7.Struts 2 Hello World - Developing Hello World Application

In this section we will develop Hello World application based on Struts 2 Framework. Our Struts 2 Hello World application is your first step towards developing applications based on Struts 2 Framework. We are here providing step by step guide for developing Hello World application in Struts 2 framework.

Tutorial covers basic steps like creating directory structure, developing build.xml file to build the application using ant build tool. Then we explained Java, JSP and configuration files that are required in this application.

Creating directory structure for the project

Step1: Extract struts 2 download and copy struts2-blank-2.0.6.war(If you are using latest version of struts 2 then version may be different for you) to your tomcats webapps directory. Rename struts2-blank-2.0.6.war to struts2tutorial and unzip it in the tomcats webapps directory. Now start the tomcat and type http://localhost:8080/struts2tutorial/ into your browser. You browser should show look like:

 

 

 

Congratulations you have successfully installed struts 2 blank application to start with.

 

Step 2: Now delete the content of struts2tutorial/WEB-INF/src and struts2tutorial/WEB-INF/classes directories, as we don't need these files that comes with struts 2 blank application.

 

Step 3: Create build.xml file in the struts2tutorial/WEB-INF/src and paste the following content in the build.xml file.

 

 

<project name="Struts 2 Tutorial" basedir="../" default="all">

    <! -- Project settings -->

    <property name="project.title" value="RoseIndia Struts 2 Tutorials"/>

        <property name="project.jar.file" value="Struts2tutorial.jar"/>

 

          <path id="class.path">

 

               <fileset dir="lib">

 

                 <include name="**/*.jar"/>

 

               </fileset>

 

               <fileset dir="libext">

 

                 <include name="**/*.jar"/>

 

               </fileset>

 

          </path>

 

               <!-- Classpath for Project -->

 

               <path id="compile.classpath">

 

                       <pathelement path ="lib/commons-beanutils.jar"/>

 

                       <pathelement path ="lib/commons-digester.jar"/>

 

                       <pathelement path ="lib/struts.jar"/>

 

                       <pathelement path ="libext/servlet-api.jar"/>

 

                       <pathelement path ="libext/catalina-ant.jar"/>

 

                       <pathelement path ="classes"/>

 

                       <pathelement path ="${classpath}"/>

 

               </path>

 

               <!-- Check timestamp on files -->

 

               <target name="prepare">

 

                       <tstamp/>

                       <copy

                               file="src/struts.xml"

                               todir="src/classes"/>

 

 

               </target>

               <!-- Copy any resource or configuration files -->

 

               <target name="resources">

 

                       <copy todir="src/classes" includeEmptyDirs="no">

 

                               <fileset dir="src/java">

 

                               <patternset>

 

                                      <include name="**/*.conf"/>

 

                                      <include name="**/*.properties"/>

 

                                      <include name="**/*.xml"/>

 

                               </patternset>

 

                               </fileset>

 

                       </copy>

 

               </target>

 

               <!-- Normal build of application -->

 

               <target name="compile" depends="prepare,resources">

 

                       <javac srcdir="src" destdir="src/classes"

                         debug="true" debuglevel="lines,vars,source">

 

                               <classpath refid="class.path"/>

 

                       </javac>

 

                       <jar

 

                       jarfile="lib/${project.jar.file}"

 

                       basedir="src/classes"/>

 

               </target>

               <!-- Remove classes directory for clean build -->

 

               <target name="clean"

 

                 description="Prepare for clean build">

 

                 <delete dir="classes"/>

 

                 <mkdir  dir="classes"/>

 

               </target>

 

               <!-- Build Javadoc documentation -->

 

               <target name="javadoc"

 

                description="Generate JavaDoc API docs">

 

                       <delete dir="./doc/api"/>

 

                       <mkdir dir="./doc/api"/>

 

                       <javadoc sourcepath="./src/java"

 

                               destdir="./doc/api"

 

                               classpath="${servlet.jar}:${jdbc20ext.jar}"

 

                               packagenames="*"

 

                               author="true"

 

                               private="true"

 

                               version="true"

 

                               windowtitle="${project.title} API Documentation"

 

                               doctitle="&lt;h1&gt;${project.title}

                          Documentation (Version ${project.version})&lt;/h1&gt;"

 

                               bottom="Copyright &#169; 2002">

 

                               <classpath refid="compile.classpath"/>

 

                       </javadoc>

 

               </target>

 

               <!-- Build entire project -->

 

               <target name="project" depends="clean,prepare,compile"/>

 

               <!-- Create binary distribution -->

 

               <target name="dist"

 

                       description="Create binary distribution">

 

                 <mkdir

 

                       dir="${distpath.project}"/>

 

                 <jar

 

                       jarfile="${distpath.project}/${project.distname}.jar"

 

                       basedir="./classes"/>

 

                 <copy

 

                       file="${distpath.project}/${project.distname}.jar"

 

                       todir="${distpath.project}"/>

 

       

 

                 <war

 

                       basedir="../"

 

                       warfile="${distpath.project}/${project.distname}.war"

 

                       webxml="web.xml">

 

                       <exclude name="${distpath.project}/${project.distname}.war"/>

 

                  </war>

 

    </target>

 

 

    <!-- Build project and create distribution-->

 

        <target name="all" depends="project"/>

 

        </project>

 

Step 4: Create directory libext under the struts2tutorial/WEB-INF/ then you copy latest Servlets api jar (in our case servlet-api.jar) file over there. This library file will be used to compile Servlets in our application.

 

Step 5: Now create directories java and classes under struts2tutorial/WEB-INF/src. The directory struts2tutorial/WEB-INF/src/java will be used to put all the java sources file and directory struts2tutorial/WEB-INF/src/classes will be used by ant build utility to store compiled java files.

 

Now we have successfully created the directory structure and ant build file for our Struts 2 Hello World Application. In the next section we will create JSP, Java file and the configuration file and then test our Struts 2 Hello World application.