs and WARs then you shouldn't be reading this book) and an imbalance of detail. I need to know how to enable debugging in struts-config.xml or how to specify the message properties files in web.xml, not individual attributes to custom tags; I can find those in the javadocs.
Granted it's a relatively new technology but this treatise didn't provide much more than what I could find on-line. There wasn't even decent coverage of the specifics of minLength and other validator features. Trash the fluff and stick to the details which implementors require and you might have a decent book.
Now I'll just have to buy the Husted tome. It's not like I'm made of money, you know? I just can't recommend this book to someone trying to develop a production application in "web time".