Struts Tools Tutorial

Version: 3.3.0.M5

1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1. Key Features Struts Tools ................................................................................... 1 1.2. Other relevant resources on the topic .................................................................. 2 2. Creating a Simple Struts Application .......................................................................... 3 2.1. Starting Up ......................................................................................................... 3 2.2. Creating the Application Components .................................................................. 3 2.2.1. Creating JSP Page Placeholders .............................................................. 3 2.2.2. Creating an Action Mappings .................................................................... 5 2.2.3. Creating a Link ........................................................................................ 5 2.2.4. Creating a Forward .................................................................................. 6 2.2.5. Creating a Global Forward ........................................................................ 6 2.2.6. Creating a Form Bean .............................................................................. 7 3. Generating Stub Coding .............................................................................................. 9 4. Coding the Various Files ........................................................................................... 11 4.1. Java Stub Classes ............................................................................................ 11 4.1.1. GetNameForm.java ................................................................................ 11 4.1.2. GreetingAction.java ................................................................................ 13 4.2. JSP Pages ....................................................................................................... 4.2.1. inputname.jsp ......................................................................................... 4.2.2. greeting.jsp ............................................................................................ 4.2.3. index.jsp ................................................................................................ 5. Compiling the Classes and Running the Application ................................................ 6. Struts Validation Examples ....................................................................................... 6.1. Starting Point .................................................................................................... 6.2. Defining the Validation Rule .............................................................................. 6.3. Client-Side Validation ........................................................................................ 6.4. Server Side Validation ....................................................................................... 6.5. Editing the JSP File .......................................................................................... 6.6. Editing the Action .............................................................................................. 6.7. Editing the Form Bean ...................................................................................... 7. Other Relevant Resources on the topic ..................................................................... 14 14 16 17 19 21 21 21 23 25 25 26 26 29

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Chapter 1.

Introduction
The following chapters describe how to deal with classic/old style of Struts development. We recommend users to use JBoss Seam to simplify development, but until then you can read about classical Struts usage here. We are going to show you how to create a simple Struts application using the JBoss Tools. The completed application will ask a user to enter a name and click a button. The resulting new page will display the familiar message, "Hello <name>!" This document will show you how to create such an application from the beginning, along the way demonstrating some of the powerful features of JBoss Tools. With the help of our tutorial you will design the application, generate stub code for the application, fill in the stub coding, compile the application, and finally run it all from inside the Eclipse.

1.1. Key Features Struts Tools

For a start, we propose you to look through the table of main features of Struts Tools:

Table 1.1. Key Functionality of Struts Tools

Feature Struts Support Benefit Step-by-step wizards for creating a new struts project with a number of predefined templates, importing existing ones and adding struts capabilities to non-struts web projects. Support for Struts Configuration File Working on file using three modes: diagram, tree and source. Synchronization between the modes and full control over the code. Easy moving around the diagram using the Diagram Navigator. Working with struts projects that have multiple modules. Possibility to use Struts configuration file debugger allowing to set break points on struts diagram and then launch the server in debug mode. Support for Struts modules A Struts module (struts-config.xml) is automatically created while creating a new project. There is also possibility to add new ones or edit already existing modules in your existing project or while importing Struts project. Verification and Validation All occurring errors will be immediately reported by verification feature, no matter in what view you are working. Constant validation and errors checking allows to catch many of the errors during development process that significantly reduces development time.

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.2. Other relevant resources on the topic

All JBoss Developer Studio/JBoss Tools release documentation you can find at http:// docs.jboss.org/tools [http://docs.jboss.org/tools/] in the corresponding release directory. The latest documentation builds are available at http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/nightly-docs [http://download.jboss.org/jbosstools/nightly-docs/].

Chapter 2.

Creating a Simple Struts Application

Firstly, we assume that you have already launched Eclipse with JBoss Tools installed and also that the Web Development perspective is the current perspective. (If not, make it active by selecting Window Open Perspective Other Web Development from the menu bar.)

