Deploying Struts 2 Portlet Into Pluto 1.1.6 Portlet Container

[Phillips, Bruce A]

We have been using the Pluto 1.1.6 Portlet container
(http://portals.apache.org/pluto/) to test our JSR-168 portlets.  Our
team needs help learning the correct way to setup a Struts 2 portlet to
run within the Pluto 1.1.6 portlet container.  We've studied the Struts
2 example portlet tutorial
(http://struts.apache.org/2.0.11.1/docs/struts-2-portlet-tutorial.html )
in the Struts 2 documentation.  However, that portlet is deployed using
maven, jetty, and Pluto; which unfortunately is not our development
environment.

 

We recently have begun using Struts 2 to create the Portlets.  However,
we cannot get the Struts 2 portlets to run correctly in the Pluto
portlet container.  When Pluto tries to render the Struts 2 portlet we
get the following  error:

 

INFO: Registering 1 portlets for context /StrutsExample

Dec 5, 2008 8:36:36 AM org.apache.pluto.core.PortletContextManager
getPortletConfig

INFO: Unable to locate portlet config
[applicationId=/StrutsExample]/[null].

Dec 5, 2008 8:36:36 AM org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationContext log

SEVERE: StandardWrapper.Throwable

java.lang.NullPointerException

      at
org.apache.pluto.core.PortletServlet.init(PortletServlet.java:106)

Our non-Struts 2 portlets that we've built and deployed in the Pluto
container work fine.

 

We have developed a very simple Struts 2 portlet as a test.  Here is its
struts.xml file:

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>

<!DOCTYPE struts PUBLIC

    "-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 2.0//EN"

    "http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-2.0.dtd";>

<struts>

 

      <include file="struts-portlet-default.xml"/>

 

      <package name="view" extends="struts-portlet-default"

            namespace="/view">

            <action name="index" class="DefaultAction">

                  <result name="success">/jsp/index.jsp</result>

            </action>

      </package>

 

      

</struts>

 

Here is its portlet.xml file:

 

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8' ?>

<portlet-app
xmlns='http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/portlet/portlet-app_1_0.xsd' 

     xmlns:xsi='http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance' 

 
xsi:schemaLocation='http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/portlet/portlet-app_1_0.x
sd http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/portlet/portlet-app_1_0.xsd'
version='1.0'>

<portlet id="StrutsExamplePortlet">

        <description xml:lang="EN">Simple hello world portlet using
Struts 2</description>

        <portlet-name>StrutsExamplePortlet</portlet-name>

        <display-name xml:lang="EN">StrutsExample</display-name>

    

 
<portlet-class>org.apache.struts2.portlet.dispatcher.Jsr168Dispatcher</p
ortlet-class>

 

            <!-- The namespace for the actions configured for view mode
-->

            <init-param>

                  <name>viewNamespace</name>

                  <value>/view</value>

            </init-param>

            

         <!-- The default action to invoke in view mode. -->

        <init-param>

            <name>defaultViewAction</name>

            <value>index</value>

        </init-param>

 

        <expiration-cache>0</expiration-cache>

 

        <supports>

            <mime-type>text/html</mime-type>

                  <portlet-mode>VIEW</portlet-mode>

        </supports>

 

        <supported-locale>en</supported-locale>

 

        <portlet-info>

            <title>StrutsExample</title>

        </portlet-info>

    </portlet>

    

</portlet-app>

 

Here is the project's web.xml:

 

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application
2.3//EN"

"http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd";>

<web-app>

      <display-name>StrutsExample</display-name>

      <filter>

            <filter-name>struts</filter-name>

 
<filter-class>org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.FilterDispatcher</filter-cla
ss>

      </filter>

      

      <filter-mapping>

            <filter-name>struts</filter-name>

            <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>

      </filter-mapping>

      

      <servlet>

        <servlet-name>StrutsExample</servlet-name>

 
<servlet-class>org.apache.pluto.core.PortletServlet</servlet-class>

        <init-param>

            <param-name>portlet-class</param-name>

 
<param-value>org.apache.struts2.portlet.dispatcher.Jsr168Dispatcher</par
am-value>

        </init-param>

            <init-param>

                  <param-name>portlet-guid</param-name>

                  <param-value>

                        StrutsExample.StrutsExamplePortlet

                  </param-value>

            </init-param>

    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>

        <servlet-name>StrutsExample</servlet-name>

        <url-pattern>/PlutoInvoker/StrutsExample/*</url-pattern>

    </servlet-mapping>

   

    

</web-app>

 

Here is the relevant part of the pluto-portal-driver-config.xml file
that we added to have the Struts 2 portlet added to a page in the Pluto
container:

 

    <page name="Struts Portlet Example"
uri="/WEB-INF/themes/pluto-default-theme.jsp">

            <portlet context="/StrutsExample" name="StrutsExample"/>

    </page>

 

I think the problem is with the code we are adding to the
pluto-portal-driver-config.xml file.  Though the above syntax works for
standard Portlets, it's not working for a Struts 2 portlet.  

 

I'd welcome any feedback from developers who have built Portlets using
Struts 2 and then successfully deployed the portlet to the Pluto
container.

 

Bruce