| | |  | Software Engineering | Home » » » Struts 2 in Action | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | The original Struts project revolutionized Java web development and its rapid adoption resulted in the thousands of Struts-based applications deployed worldwide. Keeping pace with new ideas and trends, Apache Struts 2 has emerged as the product of a merger between the Apache Struts and OpenSymphony WebWork projects, united in their goal to develop an easy-to-use yet feature-rich framework. Struts 2 represents a revolution in design and ease of use when compared to classic Struts. It adds exciting and powerful features such as a plugin framework, JavaServer Faces integration, and XML-free configuration. Struts 2 In Action introduces the Apache Struts 2 web application framework and shows you how to quickly develop professional, production-ready modern web applications. Written by Don Brown, one of the leading developers of Struts 2, Chad Davis, a passionate Struts 2 developer, along with Scott Stanlick, this book gently walks you through the key features of Struts 2 in example-driven, easy-to-digest sections. Struts 2 in Action delivers accurate, seasoned information that can immediately be put to work. This book is designed for working Java web developers-especially those with some background in Struts 1 or WebWork. The core content, covering key framework components such as Actions, Results, and Interceptors, includes new features like the annotation-based configuration options. You'll find chapters on Struts 2 plugins, FreeMarker, and migration from Struts 1 and WebWork 2. Finally, new topics such as the Ajax tags, Spring Framework integration, and configuration by convention give familiar subjects new depth.
| | | Features: | |
• ISBN13: 9781933988078
• Condition: USED - Very Good
• Notes: 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Don Brown | | Paperback:
| 432 pages | | Publisher:
| Manning Publications | | Publication Date:
| May 01, 2008 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 193398807X | | Product Length:
| 9.2 inches | | Product Width:
| 7.36 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.88 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.59 pounds | | Package Length:
| 9.0 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.3 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.9 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.2 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 22 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 22 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 22 found the following review helpful:
Good tutorial and reference - Example Code Needs ImprovementJun 11, 2008
By Bruce Phillips
I had to learn Struts2 quickly since I recently changed jobs and my new team has several web application projects built using Struts2.
Overall, I thought the book was done very well if you are looking for a good introduction to Struts2. The first 8 chapters are very good.
The main negative is the source code for the book's examples. The authors provide one very large war file with all the source code embedded into the war file along with an overall web application divided into sub-applications for each chapter.
This packaging of the source code into the war file made it difficult for me to create individual projects in my development IDE that demonstrated just the material in a specific chapter. I had to spend quite a bit of time breaking down the source code into individual web projects and then figuring out on my own what jars needed to go into each project, what the struts.xml file needed to have, and what ever else was necessary to separate out just that chapter's sub-application so I could run that example and play with it.
Where this really became a problem was in chapters 9 and 10. Chapter 9 is a very advanced introduction to integrating Spring and Hibernate/JPA into Struts2. I never could get this chapter's example to work correctly.
However, chapter 10 on the validation framework then uses the same code as chapter 9, so you really cannot separate out the code for either chapter 9 and 10.
The validation framework is likely something even beginning Struts2 developers will want to use, while Spring/JPA/Hibernate is for more advanced developers and should have been well after the chapter on how to use the validation framework.
Also, the authors really don't give you a good understanding of what Struts2 jars you need to have to build a basic Struts2 application. There is some information about this in chapter 13 (setting up your IDE) but this information should really be at the beginning of the book. Also I don't think the list the authors provide is accurate since my basic HelloWorld (get the user to enter a name, call an Action class, and then display Hello userName in new jsp) worked with far fewer jars. Note there is apparently a new example war that just is a basic Hello World so there may be some information in that war file. That war was not on the manning web site when I purchased the book.
This book is good but be prepared to struggle working with the code examples if you want to work on the examples in your own development environment.
I recommend the authors create separate complete war files for each chapter's example to make it easier for users to just get that chapter's example code into their development IDE.
Lastly, the book does get 4 stars because the author's explanations of the basics of Struts2 (chapters 1-8) is very easy to follow for experienced Java developers. I'm now ready to tackle the Struts2 applications in my new job.
10 of 11 found the following review helpful:
 Great starter book for Struts 2May 16, 2008
By Vincent Ramdhanie
"Software Developer/Consultant"
I took a chance and pre-ordered this book because I have recently started a Struts2 project and wanted to learn more about the framework. The book did not disappoint.
The authors explained the concepts behind the framework clearly and used examples that were immediately useful. The book is a little too short and in many cases a few more details would have been appreciated but it seemed to be a deliberate decision to leave out some of the less common use cases to avoid cluttering up the book. Thus, this book is ideal if you are new to Struts 2 but have some prior experience with Java web development.
