On Thu, 3 Oct 2002, Vincent Stoessel wrote:
> Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2002 11:30:35 -0400
> From: Vincent Stoessel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Reply-To: Struts Users Mailing List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: Struts Users <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: EL and the developer's roadmap
>
> OK,
> I'll bite. What does EL stand for?
The acronym "EL" stands for "expression language" -- one of the very cool
features in JSTL 1.0 (and JSP 2.0 will let you use it anywhere in your
pages, even in template text).
> From what I'm hearing, there seems to be a current trend
> of moving away from Struts taglibs if there
> is a JSTL tag that has the same functionality. I admit that
> makes me a bit nervous as a newbie. I'm still learning the struts
> tags! The Goodwill book has an excellent appendix with _examples_
> of individual tag usage. Now I guess I will have to get a book on JSTL
> book as well. Is there a Struts roadmap available anywhere?
> Sometimes I feel I am always running to to catch up in Struts. Mastered
> ActionForms? oops gotta learn DynaActionForms! Learned how to validate
> in the action class? , ha! better learn Dyna*Valid* stuff. Mastered
> struts-logic? no! learn JSTL!
>
We haven't formally discussed it on the STRUTS-DEV list yet, but I would
assume that future versions of Struts will feature the use of the standard
tags (JSTL now, JavaServer Faces when it's available) as the recommended
approach for new apps. That being said, there are thousands of apps using
the existing Struts tags, so they are not going to go away any time soon.
> I know I don't have to use all new features but I would like have
> a little warning about what may be coming down the road. That is where
> a roadmap would come in very handy. I could know which technologies to
> watch and which to ignore in the short term.
> Thanks for listening.
>
The current and upcoming technologies I would definitely pay attention to
for Struts related stuff:
* Servlet 2.3 and 2.4 (especially filters and event listeners)
* JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL 1.0) and the recently added
"struts-el" library in the "contrib" directory of the nightly
builds that adds EL-compatible evaluations to existing
Struts tags
* JSP 2.0 (lots and lots of really cool things, including EL
expressions everywhere and the ability to create "custom tags"
out of chunks of JSP code)
* JavaServer Faces (JSR-127) for user interface components
* Portlet API (JSR-168) for writing portlets that can be run
in any conforming portal server
* JAXP/1.2 (part of the Java Web Services Developer Pack and
Java XML Pack from java.sun.com) for the latest additions to
XML parsing and transformations (JSTL includes lots of good
tags for XML processing)
* JAX-RPC/1.0 (part of the Java Web Services Developer Pack and
Java XML Pack from java.sun.com) for integrating SOAP-based
web services that can utilize the same business logic components
as your Struts-based web applications do -- a reward for people
who follow good MVC-oriented architecture principles :-)
Much of this stuff is still in the future. If you're just starting out,
don't feel shy about learning the existing Struts tag library and using it
-- you've got lots of company. But, plan on migrating to standards based
technologies as they become available to you in the future, to gain the
benefits of competition between vendors on how well they implemented those
technologies (all the while secure in the knowledge that your app will be
portable).
> --
> Vincent Stoessel
> Linux Systems Developer
> vincent xaymaca.com
>
Craig
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