RE: STRUTS and EJB
Title: RE: STRUTS and EJB Why not make a Value object for passing the information around, and have the form hold an instance of the value object? Derek. -Original Message- From: Juha Paananen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 1:47 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: STRUTS and EJB I also agree on that stuff that has references to STRUTS should not be transmitted to the EJB level. The problem here is simply that I would not want to make another, exactly similar (except extends ActionForm), class for transporting the information to the EJB. Of course, I can do that, but I don't like the idea. My question is, is this inheritance of ActionForm really necessary in Struts design? -Original Message- From: Ted Husted [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 23. elokuuta 2001 20:29 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: STRUTS and EJB I agree with Gregor. The ActionForm beans are best left as ActionForm beans, and used only as an extension of the html:form tags. Once the data is validated, it should be transferred to persistent stoarge, or to another bean that is not bound to the HTTP layer (and could be re-used in other environments). This bean can then use the right data-type for the job, and perform other business tasks that have nothing to do with gathering input from HTTP. On the way back, a good way to repopulate an ActionForm bean, or other string-based helper, is to have your data access objects return a Map, and then use it with the standard BeanUtils.populate() method. Struts does the same thing with the HTTP request, which is basically a Map. -- Ted Husted, Husted dot Com, Fairport NY USA. -- Custom Software ~ Technical Services. -- Tel +1 716 737-3463 -- http://www.husted.com/about/struts/ Gregor Rayman wrote: Juha Paananen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I want to fill in a form JavaBean using a struts form, and after validating it in my Action class, store it into the db using a session EJB component. The proble here is that I have to extend ActionForm class to make the bean work with Struts. You can use containment instead of inheritance. You should avoid using Struts ActionForm on the business logic level. -- gR
RE: STRUTS and EJB
Title: RE: STRUTS and EJB html:text property=valueObjectA.someNumber size=5 maxlength=5 / Where the form has a Value object ValueObjectA, along with a public ValueObjectA getValueObjectA() method. The value object has a String someNumber in it, with a public String getSomeNumber() method. Doesn't one of the sample applications or Ted's examples show this a lot better? Derek. -Original Message- From: Narayan, Anand [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 1:47 PM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: RE: STRUTS and EJB If a value object is used within the ActionForm for holding the form data, how should the html elements be named so that the data elements in the value object is automatically populated. Or should the data elements also reside in the ActionForm as separate fields, for which the setters and getters would go and get the information from the value object ? Anand Narayan -Original Message- From: Derek Longmuir [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 1:46 PM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: RE: STRUTS and EJB Why not make a Value object for passing the information around, and have the form hold an instance of the value object? Derek. -Original Message- From: Juha Paananen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 1:47 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: STRUTS and EJB I also agree on that stuff that has references to STRUTS should not be transmitted to the EJB level. The problem here is simply that I would not want to make another, exactly similar (except extends ActionForm), class for transporting the information to the EJB. Of course, I can do that, but I don't like the idea. My question is, is this inheritance of ActionForm really necessary in Struts design? -Original Message- From: Ted Husted [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 23. elokuuta 2001 20:29 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: STRUTS and EJB I agree with Gregor. The ActionForm beans are best left as ActionForm beans, and used only as an extension of the html:form tags. Once the data is validated, it should be transferred to persistent stoarge, or to another bean that is not bound to the HTTP layer (and could be re-used in other environments). This bean can then use the right data-type for the job, and perform other business tasks that have nothing to do with gathering input from HTTP. On the way back, a good way to repopulate an ActionForm bean, or other string-based helper, is to have your data access objects return a Map, and then use it with the standard BeanUtils.populate() method. Struts does the same thing with the HTTP request, which is basically a Map. -- Ted Husted, Husted dot Com, Fairport NY USA. -- Custom Software ~ Technical Services. -- Tel +1 716 737-3463 -- http://www.husted.com/about/struts/ Gregor Rayman wrote: Juha Paananen [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I want to fill in a form JavaBean using a struts form, and after validating it in my Action class, store it into the db using a session EJB component. The proble here is that I have to extend ActionForm class to make the bean work with Struts. You can use containment instead of inheritance. You should avoid using Struts ActionForm on the business logic level. -- gR
Re: Struts UML ....
Title: Re: Struts UML I know you are looking for UML, but if you are looking for something to show the (partial) flow of your webapplication, you can take a look at what I've done at: http://members.home.com/dlongmuir/struts.html The main problem with it is that it doesn't parse the jsps to look for links, so basically every JSP is a leaf node. Anyways, it is a work in progress (slowly), and other people have said that it helped them out. If you decide to try it, there is one gotcha - the latest version of Xalan doesn't like my xsl. If you try it with an older version of Xalan, then everything is fine (I really did generate the pictures on the page! :-) ). Derek.