2.1. Starting Up
We are first going to create a new project for the application. Go to the menu bar and select File New Struts Project Next enter "StrutsHello" as the project name Leave everything else as it is, and click Next If you have server runtime already defined, just pass to next point. Otherwise in the Runtime section click the New button and target at needed server runtime environment. Click Finish. Click Next Make sure that struts-bean.tld , struts-html.tld , and struts-logic.tld are checked in the list of included tag libraries and then hit Finish A "StrutsHello" node should appear in the Package Explorer view. Click the plus sign next to StrutsHello to reveal the child nodes Click the plus sign next to WebContent under StrutsHello Click the plus sign next to WEB-INF under WebContent Then, double-click on the struts-config.xml node to display a diagram of the Struts application configuration file in the editing area At this point, its empty except for the background grid lines.

2.2. Creating the Application Components

Now, we will design the application by creating the individual components as placeholders first. (We don't have to complete all of the details inside the components until afterwards.)

2.2.1. Creating JSP Page Placeholders

Next, let's create and place two JSP pages. We will not write anything more than basic template code for the files; they will serve only as placeholders so that we can create links to them in the diagram. We will write some custom code a little bit later.

Chapter 2. Creating a Simple ...

2.2.1.1. Creating the Page Placeholders

Bring the Web Projects view to the front of the Package Explorer view by selecting the Web Projects tab next to that tab. Right-click the StrutsHello WEB-ROOT (WebContent) folder in the Web Projects view and select New Folder... Enter pages for a folder name and click Finish We will keep our presentation files in this folder Right-click the pages folder and select New File JSP... For Name type in inputname (the JSP extension will be automatically added to the file), and then click on the Next button Untick the use JSP Template checkbox, and then click on the Finish button Right-click the pages folder again and select New File JSP... For Name type in greeting , and then click on the Next button Untick the use JSP Template checkbox, and then click on the Finish button

2.2.1.2. Adding Template Code to the inputname.jsp File

The inputname.jsp file needs to be populated with some template code. Click on the inputname.jsp page in the Web Projects view, and then modify the file so it looks like this:

<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/struts-html" prefix="html" %> <html:html> <head> <title></title> </head> <body> <html:form action=""> </html:form> </body> </html:html>

2.2.1.3. Placing the Page Placeholders

Lets now place the two pages just created on the diagram.

Creating an Action Mappings

Click on the struts-config.xml tab in the editing area to bring the diagram to the front Click on the inputname.jsp page in the Web Projects view, drag it onto the diagram, and drop it Click on the greeting.jsp page in the Web Projects view, drag it onto the diagram, and drop it to the right of the /pages/inputname.jsp icon with some extra space You should now have two JSP pages in the diagram.

2.2.2. Creating an Action Mappings

Using a context menu on the diagram, we are next going to create an Action mapping. Right-click between the two icons and select New Action Enter the following values:

Table 2.1. Action values

path name scope type validate /greeting GetNameForm request sample.GreetingAction <leave blank>

("GetNameForm" is the name for a form bean that we will create later.) Click Finish The /greeting action should appear in four places, in the diagram, under the action-mappings node, under the struts-config.xml node in Tree view, in Web Projects view and in the Outline view. Also, note the asterisk to the right of the name, struts-config.xml, in the Outline view showing that the file has been changed, but not saved to disk.

2.2.3. Creating a Link

Let's now create a link from the inputname.jsp page to the action. On of the icons, left-hand click side on of the the diagram Create New in the Connection column icon(

). In the connect-the-components mode you are in now, click on the /pages/inputname.jsp icon in the diagram and then click on the /greeting action

Chapter 2. Creating a Simple ...

A link will be created from the page to the action.

