We have been using struts for about a year now, and it is a wonderful
framework.
I guess that it depends on the type of site you are creating. If you are
producing a static site, then
I would say that it is overkill. However, what struts does give you is the
ability to drive your
user through your website depending on his actions. Also, within the
actions, you may perform any
tasks necessary for the current user action.
Using an action class for each user action is a benefit more than a
complication. This gives you the most flexibility.
However, you may declare a global action definition that many or all of your
pages could use. (I wouldn't suggest this, but it is possible).
The form beans are not required. I do not use them at the moment. They are
helpful for doing form validation, but not required.
The business logic beans are also not required. You could put your logic in
each action, but that would be ugly. :)
The tag-libs are not required, but are however, a very useful tool in
creating your pages. You are not restricted to using the struts taglibs....
You may use your own as well (or instead of).
There are a few configuration files (server.xml, web.xml) however, once you
have set them up, you are done.
Also, there are documents and many (over 1000) helpful users on the
struts-user list.
As you may have noticed, I am a bit biased. :)
I guess you have to decide on what type of site you are building, how
flexible you need it to be, etc.
You may also want to check out these alternatives: Velocity, Turbine, Oracle
Forms (if you are using an oracle database), Hammock, etc.
HTH,
Pete
"Procek, Brett" wrote:
> I keep seeing references to using the Struts framework. I'm curious if
> anyone has used this for a commercial product and can give me some
> feedback. I'm considering it, but it just seems a little "heavy". I've
> been reading about it a bit and it seems that in order to use this
> software you need jar files, a bunch of tag-libs, some configuration
> files, etc. Also, when developing with it, you need to generate a
> plethora of application files, one bean for each form, one action class
> for every action, not to mention business logic beans and jsp files.
> Isn't this a little much just to functionally separate out the
> components of your software. Can someone offer some advice.
>
> Thanks alot,
> Brett Procek
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Sam Newman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2001 3:00 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; James Strachan
> Subject: Re: Form validation
>
> I'm going to check out strust today for this form stuff. Although I've
> not
> fixed it using a simple error substitution tag and using the Input
> taglib, I
> have similar projects coming up I might us it with.
>
> > > Having just seen the article on form validation on javaworld, I
> would
> like
> > > to of used that instead, but it doen't allow usage in a commerical
> product
> > > :-(
> >
> > Yes. One of these days I'd like to get a simple, lightweight,
> decoupled
> form
> > validator package that is similar to that described in the javaworld
> > article.
>
> I emailed the guy and he seems to be in the process of writing a
> commerical
> license for the form code. I'll let you know what it looks like
>
> > I saw that Baracuda contains a form validation package that looks
> > interesting:-
> >
> > http://barracuda.enhydra.org/index.html
> >
> http://barracuda.enhydra.org/cvs_source/Barracuda/docs/forms/forms_brief
> .gif
> >
> > though I'm not sure how dependent it is on other stuff (XMLC et al) -
> I'd
> > rather it be a seperate independent package that could be used
> independently
> > of the other Baracuda stuff.
> >
> > James
>
> I've added this to my list of things to look at. All I need now is some
> of
> this slack time I've been hearing about in project management books....
>
> sam
begin:vcard
n:;
x-mozilla-html:FALSE
org:<BR><IMG SRC="http://www.irista.com/logo/irista.gif";><BR><BR><FONT Color=#000080><FONT SIZE=2><B>Bringing Vision to Your Supply Chain
adr:;;;;;;
version:2.1
end:vcard
![http://www.irista.com/logo/irista.gif"](http://www.irista.com/logo/irista.gif"){kind=link}