Rick Reumann wrote:
Tom Holmes Jr. wrote the following on 9/11/2004 7:02 PM:
So, I guess the only question I have is:
Is there a problem with a web-site that contains a bunch of links to
various '.do' pages as opposed to '.jsp' pages? Are there any
security concerns? Do I really want to have direct links to '.do' pages?
Remember when you are setting up a global forward and going, as you say,
directly to a page from a .do link you are really still using a default
FowardAction provided by Struts. You DEFINTELY want to do this (as you
have) vs going directly to a jsp page. If you decided later you need to
do something before you forwarded to your jsp you could easily set you
same .do link as a mapping to go to one of your own custom actions. If
you had bypassed this step by providing just a basic link to the jsp you
would end up having to change your link. Bottom line is you always want
to go through a controller (an Action class) even if it's just the
simple ForwardAction.
If you had to call a page that needed to display data immediately, is
this how you would do it?
What do you mean by display data immediately? You still always want to
have your links use a struts mapping (.do or whatever you are using).
I mean back in the day when I used to do ASP pages, I could call an ASP
page, the ASP page would open up to the database, do a select statement,
and build a list of results. Then I would iterate through the
recordset and display the data within the HTML. Hence, everytime this
URL was called, the data was immediately collected and displayed from
the database. This is something I know we can do with the sql tags
within JSP pages, but it isn't a very good way to do things and breaks
the whole MVC architecture.
In my case, by calling the .do directly, as you said I am calling the
Forward Action which is using a ListBean in order to do the database
work and get my recordset back into a collection. Then when I go to my
View, the JSP page can display my data immediately.
And, there are going to be times when I want to call a .jsp file first,
when I have to collect data, I just want to go that .jsp page first with
the form and enter my data, then I can submit to the .do file for
validation. If I were to call the action first, since there is no data
in any of the fields, then I would get all these errors on the first
round. Shouldn't that be the case?
Oh, and I was think the ApplicationResources to put in the links to
my navigation menu ... now that I see global forwards. Could I use
this to define my list of main pages for various parts of my web-site?
I usually don't put the actual links(ie. /employeeAction.do) in the
ApplicationResources file, but I will put their names in there sometimes
(ie link.update.employee=Update Employee). For your navigation you
*should* only have to maintain one page for these links so maintenance
is easy so I don't see much reason to put the links in the App resources
file. (If you are having to copy your navigation links on to different
pages consider using Sitemesh or Tiles. Your navigation should just be
one page).
I agree, I did not put the action link in the ApplicationResources file,
but as you suggested just had the name of the link. I am taking
advantage of the global-forwards for the navigation side-bar, and that
lets me keep those links maintained in the struts-config.xml file.
I do have a navigation menu in each one of my folders which is a
different part of my web-application/site. Because of the way I display
my images and because of the changing paths, I did it that way. Tiles
is a whole another API, and I do want to learn it, but I have to learn
to walk before I can run. So, for right now, I'll keep all my
navigation pages, though I agree, it is difficult to maintain.
Once I get my hands around, a few more forms to Create, Retrieve,
Update, and Delete data, then I'm going to tackle creating my own
taglibs, then dig into Tiles, and then maybe Java Server Faces, then
EJB's, then maybe PHP, then maybe VB.NET/ASP.NET and C#. The .NET and
C# sharp technologies are always at the bottom of my list.
Anyway, thanks for all the help and suggestions. It seems the best way
to go. My web-site has already undergone 4-5 revisions as I learn more
and become more saavy with Struts.
Thanks again.
Tom
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