2.2.4. Creating a Forward

Next, we are going to create a forward for the action. On of the icons, left-hand click side on of the the diagram Create New in the Connection column icon(

), again. Click on the /greeting action icon in the diagram and then click on the pages/greeting.jsp icon That's it. A link will be drawn from the actions new greeting forward to the greeting.jsp JSP page. Note that the forwards name will be set based on the name of the target JSP file name. If you don't like it, you can easily change it Select the Tree tab at the bottom of the editor window (between Diagram and Source) Expand the struts-config.xml/action-mappings/ /greeting node and then select the greeting forward In the Properties Editor to the right, change the text to "sayHello" in the Name field Select the Diagram tab at the bottom of the editor window and see how the diagram is also updated to reflect the change

2.2.5. Creating a Global Forward

One last component that we need to create in the diagram is a global forward. Somewhere in the top-left corner of diagram, right-click and select New Global Forward Enter getName in the Name field Select the Change... button for Path In the Edit Path window, switch to the Pages tab Expand the StrutsHello WEB-ROOT (WebContent) pages node and then select the inputname.jsp page Click Ok . Leave the rest of the fields blank and click OK A forward object now appears on the diagram and also in the global-forwards folder in the Outline view.

Creating a Form Bean

Tidy up the diagram, by clicking and dragging around each icon, so that the diagram looks something like this:

Figure 2.1. Diagram View

2.2.6. Creating a Form Bean

One last thing that we need to do is to create a form bean.

Switch to the Tree viewer in the editor for the struts-config.xml file, by selecting the Tree tab at the bottom of the editor window Right-click struts-config.xml form-beans and select Create Form Bean Enter GetNameForm in the name field and sample.GetNameForm for type Click Finish To save your changes to struts-config.xml, select File Save from the menu bar Note the disappearance of the asterisk next to the name, struts-config.xml.

Chapter 3.

Generating Stub Coding

We are done with designing the application through the diagram. Now we need to write code for the action component. We also need to write an action class for the /greeting mapping along with a FormBean. To aid in the coding phase, JBoss Developer Studio can generate Java class stubs for all of the components shown in the diagram.

Switch back to the diagram, by selecting the Diagram tab at the bottom of the editor window Right-click a blank space in the diagram and select Generate Java Code Leave everything as is in the dialog box and click Generate You should see a screen that says: Generated classes: 2 Actions: 1 Form beans: 1

Click Finish The Java files will be generated in a JavaSource sample folder that you can see in the Package Explorer view under the "StrutsHello" node. One Action stub and one FormBean stub will have been generated.

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Chapter 4.

Coding the Various Files

We will now code both the Java stub classes just generated, the JSP files left in as placeholders from previous steps, and a new start JSP page we will have to create.

4.1. Java Stub Classes

To finish the two Java classes, switch to the JavaSource sample folder Package Explorer view and expand the

4.1.1. GetNameForm.java
Double-click GetNameForm.java for editing You are looking at a Java stub class that was generated by JBoss Tools. Now we are going to edit the file Add the following attributes at the beginning of the class:

private String name = "";

Inside the reset method, delete the TO DO and throw lines and add:

this.name = "";

Inside the validate method, delete the TO DO and throw lines and add:

ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors(); return errors;

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Chapter 4. Coding the Various...

Right-click and select Source Generate Getters and Settersfrom the context menu In the dialog box, check the check box for name, select First method for Insertion point, and click on the OK button The final GetNameForm.java file should look like this:

package sample; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest; import org.apache.struts.action.ActionErrors; import org.apache.struts.action.ActionMapping; public class GetNameForm extends org.apache.struts.action.ActionForm { private String name = ""; public String getName() { return name; } public void setName(String name) { this.name = name; } public GetNameForm() { } public void reset(ActionMapping actionMapping, HttpServletRequest request) { this.name = ""; } public ActionErrors validate(ActionMapping actionMapping, HttpServletRequest request) { ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors(); return errors; } }

Save the file

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GreetingAction.java

4.1.2. GreetingAction.java
Open GreetingAction.java for editing Inside the execute method, delete the TO DO lines and add the following:

String name = ((GetNameForm)form).getName(); String greeting = "Hello, "+name+"!"; ((GetNameForm)form).setName(greeting); return mapping.findForward(FORWARD_sayHello);

The final version of GreetingAction.java should look like this:

package sample; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse; import org.apache.struts.action.ActionForm; import org.apache.struts.action.ActionForward; import org.apache.struts.action.ActionMapping; public class GreetingAction extends org.apache.struts.action.Action { // Global Forwards public static final String GLOBAL_FORWARD_getName = "getName"; // Local Forwards public static final String FORWARD_sayHello = "sayHello"; public GreetingAction() { } public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form, HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws Exception { String name = ((GetNameForm)form).getName(); String greeting = "Hello, "+name+"!"; ((GetNameForm)form).setName(greeting); return mapping.findForward(FORWARD_sayHello); } }

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Chapter 4. Coding the Various...

