> -----Original Message----- > From: Don Brown [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: 29 November 2005 16:27 > To: Struts Developers List > Subject: Re: Tough Questions on Struts and Webwork Integration > > > These are some great questions, and particularly relevant to > me as I'm > working on the 2ed edition of Struts in Action. You can be sure our > book will cover, at least in part, Struts Ti. Here is my 2c: >
Ok great so is Ted Husted also involved in the 2nd edition and I presume Manning is fine with both Struts in Action and Webwork in Action in the future ``merging'' as one. > Pilgrim, Peter wrote: > > Hi > > > > 1) Is the WebWork name going to exist still? > > No, at least not in Apache Struts. The WebWork project will probably > stick around supporting 1.x and possibly to host migration code. > I have just read Niall's question and answer. So WebWork will probably usurp the Struts Core layer at some point, correct? > > 2) Is the Struts name going to be annexed with WebWork? > > Nope. While initially, this WebWork import will be called > Struts Ti, it > is my hope it will quickly be accepted as Struts Action 2.0. > > > 3) A users has invested his or her hard-earned cash in > `WebWork' in Action book. > > Will contents of this tome still be relevant in Struts? > > Absolutely, since Struts Ti == WebWork 2.2, with some package > name changes. > Ok it makes a little clearer. So developers have a choice? 1) Learn the WebWork 2.x philosophy 2) Don't learn WW2 way but use the Struts compatibility layer instead until it runs out of steam or is it deprecated. > > 4) In fact there are a number of such books on the markets > e.g Struts Receipes > > and Struts Cookbook. Are these book becoming irrevelant or > still revelant? > > Have the book publishers lost a dosh of cash, then ? > > These books will continue to be important due to: > 1. All the existing Struts Action 1.x applications out there > 2. The Struts Action 1.x will continue to be supported and developed > > Just because there might be a Struts Action 2.0, doesn't mean > development or support will stop on 1.x. WebWork itself is a good > example of this as their 1.x community is still quite alive. > > > 5) What architectural components are going to be replaced > in Struts ? > > ( And conversely in Webwork?) > > This is a tough question because we haven't started on the Struts > compatibility layer so I can't tell you what we can support > from Struts. > WebWork will be imported as is, so I don't see anything > replaced there > initially, however, we might decide to remove some deprecations. > That begs the question, what is the best way for Struts developer to learn WebWork 2. > I can tell you it is my personal goal for the Struts > compatibility layer > to support to some extent Struts Actions, ActionForms, Validator, and > Tiles at least. > > > 6) What happens to the custom tag libraries like HTML or HTML-EL? > > These, of course, will still be supported by Struts 1.x. We > might find > it possible to simulate them with the Struts compatibility layer, I > don't know yet. Still, I think you'll really like the WebWork tags > since they support multiple template technologies (JSP, Velocity, > FreeMarker, etc) and have "themes" which include an Ajax > theme that uses > Dojo. Cool! I have been listening to alot of interesting stuff about Dojo from Ajaxian.com > > > 7) Will Struts users suddenly now have to learn OGNL thing? > > Struts 1.x users, of course, won't, and while initially > Struts Ti users > will, one of our goals in Struts Ti has been to make that > pluggable so > you could stick JSP EL there or even XPath. > > > 8) How will the Webwork Integration affect popular Struts > extensions such as the Validator or Tiles? > > Again, it is my goal the compatibility layer or even Struts Ti itself > will support them. To be honest, I'm not to keen on making Validator > support core, because I personally think there are better ways to do > validation, but Tiles will be important to support. There is > a version > of Tiles that is being worked on which doesn't require Struts > at all, so > it is possible it could be easily used with Struts Ti. > > > 9) A Girl named Geraldine (or A Guy named Gerald if you are > so inclined) has invested in > > heavily Spring supported Struts Actions, and has read your > recent announcement and > > she proclaims "What Do I Do Now?!" > > Keep on keeping on. I too have a Struts Action 1.x application that > uses Spring-supported Actions and plan to be supporting it > for a while. > Struts Ti, if she was interested in it for new apps, will contain > heavy Spring integration which might be a better choice. > > > ( Spring support AOP already, so does it fit with the > WebWork interceptors? ) > > Two different things, really, so yes, they compliment each other well. > > > 10) "What does WebWork really bring to the Struts party? " > > "What is the different between that and this new Struts Ti > that I have been hearing about?" > > WebWork, from a developer and user point of view, is a great > framework > that is well designed, and basically most things I wish Struts was. > Struts Ti started as a annotation-driven Ruby on Rails-type framework > which was built on WebWork, however, we are moving some of those > advanced features back to "phase 2" and making phase 1 the WebWork > import with Struts compatibility tools. > So Struts Ti definitely requires Java 5, because of annotations. Will Struts 2.x only support Java 5 and beyond? If it does then you could not use as for legacy Struts 1.x that are worth upgrading. > > 11) What will be the typically code that the application > developer writes for Struts 2.x? > > Will it be Struts Action, Chains of Commands, or Interceptor? > > WebWork too has Actions, however, they view Actions as Struts > Actions + > ActionForms, which I might add, Craig himself sees as a > better way to go > as reflected in JSF. Furthermore, Actions are request-scoped, so no > more worrying about thread safety. We hope to add commons-chain > integration at least at the global level, however, I'm sure Ted will > spur integration at the Action level as well :) > > > 12) When do you expect Struts 2.x to "go live"? > > When it's ready of course. :) The WebWork guys want to > finish WebWork > 2.2, then they will set on the course of migration. There are a few > incubator steps the Apache Software Foundation requires to be > completed > before we can import the code. From there, we will develop > the Struts > compatibility layer, and hopefully see a quick release. > After that, we > start rolling in some of the original Struts Ti features like zero > configuration (using annotations), quick development mode, > and possibly > some sort of workflow framework (Beehive, Spring Web Flow, Rife, etc). > > Don > Thanks for answering my questions > > > > > > References: > > > > http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=37794 > > > > http://blogs.opensymphony.com/webwork/ > > > > http://www.manning.com/books/lightbody > > ==////== -- Peter Pilgrim :: J2EE Software Development Operations/IT - Credit Suisse First Boston, Floor 15, 5 Canada Square, London E14 4QJ, United Kingdom Tel: +44-(0)207-883-4497 ============================================================================== Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications disclaimer: http://www.csfb.com/legal_terms/disclaimer_external_email.shtml ============================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
