Learning Jakarta Struts 1.2: a concise and practical tutorial

• Understand the Model-View-Controller architecture and how it is implemented in Struts    
• How to start building an application with Struts
• How to produce well-crafted and robust applications using sound software engineering practices
• How to build a complete application, in this case a web bookstore

Jakarta Struts is an Open Source Java framework for developing web applications. By cleanly separating logic and presentation, Struts makes applications more manageable and maintainable.
Since its donation to the Apache Foundation  in 2001, Struts has been rapidly accepted as the leading Java web application framework, and community support and development is well established.

Struts-based web sites are built from the ground up to be easily modifiable and maintainable, and internationalization and flexibility of design are deeply rooted. Struts uses the Model-View-Controller design pattern to enforce a strict separation between processing logic and presentation logic, and enables efficient object re-use.

The book is written as a structured tutorial, with each chapter building on the last. The book begins by introducing the architecture of a Struts application in terms of the Model-View-Controller pattern. Having explained how to install Jakarta and Struts, the book then goes straight into an initial implementation of the book store. The well structured code of the book store application is explained and related simply to the architectural issues.

Custom Actions, internationalization and the possibilities offered by Taglibs are covered early to illustrate the power and flexibility inherent in the framework. The bookstore application is then enhanced in functionality and quality through the addition of logging and configuration data, and well-crafted forms. At each stage of enhancement, the design issues are laid out succinctly, then the practical implementation explained clearly. This combination of theory and practical example lays a solid understanding of both the principles and the practice of building Struts applications.

This book is designed as a rapid and effective Struts tutorial for Java developers. The book builds a fully-featured web bookstore application incrementally, with each stage described step-by-step. Concepts are introduced simply and clearly as the design and implementation of this sample project evolves. The emphasis is on rapid learning through clear and well structured examples.

Read Chapter 4: "Internationalization and Taglibs [PDF 213 KB]

The book sets out to get Java developers up to speed and confident with Struts as quickly as possible. It does not explain every feature in Struts, but takes a logical path through the essential information, with the emphasis on practical applications.

This book is written for Java developers planning to develop web applications, who are new to Struts. It expects familiarity with Java, JSP and Servlets to a degree, although more obscure elements are explained.  It covers Struts 1.2.