Save the file Close the editors for the two Java files The last thing left to do is to code the JSP files whose editors should still be open from having been created as placeholders.

4.2. JSP Pages

4.2.1. inputname.jsp
In this page, the user will enter any name and click the submit button. Then, the greeting action will be called through the form.

Click on the inputname.jsp tab in the Editing area to bring its editor forward In the Web Projects view, expand StrutsHello Configuration default strutsconfig.xml action-mappings and select /greeting Drag it and drop it between the quotes for the "action" attribute to the <html:form> element in the Source pane of the editor Then type this text on a new line just below this line:

Input name:

Select the Visual pane of the editor Then, in the JBoss Tools Palette, expand the Struts Form library, select text , and drag it onto the box

Note:
By default there are only four groups on the JBoss Tools Palette. If you wish to make some group visible click the Show/Hide button on the top of palette and in the prompted dialog check the group (or groups) you want to be shown.

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inputname.jsp

Figure 4.1. JBoss Tools Palette

In the Insert Tag dialog box, type in name for property and select Finish In the StrutsForm library in the JBoss Tools Palette, select submit , and drag it to right after the text box in the Visual pane of the editor Right-click the submit button and select <html:submit> Attributes from the context menu In the Attributes dialog box, select the value field and type in "Say Hello!" for its value After tidying the page source, the Editor window for the file should look something like this:

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Chapter 4. Coding the Various...

Figure 4.2. Editor Window

4.2.2. greeting.jsp
Next, we will fill in the result page. Click on the greeting.jsp tab in the Editing area to bring its editor forward Type in the following code:

<html> <head> <title>Greeting</title> </head> <body> <p> </p> </body> </html>

To complete editing of this file, we will use macros from the JBoss Tools Palette. This palette is a view that should be available to the right of the editing area. Click on the Struts Common folder in the JBoss Tools Palette to open it

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index.jsp

Position the cursor at the beginning of the greeting.jsp file in the Source pane and then click on bean taglib in the JBoss Tools Palette This will insert the following line at the top of the file:

<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/struts-bean.tld" prefix="bean" %>

Click on the Struts Bean folder in the JBoss Tools Palette to open it Position the cursor inside the <p> element Click on write in the JBoss Tools Palette Type in "GetNameForm" for the name attribute and add a property attribute with "name" as its value The editor should now look like this:

Figure 4.3. Editor Window

4.2.3. index.jsp
Finally, we will need to create and edit an index.jsp page. This page will use a Struts forward to simply redirect us to the getName global forward.

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Chapter 4. Coding the Various...

In the Web Projects view, right-click on StrutsHello WEB-ROOT(WebContent) node and select New File JSP Type index for Name and click on the Finish button On the JBoss Tools Palette, select the Struts Common folder of macros by clicking on it in the palette Click on the logic taglib icon Press the Enter key in the editor to go to the next line Back on the palette, select the Struts Logic folder of macros Click on redirect Delete the ending tag, put a forward slash in front of the closing angle bracket, and type "forward=getName" in front of the slash The finished code for the page is shown below:

<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/struts-logic.tld" prefix="logic" %> <logic:redirect forward="getName"/>

To save all the edits to files, select File Save All from the menu bar

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Chapter 5.

Compiling the Classes and Running the Application

As this is the Eclipse environment, no explicit compilation step is required. By default, Eclipse compiles as you go. Thus at this point everything is ready for running our application without having to leave JBoss Developer Studio by using the JBoss Application Server engine that comes with the JBoss Developer Studio. For controlling JBoss AS within JBoss Developer Studio, there is Servers view.

