Setting the Landscape

Launching a Struts 2 application

• Defining the need for a Struts 2 architecture
• Specifying the application structure
• Preparing the development environment

Getting started with Struts 2

• Identifying key application components
• Implementing the request processing cycle
• Linking the flow by configurations

Configuring Struts 2

Actions, results and interceptors

• Categorising requests with namespaces and packages
• Exploiting zero configuration conventions

Setting the default features

• Inspecting out of the box functionality
• Building dependencies with Inversion of Control

Implementing Struts 2 Actions

Controlling application flow

• Utilising the ActionSupport base class
• Eliminating redundant code with ModelDriven actions

Simplifying the development process

• Best practices for unit testing your actions
• Improving maintainability through message localisation

Gathering and Validating User Input

Building Struts 2 views

• Defining an improved approach to page generation with Struts 2 tags
• Leveraging the Struts 2 On-Demand model for data access
• Gathering user data effortlessly
• Controlling page flow with model data

Struts 2 validation architecture

• Positioning the Struts 2 validation model
• Exploring the built-in validation rules
• Applying validation interceptors
• Efficiently handling validation failures

Extending the validation framework

• Creating your own validation rules
• Configuring validation through Struts 2 annotations
• Integrating custom validation with built-in rules

Adding Functionality with Interceptors

Unleashing the Struts 2 interceptor architecture

• The role of interceptors
• Processing requests with the interceptor chain
• Working with the default interceptor stack
• Customising request processing with prepackaged interceptor stacks

Extending built-in interceptor functionality

• Implementing application specific interceptors
• Simplifying interceptor configuration with annotations

Object Graph Navigation Language (OGNL)

Push-pull processing of the model with OGNL

• Reading and writing object properties
• Accessing complex types: lists, sets and maps

Manipulating data on the Value Stack

• Navigating complex graphs with OGNL operators
• Invoking non-property methods

Generating Dynamic Views

Dispatching the request

• Selecting the correct output page
• Combining multiple actions in a logical sequence
• Considering presentation technology alternatives
• Enabling other result types with the plug-in architecture

Template-driven output with Freemarker

• Preparing the data model for Freemarker compatibility
• Writing a template with Freemarker Expressions
• Accessing model data with OGNL from Freemarker

Enhancing the User Experience

Struts 2 presentation tags

• Improving application response with lightweight presentation tags
• Reducing developer effort through user interface tags

Specifying the layout

• Eliminating repetitive code with templates
• Choosing the look and feel using Struts 2 themes

Creating responsive interfaces with Ajax

• Building Web 2.0 functionality with Ajax
• Exploiting first class support for Ajax in Struts 2
• Handling asynchronous requests with the Ajax theme