Target Audience

This course is targeted at the developer, already familiar with programming using J2EE, looking to gain a knowledge of Jakarta Struts Programming. During the course the student will build a fully featured Struts applications including advanced topics such as validation, error handling and internationalisation.

Pre-requisites

The student should be familiar with J2EE programming. This knowledge can be gained by attending course EC31.

Course Objectives

This course provides students with the skills to write effective Struts Applications. While covering these in detail, the course retains a ‘high level’ overview of the MVC Design Patterns used for such development. During the course the student will write a complete Struts application to ensure that the content has been fully understood and practical experience is gained. On completion of this course the student will be able to:

•     understand the Model View Controller architecture
•     understand the various Struts components (Action, ActionServlet, etc)
•     understand the configuration files
•     modify struts to include plug-ins
•     understand the various form classes (ActionForm, Dyna forms, etc)
•     use the various Custom Tags that struts provides
•     configure Internationalised applications
•     use Struts Error handling
•     use the Struts Validator Framework
•     Understand and configure Tiles
•     Understand and use the various tools WSAD or RAD provide for Struts (if applicable)

Course Environment

Development will be performed using:

•     the Java Development Kit (JDK) plus a text editor
•     JBuilder
•     NetBeans
•     Websphere Studio Application Developer
•     Rational Application Developer
•     Eclipse

Course Details

INTRODUCTION TO STRUTS

Model 2 And Struts

Action

ActionForm

Message Resources

FIRST STRUTS APPLICATION

Creating The View Components

Creating The Controller Components

Configuring The Application

Running Through The Application

CONFIGURATION FILES

web.xml

struts-config.xml

CONTROLLERS

Actionservlet

Action

Struts Plugins

VIEW COMPONENTS

Jsps That Get Data From The Client

Defining Jsps To A Struts Application - Forwards

Basic Actionform Beans

The DynaActionForm Bean

STRUTS CUSTOM TAGS

HTML Tags

Logic Tags

Bean Tags

Template Tags

APPLICATION PROPERTIES AND INTERNATIONALISATION

Resource Bundles

Using The Resource Properties

Example Resource Bundle File

ERROR HANDLING

Adding Error Handling To An Application

Displaying The Errors In The Jsp

Declarative Exception Handling

VALIDATOR FRAMEWORK

Validator Form Beans

Validator Plugin

Configuring The Validator

Mutiple Rules

Standard Rules

Rule Variables

Using Validation With DynaValidatorForms

TILES

Templates

Configuring Tiles

Tiles Tag Library

Course Format

Practical sessions make up a large part of the course, allowing delegates to demonstrate and reinforce the lectures given. Examples are used extensively, ranging from simple code 'snippets' to full applications with complete ‘real world’ functionality. These are supplied at the start of the course and it is encouraged that the delegates execute and ‘experiment’ with these under the instructor’s guidance as they are introduced. These examples are available to take away, along with the delegate’s own work. The comprehensive Student Guide supplied is fully indexed serving as a useful reference tool long after the course has finished. Delegates will also be able to access a free help-line with technical questions relating to topics covered on the course.