I've assigned some documentation issues to myself. I'm starting this
weekend on a User Guide (blatantly copying the structure from Struts 1
where appropriate). The CRUD tutorial from WW has been on my todo list
for a long time, I'll take care of it.
Phil
On 2/9/07, Ted Husted <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 2/7/07, Brian Pontarelli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > 1. Arrived at the Struts homepage and Struts 2 almost looked dead. No
> > activity since October and no news or release information. Adding some
> > news every few weeks will help keep new comers from bailing.
>
> There is now a link to a browseable archive of User Mailing List to
> the top of the page, which is where a lot of the action happens :)
>
> Other than the same old, same old, there really hasn't been much news,
> except the XWork 2.0.0 release. I added a mention of that on a trial
> basis. But, I'm not sure if we want to announce other people's
> releases here or not.
>
> We've been creating test builds, but those were not ready for
> consumption by the general public, and citing them on the welcome page
> would be inappropriate. Happily, now that we have a stable XWork 2,
> the perpetual-beta state should change, and there will be more to
> announce!
>
>
> > 2. Tried to download the release using the release navigation. Here I
> > was presented with the fact that there was a 2.0.1 BETA, which is the
> > latest development release. I spent the next while looking for the
2.0.0
> > release, figuring that was the last stable release. Couldn't find it
> > obviously. The versioning currently looks to the outside to be a
> > complete mess and it is very confusing and non standard. I would not
> > release a patch version (major.minor.patch) until the major version is
> > released. Therefore all the references to 2.0.1 through 2.0.6 are very
> > confusing because these are not really final releases, but all BETAs.
> > Plus, there is talk about 2.0.1 BETA and 2.0.4 and 2.0.6 and this is
all
> > quite confusing. I would probably fix the version into a standard
alpha,
> > beta, release candidate model. So, currently it would be something
like
> > 2.0.0-RC6 or the like working towards a final release of 2.0.0.
>
> There's a new FAQ, with a link from the release page.
>
> * http://struts.apache.org/kickstart.html#releases
>
> Much of this is driven by the need to track changes to the codebase as
> it is being developed, live and direct. We also do not keep internal
> versions or secret roadmaps. What's on the web site is our one and
> only copy of everything.
>
> In practice, we don't do "final" releases, because in an active
> development environment, nothing is ever really final. A particular
> set of bits may be good enough for public consumption, but we reserve
> the right to make backwardly compatible changes to a release series,
> and to use the simplest possible versioning system: straight
> milestones that also represent tags in the code repository.
>
>
> >
> > 3. The documentation for Struts 2 contains references to zero
> > configuration and the web.xml configuration file also contains this
> > stuff. There are also a number of references to all the annotations.
> > These are not available in the 2.0.1BETA JAR files and therefore I had
a
> > hard time using them ;) I did find them in the nightly snapshots,
which
> > aren't functional. I would keep the documentation inline with the
latest
> > beta and not the latest nightly snapshot. Anyone who wants bleeding
edge
> > will be willing to look at the source to see new stuff or build the
> > latest snapshot docs themselves.
>
> Once Struts 2 has a GA release, it will be archived on the site, along
> with all the others (Struts 1.35, Struts 1.2.9, et cetera, going all
> the way back to Struts 1.0). Then, the Struts 2 links will point that
> archive rather than the draft site. But, right now, it's a chicken and
> egg scenario.
>
> We haven't been publishing archives of betas on the web site, because,
> well, they're betas, and the full documentation for the beta is
> included in the download. Though, since most beta to end up being GA
> releases, perhaps we should start archiving the docs for a version as
> soon as it goes beta.
>
> In the meantime, what is on the site is the draft documentation for
> the nightly build, which will become the next milestone. Last week,
> that was Struts 2.0.5-DEV, and now it's Struts 2.0.6-DEV.
>
> Again, this is our one and only website. This is the site that we use
> to create the next release, and so it has to contain whatever we want
> the upcoming release to include. I wish we had the resources to
> maintain a second development site, but, AFAIK, everyone here is a
> volunteer, working in our unpaid, spare time.
>
>
> > 4. The tutorials reference a hybrid of WebWork 2 configuration,
classes,
> > tags and files and Struts2 configuration and files. This would
> > definitely be confusing for a newcomer. I would probably keep the
> > tutorials using only struts2 configuration, classes, tags and files
> > since that is what the latest beta release uses. I would in turn
direct
> > folks to the WebWork wiki for running WebWork 2 if they don't want to
> > use the BETA release.
>
> We adopted the WebWork documentation, along with the codebase. Our
> intention has been to replace references to WebWork classes with the
> corresponding reference to Struts 2 classes.
>
> Do you mean hybrid of Struts 2 and XWork classes?
>
> If so, we really don't know what to do about that. We depend on XWork
> as a base platform, the same way many frameworks depend on Java's
> HTTP.
>
>
> > 5. There is really no getting started document for Struts2. It would
be
> > a bit of a stumbling block for a newcomer to have various JAR files in
> > the distribution without any clue on which to use or what the
> > 'struts2-all' jar contains. There should be a true Struts2 getting
> > started document that contains a complete step by step to getting an
> > application running. This could start with the CRUD made easy tutorial
> > for WW2 and make it more complete for Struts2.
>
> There's now a "Impatient?" link at the top of the Getting Started page
> pointing to the Bootstrap tutorial and MailReader Tour. The
> PlanetStruts site is down right now, but I'll take care of that after
> work tonight, before announcing the new beta to the user list.
>
> Yes, it would be great if someone ported the CRUD tutorial for WW2 and
> made it more complete for Struts 2. Any responsible person who files a
> CLA is welcome to work on the documentation.
>
> * http://www.apache.org/licenses/icla.txt
>
>
> > 6. From the guide perspective, it is very difficult to figure out how
to
> > write actions. This information is buried in the Struts Configuration
> > Elements guide and in the Action Configuration guide under that. In
fact
> > many of the top level and nested guides are a bit confusing and don't
> > necessarily follow the standard path developers will take when getting
> > started as well as when trying new things. The top level components
> > should be items will be working on when building an application such
as
> > AJAX, Actions, Validation, etc. rather than items like "Struts
> > Configuration Elements" Under these headings would be the
configuration,
> > the code, the interfaces, examples, etc. This will be how most folks
are
> > going to be using Struts2. They'll be creating an action, adding
> > validation, handling action results, adding interceptors, etc. There
are
> > a number of guides that are on the right track.
>
> Yes, we could really use some help here. We started with the WW wiki,
> and I think we've made some progress, but there is still much to be
> done. I did as much as I could over the summer, but unfortunately,
> it's not something I can spend much time on myself this year.
> Hopefully, someone will pickup the torch.
>
> Again, any responsible person who files a CLA is welcome to help with
> the documentation.
>
>
> > 7. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to grab the code because
the
> > link is on the main Struts page. Adding a link to the Struts2 page
will
> > help a lot.
>
> We didn't do that at first since most of the development materials are
> under site, and so would not be in the Struts 2 documentation bundle.
> But, I copied the development menu over and made the links absolute.
>
> Thanks for the feedback!. It's already lead to several positive changes.
>
> -Ted.
>
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--
iDTV System Engineer
"Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a
violent psychopath who knows where you live." - John F. Woods
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