re: Template Engine of Choice

[chris . stephens]

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Hi Graham,

I've just started using SiteMesh(from opensymphony.org) and I find it
really refreshing and straightforward. I was using Tiles but it
ultimately seemed over complex.

SiteMesh uses Servlet 2.3 filters so it sits "outside" Struts - this
makes it much easier work with for me or it would help you apply a new
layout and look and feel to an otherwise finished site.

A few pros of SiteMesh:

 - all the "pagelets" that comprise a full page can be generated as
well-formed HTML documents. This makes it easier for them to be designed
and built than other systems (e.g. Tiles) where a "pagelet" might be
just a table (thinking real world/real people here: designers using
Dreamweaver don't need to get their heads around editing pages at the
code level).

 - the concept is really simple to grasp

 - being Filter-based means you can take your Struts hat off when you
want to put together the presentation layer.

 - it applies the layout/look and feel *after* the "pagelets" have been
generated. This allows the presentation to be more easily reactive to
the generated output.

Cons of SiteMesh:

 - I haven't found any yet. Anyone else got some?

Chris
 


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server side caching in struts

[chris . stephens]

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Not strictly Struts but will work with it (it uses Servlet 2.3 filters)
- have a look at:

http://opensymphony.com/oscache/features.html

Wonderful, IMHO.

Chris


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Problem with Struts and 2.3 Filters

[chris . stephens]

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Thanks to all those who responded with help: I have learnt something new
- I did not realise the elements in web.xml had to be in the right order.

I guess I'd better do XML 101 again... :(

Chris
PS my app is leaping ahead now I have got over that stumbling block -
I'm enjoying Struts again and *really* enjoying filters... 


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Problem with Struts and 2.3 Filters

[chris . stephens]

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Hi folks,

I am currently endeavouring to add Servlet 2.3 filtering (SiteMesh 1.3,
in fact) to a Struts 1.0.2 application - but having no luck. I have
searched the mailing list archives and can find no reference to this
combination.

I have set up inside one webapp folder of Tomcat 4.0.3 a Struts
application which works correctly if it has the Struts application
web.xml file in WEB-INF.

Then I have copied into that same webapp directory a SiteMesh
application. This also works correctly if it has the SiteMesh
application web.xml file in WEB-INF (moving the Struts web.xml aside for
now).

However, if I add the SiteMesh elements ( and 
plus some taglibs) to the web.xml of the Struts application it fails.

In catalina.out I get:
---
Starting service Tomcat-Standalone
Apache Tomcat/4.0.3
PARSE error at line 111 column 11
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: The content of element type "web-app" 
must match "(icon?,display-
name?,description?,distributable?,context-param*,filter*,filter-
mapping*,listener*,servlet*,servlet-mapping*,session-
config?,mime-mapping*,welcome-file-list?,error-
page*,taglib*,resource-env-ref*,resource-ref*,security-
constraint*,login-config?,security-role*,env-entry*,ejb-
ref*,ejb-local-ref*)".
Starting service Tomcat-Apache
Apache Tomcat/4.0.3
---

and the aplication does not work (file not found errors in the browser).

Line 111, column 11 is the very end of the file. I have run Tidy over
web.xml to check for any XML errors and there are none according to that
tool. 

If I comment out the SiteMesh elements and restart Tomcat then the
Struts application starts working again.

If I comment out the Struts elements and restart Tomcat then the
SiteMesh application starts working again.

Can anyone enlighten me as to why the XML parser thinks there is a
problem? I have searched the web for published examples of web.xml that
include filter and servlet definitions and they appear no different in
spirit to what I have...

Any help is much appreciated!

Thanks,

Chris


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Struts and SiteMesh

[Chris Stephens]

format=flowed

Hi folks,

I am having trouble getting SiteMesh to work with Struts: the moment I 
add the filter and filter-mapping tags to web.xml I get 'The requested 
resource (/articles/do/Menu) is not available'.

I have set up a demo SiteMesh web application and a demo Struts web 
application in the same webapps directory (using Tomcat 4.0.3, Struts 
1.0 and SiteMesh 1.4.1). By swapping web.xml files I can get both to 
work quite happily but the moment I try to combine them so that SiteMesh 
post-processes the output of the Struts app it all fails.

Am I being dumb here or should these two technologies work together? 
 From my reading I thought the two were quite independent...

Any help much appreciated! Thanks,

Chris


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