On the output side, I think your saying allow for much the same thing, all in a plugable fashion... but I think I do already allow for that which the release of .02 by allowing for mapping to a JSP that knows the specifics of a given ActionForm and can therefore render a more complex response if need be. Are you suggesting a more elegant way to do basically that?
I'm not familiar with much of the technologies you names, XPath I think is the only one I know something about, so I'd have a lot of learning to do before I could implement your suggestions (which is not at all a bad thing!).
I am going to look at the struts-chain this weekend though since a number of people have made the same suggestion. It doesn't sound like a huge change on the surface, so it seems like a good next task to tackle to me. One question: that facility is not avalable in 1.1, correct? Is it slated for 1.2 (I thought I saw someone else say 1.3?). I'm a little bid weary of changing this to something that will reduce how many people could possibly use it, but if it's not a major change like I suspect then supporting both probably isn't a problem either.
Thanks!
Frank
From: Don Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: "Struts Developers List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Struts Developers List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Struts Web Services Enablement Project Date: Fri, 04 Jun 2004 12:14:16 -0400
I think there can be considerable benefit from exposing Struts Actions. For one, how Struts is currently architected, all the validation happens in the Struts layer so putting the web service interface in front of that makes sense. Two, many times user authorization occurs in the Actions and so if this code hooked into the Servlets API, authorization is automatically taken care of.
I'd recommend two feature additions to make this useable for document style SOAP messaging:
1) Put a configurable XML transformation pipeline before the SOAP message gets interpreted for parameters, and after the response is created. The pipeline for the response should start with auto-generated request XML (via something like XStream).
2) Improve the request parameter schema for the incoming XML document to include XPath paths as parameter names. This way, using something like JXPath, a complex XML element could be automatically created, to be then transformed by the pipeline. Send the resulting XML to the action via a wrapper action form or even just put it in the request. Better yet, have the resulting XML be processed by an XML binding framework like XStream to create arbitrary Java objects to be passed to the action.
The key is to enable any XML schema to be used as input and output. The XML pipeline further isolates you from schema changes.
Finally, I'd also recommend looking at using struts-chain rather than a RequestProcessor. If the above functionality was decomposed into different Commands, one could easily plug in, say, a different XML binding framework or get rid of the XPath processor altogether.
Don
Duncan Mills wrote:
Didn't mean to be harsh - I was just presenting the alternative viewpoint that has to be answered. Personally I can see the benefit that this project could offer, but the counter stance is a one to raise is it not?
Regards
Duncan Mills Senior Principal Product Manager Oracle Application Development Tools
Jung, Eric wrote:
Wow, that's kind of harsh, Duncan.
-----Original Message----- From: Duncan Mills [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, June 04, 2004 3:38 AM To: Struts Developers List Subject: Re: Struts Web Services Enablement Project
Frank forgive me here, but playing Devils Advocate, if you have clean MVC separation then surely the last thing you want to do is to expose Actions as Web Services.
It is reasonable to want to expose Business Service Providers such as EJB, or TopLink beans as Web Services but that's up in the model layer, what's the point in pushing the access point down into the Controller code?
Or do you see here a solution for all those folks who've not followed best practice and have intermingled Controller functionality with Business logic..?
Regards
Duncan Mills Senior Principal Product Manager Oracle Application Development Tools
Frank Zammetti wrote:
Hello devs! This is my first time posting here, and my first attempt at contributing to an Apache project. I hope I'm going about it properly! :)
In short, I have a little project going with the stated goal of allowing a Struts developer to expose any existing business logic, as implemented in Struts Actions and their subordinate helper classes, as Web Services, and do this with NO changes required to any existing application code, and as little change to Struts itself as possible. Simplicity is the key to this!
Today I released a second version of this project to the user's mailing list, and after some feedback I think it's at a point where I'd like to make you all aware of it, and get some higher-level feedback. It's certainly far from complete at this point, but I think even now it's in a useful form.
My hope is that eventually it will be good enough to be included in the base Struts distro, but that's obviously a long way off, if ever.
With all that in mind, please at your convenience visit http://www.omnytex.com/strutsws
There you will find some more detailed technical information and a download which contains everything you need, including a simple sample webapp demonstrating the whole mess.
I thank you in advance for any time you spend on this!
Frank W. Zammetti
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