RE: Struts Action Graphs
Title: Struts Action Graphs I'm glad that it helped you out. I will look into adding colours for you. I think you meant the struts-config.xsl for the colour definitions, right? I'm not planning on changing any of the struts files. Derek. -Original Message-From: Nanduri, Amarnath [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 9:58 AMTo: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'Subject: RE: Struts Action Graphs Derek, That is super cool. I showeda graphto my lead designer (of the struts_config.xml we are using in our project) and he was jumping up and down with joy. Kudos to your XSL . One question i have is... can it be colorcoded ? I would like the jpeg image to have some fancy colors in it.. maybe just for the image, the struts-config.xml file can have additional properties like color codes for different kinds of objects. cheers, Amar.. -Original Message-From: Bryan Field-Elliot [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2001 9:31 AMTo: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Subject: Re: Struts Action GraphsDerek,That is really cool!Thanks,BryanDerek Longmuir wrote: [EMAIL PROTECTED]"> Hi everyone, I have created some XSL that takes the (old) action.xml and (new) struts-config.xml files and produces a graph showing the various forwards, forms, actions, etc. You can then use dot to convert the graph into an image. I threw together a website where you can check this out at: http://members.home.net/dlongmuir/struts.html It isn't quite as enlightening as I thought it would be, but certainly produces interesting pictures. :-) This is primarily due to the fact that the struts-config.xml doesn't hold all the information. I think to produce a better overview you would have to also parse the corresponding JSPs for their tags, and maybe even the action classes themselves. Let me know if you have comments, bugs, whatever. Thanks, Derek.
Struts Action Graphs
Title: Struts Action Graphs Hi everyone, I have created some XSL that takes the (old) action.xml and (new) struts-config.xml files and produces a graph showing the various forwards, forms, actions, etc. You can then use dot to convert the graph into an image. I threw together a website where you can check this out at: http://members.home.net/dlongmuir/struts.html It isn't quite as enlightening as I thought it would be, but certainly produces interesting pictures. :-) This is primarily due to the fact that the struts-config.xml doesn't hold all the information. I think to produce a better overview you would have to also parse the corresponding JSPs for their tags, and maybe even the action classes themselves. Let me know if you have comments, bugs, whatever. Thanks, Derek.
RE: How can a Struts Action developer best document the system fo r a JSP developer?
Title: RE: How can a Struts Action developer best document the system fo r a JSP developer? Hi Bryan and John, I have created something like this with XSL that converts the (old) action.xml and (new) struts-config.xml files and produces a graph showing the various forwards, forms, actions, etc. I then use dot to convert the graph into a gif. It isn't quite as enlightening as I thought it would be, but certainly produces interesting pictures. :-) This is primarily due to the fact that the struts-config.xml doesn't hold all the information - I think to produce a better overview you would have to also parse the corresponding JSPs for their tags, and maybe even the action classes themselves. I was planning on refining it a little more before releasing it to the list, but I'll work on getting it up on a web page in the next couple of days for you. John, maybe you can take it and add what you think is missing. :-) Thanks, Derek. -Original Message- From: Brugge, John [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, March 19, 2001 9:56 AM To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' Subject: RE: How can a Struts Action developer best document the system fo r a JSP developer? Bryan, You might check out a recent article on JavaWorld called Doclet your Servlet (http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-03-2001/jw-0302-doclets.html) that describes a custom doclet that understands some custom doc tags. It would probably take some customization to work with Struts Actions, since it looks like it uses introspection to look for instances of true servlets. I've been thinking of the same problem, and think that you could get pretty good mileage out of a simple XSL template that transformed the struts-config.xml into a clearer HTML description of the actions, their navigation and form expectations. It could handle #2 and #3 below easily; #4 and #5 would be harder. You could even tie this into the JavaDoc of the ActionForms by creating links from the form names to the area where your JavaDoc lives. I'm not an XSL expert, but I've done some transforms before and figure this wouldn't take very long to create - the key for me is just finding the time now ;-). If I come up with something, I'll forward it to the group, unless someone beats me to it. John -Original Message- From: Bryan Field-Elliot [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2001 6:12 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: How can a Struts Action developer best document the system for a JSP developer? I am struggling right now with how to properly and efficently document my Struts application for my JSP developer (who is by no means a Java expert). Specifically, I want to document each Action as well as each ActionForm that I code, including things like: 1. the pages I expect the user to have come from 2. the pages to which I might forward, or redirect, the user after completing the action 3. The beans I expect to be in place prior to submitting to my action 4. The beans I will set up with values for the resulting JSP page to work with 5. The errors (html:errors) I may set up And anything else that might be appropriate. I'd like to do so in a way that lets me rely on Javadoc, so that I can keep my documentation inside my code. Javadoc when used correctly will also let me do things like see also the Bean documentation (from the Action documentation). I am curious if anyone has developed a template action or bean, which makes best use of Javadoc and which I can cut-and-paste at the head of every one of my Action classes, etc? Thanks, Bryan