Figure 5.1. Servers Panel

Start up JBoss AS by clicking on the icon in Servers view. (If JBoss AS is already running, stop it by clicking on the red icon and then start it again. Remember, the Struts run-time requires restarting the servlet engine when any changes have been made.) After the messages in the Console tabbed view stop scrolling, JBoss AS is available. At this point, right-click on the getName global forward in the struts-config.xml diagram view and select Run on Server. The browser should appear with the application started.

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Chapter 6.

Struts Validation Examples

Validation of input is an important part of any Web application. All Apache Jakarta frameworks, including Struts, can use a common Jakarta Validation Framework for streamlining this aspect of Web application development. The Validation Framework allows you to define validation rules and then apply these rules on the client-side or the server-side. JBoss Developer Studio makes using the Validation Framework in Struts even easier with the help of a specialized editor for the XML files that controls validation in a project. In this document, we'll show you how this all works by creating some simple client-side validation and server-side validation examples.

6.1. Starting Point

The example assumes that you have already created our sample "StrutsHello" application from the Getting Started Guide for Creating a Struts Application. You should have the JBoss Developer Studio perspective open on this StrutsHello project.

6.2. Defining the Validation Rule

In these steps you will set up the validation that can be used for either client-side or server side validation. You need to enable validation as a part of the project, define an error message, and tie it into an appropriate part of the application.

Right-click on a "plug-ins" node under the StrutsHello Configuration default strutsconfig.xml node in the Web Projects view and select Create Special Plugin Validators from the context menu Further down in the Web Projects view, right-click on the StrutsHello ResourceBundles node and select New Properties File... from the context menu In the dialog box, click on the Browse...button next to the Folder field, expand the JavaSource folder in this next dialog box, select the sample subfolder, and click on the OK button Back in the first dialog box, type in "applResources" for the Name field and click on the Finish button Right-click on a newly created file and select New Default Error Messages from the context menu Drag up the sample.applResources icon until you can drop it on the resources folder under struts-config.xml Select File Save All from the menu bar

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Chapter 6. Struts Validation ...

Select validation.xml under the StrutsHello Validation node and double-click it to open it with the JBoss Tools XML Editor Here you must create a Formset. In the validation.xml file editor click the button Create Formset on the panel Formsets In the dialog Add Formset fill the fields Language and Country or just leave them empty to create a default formset. Click OK

Figure 6.1. Create Formset

Expand the "form-beans" node under the StrutsHello Configuration default strutsconfig.xml node. Then, drag the form bean "GetNameForm" and drop it onto a formset in the XML Editor In the Validation Editor, expand the formset node, right-click GetNameForm, and select Create Field... from the context menu Enter a name for Property in the dialog box. A new property will be created:

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Client-Side Validation

Figure 6.2. New Property Is Added

In the Properties view for the name field to the right of the "tree" for the validation.xml file, click on the Change...button next to the Depends entry field In the displayed double list, select required from the left list and then click Add Click Ok Right-click name and select Add Arg... from the context menu In the Add Arg dialog box, click on the Change...button next to the Key field In the Key dialog box that appears now, click on the Add button Enter "name.required" in the Name field, and enter a person's name in the Value field Click Finish, then Ok, and then Ok again Select File Save All from the menu bar

6.3. Client-Side Validation

Client-side validation uses a scripting language (like JavaScript) running in the client browser to actually do the validation. In a Struts application using the Validation Framework, however, you don't actually have to do any of the script coding. The Validation Framework handles this.

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Chapter 6. Struts Validation ...

To see how this works in our application, you'll just need to make a couple of modifications to one of the JSP files.

Double-click inputname.jsp under StrutsHello WEB-ROOT(WebContent) pages to open it for editing Find the tag near the top and hit Return to make a new line under it In the JBoss Tools Palette view to the right, open the Struts HTML folder and click on the javascript tag Back in the editor, just in front of the closing slash for this inserted tag, hit Ctrl+Space and select "formName" from the prompting menu Over in the Web Projects view, select GetNameForm under the StrutsHello Configuration default struts-config.xml form-beans node, drag it, and drop it between the quotes in the editor Modify the <html:form> tag by inserting this attribute:

onsubmit="return validateGetNameForm(this)"

The file should now look like this:

<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/struts-html" prefix="html" %> <html:html > <head> <html:javascript formName="GetNameForm"/> <title></title> </head> <body> <html:form action="/greeting.do" onsubmit="return validateGetNameForm(this)"> Input name:<html:text property="name"/><html:submit value="Say Hello!"/> </html:form> </body> </html:html>

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Server Side Validation

Select File Save from the menu bar Start JBoss Application Server by clicking on its icon (a right-pointing arrow) in the toolbar Click the Run icon(

) or right click your project folder and select Run As Run on Server

In the browser window, click on the "Say Hello!" button without having entered any name in the form A JavaScript error message should be displayed in an alert box.