I like the fact that an entire chapter was dedicated to integrating Spring and Hibernate into the framework. It brings all the bits and pieces from the online documentation together in a cohesive and comprehensive package.
Chapters were also dedicated to validation, internationalization, best practices and migration from Struts classic. The authors spent several chapters on how the Value Stack and the ActionContext worked and how OGNL fits into this framework.
All in all there is enough information in this book to start and to produce a complete Struts 2 application.
8 of 9 found the following review helpful:
 Ponderous readJun 11, 2010
By The Commodore
First, this book is outdated already. It covers Struts 2.0, and if you use 2.1 (which you should) you will have problems. This is particularly acute because 2.1 uses a lot of newer convention-based mapping to actions, and a lot of the techniques described in the book are now deprecated.
However, this biggest problem with the book is that it's a ponderous read. The author spends countless pages discussing the minutiae of OGNL and type converters ... way more than a beginner needs to know. However, more critical topics like the Struts2 JSP tags are barely covered until Chapter 6. Other important topics like session management are barely covered at all. This book needs a lot of editing and reorganization before it will be useful for most beginners.
Nevertheless, there is some useful information here for those with the patience to dig for it. I thought the discussion of interceptors was very solid. However, much of this doesn't justify the price of the book. I recommend just downloading the Starting Struts 2 docs from the Apache Struts2 website, and working through it. You'll learn a lot quicker through their "bootstrap" tutorial than you will here.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Disappointing...Sep 27, 2010
By lunchbeast
I agree with many of the comments about this being kind of a long winded book, but that's far from it's biggest failing. In spite of what feels like a barrage of numbing verbage at times, the authors still manage to leave out what I consider to be key info for a text like this. A little better editing and a little more economy of language would have a allowed missed points to be covered without expanding the book.
A good example of this in chapter two, where the authors totally whiff on container setup, which is absolutely critical to continue with the book. They spend nearly an entire page explaining that you need a servlet container, but that they're not going to help you with that because "the benefits gained from learning to install a servlet container far outway any short-term gains to be had from any container-specific quick start we might try to provide."
Bull****. The last thing anybody should have to do while they're trying to get through this book is take a detour to figure the whole servlet container thing. This is not a trivial task to wander off and learn on your own with absolutely no guidance. It can be done, but it's not fast or easy and like I said, it's not a detour you want to have to take just to able to get through the book. If I didn't already know how to set up a servlet container, I would have sent the book back for a refund, and I bet this is a major reason for countless readers never finishing it. There are dozens of tutorials, guides, and FAQs on the web that document exactly how to do this in very nearly the same amount of space the authors used for their excuse for not helping. If they really don't want to provide instructions themselves (whether out of ingorance or apathy), they could just point to one of these websites. It is simply unforgivable to abandon the reader at this point under the pretext of 'we"re really helping you by not helping you.'
I don't hold it against the authors because the book is a little out of date. It's almost impossible these days to write a book and get it published before the technology changes - it's a (rapidly) moving target. That said, there are still shops running and developing on the older versions of Struts (1 and 2), so the topic still has an audience.
This isn't the worst technology book I've ever read, but I was expecting much more. I'm like one of the other readers, who wondered what all the 5-star readers were so impressed with.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Like wading through a mixture of Mud and HoneySep 27, 2010
By Salvatore R. Mangano
This is without a doubt the single worst technical book I have read in quite some time. I say this not because I claim the authors don't know their subject but because their method of exposition is torturous. I have picked up and put down this book three times and finally I have given up. Each time I pick it up I say to my self, Sal, try to ignore their style and force your way through so you can get going with Struts 2. However, each time I give up. Why? The authors philosophy seems to be "why use 10 words when you can use 50". Let's tell the poor reader what we are gonna tell them, hardly tell them and then tell them what we hardly told them. Let's concentrate on arcane details and elevate them to the most important status. I don't know exactly where the eleven 5-star reviews came from but trust me, if you really really want to learn struts 2 then use what you can find on the web. Personally, I think you should pass on Struts 2 and look at some of the more light-weight frameworks - see wikipedia page for struts. But I digress.
As an author, I really don't like giving poor reviews because I know writing is difficult. Certainly Manning deserves as much blame for failing to provide any editorial guidance. But the bottom line is this: We all have too little time. We buy technical books because we want to get up to speed quickly and we expect a book with a large number of 5-star reviews to deliver. This one does not and you should know that up-front.
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