Hi All,
>From my research into tiles it looks like the recommended way to use
tiles with a Struts app is to create an action as follows
<action path="/start" type="com.sample.action.SuccessAction">
<forward name="success" path="login.layout" />
</action>
This specifies the forward path to "login.layout" which will then be
looked up in the tiles-def.xml In this file the definition can extend
from a more generic definition and insert what properties it needs to
set e.g. title, body.
<definition name="nomenu.layout" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/noMenuLayout.jsp">
<put name="header" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/header.jsp" />
<put name="footer" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/footer.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="login.layout" extends="nomenu.layout">
<put name="title" value="Login" />
<put name="body" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/login.jsp" />
</definition>
This approach requires an additional tiles definition for each mapping
in struts-config.xml, even though the only difference between the
definitions will be the new body parameter As a result, in my experience
the tiles-def.xml file can become quite large.
I've come across an approach which would reduce the size of the
tiles-def.xml and which I would like to get feedback from the open
source community on. It is based around the possibility of creating a
generic tiles definition where the body parameter would be inserted
dynamically at run time and therefore remove the need to specify a new
definition for each mapping.
This involves creating an action mapping as follows
<action path="/start" type="com.sample.action.SuccessAction">
<forward name="success" path="nomenu.layout"
className="com.sample.action.TilesActionForward">
<set-property property="tilesParameter"
value="body=/WEB-INF/jsp/login.jsp" />
</forward>
</action>
The mapping specifies the path as the tiles definition to look up in the
tiles-def. However it also specifies an ActionForward class of
TilesActionForward. TilesActionForward extends
org.apache.struts.action.ForwardingActionForward and provides a setter
for the tilesParameter property. This forward is placed on the request
and is later used when the tiles definition is being implemented. In the
tiles-def.xml file, the following definition is defined
<definition
controllerClass="com.sample.struts.tiles.CustomTilesController"
name="nomenu.layout" path="/WEB-INF/jsp/noMenuLayout.jsp">
<put name="header" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/header.jsp" />
<put name="footer" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/footer.jsp" />
<put name="body" value="" />
</definition>
Where a custom controller CustomTilesController which extends
org.apache.struts.tiles.ControllerSupport. is used. This controller
retrieves the forward from the request and dynamically inserts the
tilesParameter into the definition. This leads to a extremely clean
tiles-def.xml with only a few definitions defined.
Overall this looks like a viable alternative. The action mappings and
associated forward specifies the layout and the jsp pages to use for the
tiles implementation. In the tiles-def.xml files, only a few mappings
need to be specified with the CustomTilesController doing most of the
work to dynamically inserted the required JSP page.
I would like to get your opinion on both approaches. Is option 1 the
recommended solution for implementing tiles in a struts based app? Is
option 2 a viable solution for implementing tiles in a struts based app?
Do the benefits of a cleaner tiles definition file override some extra
configuration in struts-config? Can you see any flaws with this
approach? Is there some way of implementing option two with the
components already in Struts 1.2 or 1.3?
Any feedback appreciated.
Thanks,
Michael
