On Wed, 13 Jun 2001, Rick Horowitz wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm trying to use href links with Struts templates, and can't figure out
> how to make my href links work properly. [Templates seem to work just
> fine, otherwise.]... my compliments.
>
> 1. I want to use Struts <html:link> tags so that to automatically do URL
> session encoding.
>
Struts does this automatically for you.
> 2. I want to use absolute URLs to make coding of urls more robust. For
> example, if I have a directory structure of JSPs:
> jsp
> jsp/prodinfo
> jsp/faq
> ...I want to be able to code the url something like...
> jsp/faq/faq1.jsp or jsp/prodinfo/info1.jsp, in case I change the directory
> structure, rather than using relative links, e.g. ../faq/faq1.jsp.
>
I have found it best to use context-relative URLs starting with a
"/" character throughout my applications, rather than trying to use
relative links -- for the reasons that you are probably familiar with. To
do that for links, use the "page" attribute to specify the destination --
Struts will prepend the context path of the current application for you,
so that the browser always goes the right place. For example, you might
code:
<html:link page="/jsp/faq/faq1.jsp">To the FAQ</html:link>
> 3. For the portion of the website that I'm currently working on, I am
> creating href links from one JSP to other JSPs. [For other portions of the
> website, I will be using an MVC architecture, hence forwarding from a
> servlet to a JSP and vice versa.]
>
It works either way, but remember that links directly from one page to
another bypasses the controller -- and therefore bypasses the stuff that
the controller servlet does for you.
> 4. I have tried various approaches to using the <html:base/> tag in the
> HTML <HEAD> section of my Struts template file, not using a base tag, and
> have tried using the following to set the html base:
> <BASE HREF="<%= "http://";
> +request.getServerName() +":"
> +request.getServerPort()
> +request.getContextPath() %>/" >
> Although the latter works with regular <a href > tags, it does not
> seem to work with <html:link> Struts tags.
>
See the <html:base/> tag for a way to do this automatically.
However, whether you create it yourself or not, the <base> element affects
only relative hyperlinks. If you follow my suggestion above (always use
context-relative links), you won't need it.
> I have tried a variety of combinations of these base tags with a variety of
> combinations of url encodings, but cannot seem to get them to work --
> except with regular <a href> tags using the
> <BASE HREF="<%= "http://";
> +request.getServerName() +":"
> +request.getServerPort()
> +request.getContextPath() %>/" >
> base tag setting.
>
> Thank you in advance to anyone who can help,
>
> --------------------
> Rick Horowitz
>
>
Craig
