Downloading a file in Struts is, as Martin says, "almost trivial". In
fact, downloading a file in Java is pretty danged easy. So is number
theory: five postulates. What's to worry? LOL
http://www.mathacademy.com/pr/minitext/number/index.asp .
* Pl. 0 is a number.
* P2. The successor of any number is a number.
* P3. No two numbers have the same successor.
* P4. 0 is not the successor of any number.
* P5. If P is a property such that: a) 0 has the property P and b)
whenever n has the property P, then the successor of n also has the
property P, so every number has the property P. In other words, if P
is a set of numbers where 0 is an element of P, and where the
successor of n is in P whenever n is in P, then P is the set of all
nonnegative integers.
Along comes Godel and omega consistency and we have all these
problems. Does anyone know if the sentential equivalent of a sound
rule of inference must be true? Turns out it does not. Strange!
Same with music. A few notes and everyone gets carried away. The
Chinese cannot even get the notes right. Or, can that be Occidental?
I am an advocate of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" in
this respect.
Seriously, doing easy things well is always the trick in my humble
opinion. I think the main difficulty is not in the download delivery
itself but in the app itself. This is only so, of couse, because our
friends at Sun have made it that way under the covers. Trying to do
the same for the downloading itself in a web context is what I will be
checking out the next few weeks, so I hope to report back.
One of the most challenging things, in my opinion, is the way apps
attach themselves to the framework. Doing so in a way to be helpful
rather than an eventual burden is the art, perhaps.
There are many good reasons to provide custom action mappings for
downloading, in my opinion. One person may not need them, but another
will. They are fairly standard in the business for a reason.
I appreciate your point of view, Martin, and in your context, that is
good thinking, I am sure. But I do know that in my context, I need a
full-blown download app that has features that are definitely not
minor considerations. The availability of Frank's application is
saving me time and money.
Anyway, I do think that the real solution is provide a space for all
the ways of looking at things, in addition to Ted's suggestion. There
are only so many of these apps. I find it very sad that there are not
at least 10 choices for the newbie in a Struts shopping cart
application. 5 uploaders. 13 mailing apps. And so on. LIke a good
Harley Davidson Motorcylce store, hat (helmets), goggles, t-shirts,
stickers, etc. should be provided as a matter of course. How to do it
without making everyone wear the same gear is the trouble.
Enough of my pontificating, with no reflection on the Pope, of course.
I hope some of these thoughts are of assistance. I did put the thing
on the wiki. I don't think that is a long term solution, however. I
think some app department store or mall or market is needed for
Struts. How to do it, organize and provide it, is a good question. I
don't have the answer.
Jack
On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 11:05:32 -0800, Martin Cooper <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Sat, 27 Nov 2004 13:33:38 -0500, Ted Husted <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 20:42:07 -0800, Martin Cooper wrote:
> Perhaps it's a reason to add *some* download example to the Examples
> app, but IMHO not this particular one.
>
> Downloading a file in Struts is almost trivial - feed the data to the
> response output stream and return null from your action. I don't want
> to rain on Frank's parade, but I just don't think that we should
> complicate such an example by using custom action mappings, or
> extracting the content from a database.
>
> If we do want a download example in Examples, then I would suggest
> something like downloading an XML file (maybe even struts-config.xml)
> from within the app itself. Let's keep it simple, and keep it portable
> by not referencing the file system.
>
> Martin Cooper
>
--
"You can't wake a person who is pretending to be asleep."
~Native Proverb~
"Each man is good in His sight. It is not necessary for eagles to be crows."
~Hunkesni (Sitting Bull), Hunkpapa Sioux~
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