6.4. Server Side Validation

Server side validation does the validation inside the application on the server. In a Struts application using the Validation Framework, you still don't have to do any of the actual validation coding. The Validation Framework handles this. You will though have to make a few changes to the JSP file you modified for client-side validation along with a change to an action and a few changes to the form bean class.

6.5. Editing the JSP File

Reopen inputname.jsp for editing Delete the "onsubmit" attribute in the <html:form> element that you put in for client-side validation Add an <html:errors/> tag after the <html:form> tag The JSP file should now look like this:

<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/struts-html" prefix="html" %> <html:html > <head> <html:javascript formName="GetNameForm"/> <title></title> </head> <body> <html:form action="/greeting.do" >Input name:<html:text property="name"/> <html:submit value="Say Hello!"/>

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Chapter 6. Struts Validation ...

</html:form> <html:errors/> </body> </html:html>

6.6. Editing the Action

In the Web Projects view, expand the node under the StrutsHello Configuration default struts-config.xml action-mappings node, right-click the /greeting action, and then select Properties...from the context menu In the Edit Properties window, insert the cursor into the value column for the input property and click on the ... button In the dialog box, make sure the Pages tab is selected, select StrutsHello WEBROOT(WebContent) pages inputname.jsp, click the Ok button, and then click on the Close button

6.7. Editing the Form Bean

Right-click the /greeting action again and select Open Form-bean Source to open the GetNameForm.java file for editing Change the class that it extends org.apache.struts.validator.ValidatorForm Comment out a validate method The file should now look like this: from: org.apache.struts.action.ActionForm to

package sample; import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest; import org.apache.struts.action.ActionErrors; import org.apache.struts.action.ActionMapping; public class GetNameForm extends org.apache.struts.validator.ValidatorForm { private String name = "";

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Editing the Form Bean

/** * @return Returns the name. */ public String getName() { return name; } /** * @param name The name to set. */ public void setName(String name) { this.name = name; } public GetNameForm () { } public void reset(ActionMapping actionMapping, HttpServletRequest request) { this.name = ""; } // public ActionErrors validate(ActionMapping actionMapping, // HttpServletRequest request) //{ // ActionErrors errors = new ActionErrors(); // return errors; // } }

Select File Save All from the menu bar Reload the application into JBoss AS by clicking on the "Change Time Stamp" icon (a finger pointing with a little star) in the toolbar Run the application In the browser window, click on the "Say Hello!" button without having entered any name in the form The error message should appear in a refreshed version of the form.

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Chapter 7.

Other Relevant Resources on the topic

Our reference: Struts Tools Reference Guide Apache Struts: Struts Technology [http://struts.apache.org/] Struts 2: Apache Struts 2 [http://struts.apache.org/2.x/] Get Started: Struts Getting Started [http://struts.apache.org/2.x/docs/home.html] Struts on IBM: Struts - An open-source MVC implementation [http://www.ibm.com/ developerworks/library/j-struts/] FAQ: Struts FAQ [http://struts.apache.org/2.x/docs/faqs.html] Download: Release of Apache Struts [http://struts.apache.org/download.cgi#struts206] Thus, this tutorial should help you to execute the whole development circle for building a sample Struts-based Web application using JBoss Tools bundle of Eclipse plugins starting from organizing a new Struts project and ending with the running and deploying it onto the JBoss Server. To find out all the features of JBoss Tools for working with Struts refer to our Struts Tools Reference Guide. If you still have questions you are always welcome on JBoss Tools Forum [http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewforum&f=201].

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