Thanks Derek, I'd appreciate seeing your work. You're right, that struts-config.xml doesn't have enough to be completely useful, but I figure its a start.
John
-----Original Message-----
From: Derek Longmuir [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2001 2:43 PM
To: '[EMAIL PROTECTED]'
Subject: 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
