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Struts Kick Start
What is Struts?
Struts is a framework for developing web applications. It is a distilation of the current set of known best practices into a working code set that can be extended to meet almost any web application requirements. It part of the Jakarta Project at the Apache Software Foundation.
What do I know about Struts? I have been developing web applications, using Java, for four years and using struts for over a year, and am a regular participant on the Struts mailing list. I was also a technical reviewer for one of the other Struts Books released this fall and was recently invited to speak at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire on the use of Struts.
What's good about this book? There are many excellent things that I could point to. I particularly like the obvious depth of research that accompanies this book. There is a very interesting history of the development of the MVC design pattern and they even name the inventor. Do you know who invented MVC? If you want to know, buy the book! The chapters cover everything that you will need to know, in the order you are most likely to need to know it. There's even a chapter explaining the "struts-config.xml" file's DTD! (You may want to skip that on the first few readings :-)
There is good coverage of the Struts taglibs. I see a lot of questions about these on the mailing lists, so this information is very timely and it looks very well explained.
I like the coverage of other open source tools that work well with Struts. This is an important point because Struts does not do everything for you (by design), so there will be areas that will benefit from other tools. I'm looking forward to trying out some of their recommendations and easing my own Struts development lifecycles.
What's not so good? Just one niggle, and it's more of a programming style issue, but in their example code they have references to their business objects. They explain that it is important to separate out business logic from action logic, which it is, but then proceed to use their business object within the action.
Now, I realise that example code is not the same thing as robust, production-ready code, but when people are first learning a language or framework, they tend to copy exactly what they see in the book they are learning from. Even though example code should be light on error checking, it should be heavy on correctness and good style.
Should you rush out and buy it? If you are about to use Struts on a project, are new to Struts and need dead tree documentation for those RTFM moments or are evaluating Struts for future projects, then you absolutely need this book.
If you are an intermediate Struts user, then this book would still be very useful to you and I can certainly recommend it.
If you are an experienced Struts user, then you've almost certainly exchanged emails with James or Kevin, on the Struts mailing list, so you can make your own mind up!
Table of Contents
- Struts in Context
- The Model-View-Controller Design Pattern
- Hello World!
- HTTP Protocol
- JSP, Taglibs and JSTL
- The Sample Application
- View Components
- The Controller
- Model Components
- The struts-config.xml File
- How the Struts Tag Libraries Work
- Struts HTML Tags
- Struts Bean Tags
- Struts Logic Tags
- The Nested and Template Struts Tag Libraries
- The Struts Tiles Tag Library
- DynaForms and the Validator
- Using Struts with Enterprise Java Beans
- Using Struts with Web Services
- Building, Deploying and Testing Struts Applications
You can purchase Struts Kick Start from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
please mod this down since a book review about struts has nothing to do with what database you use to develop with, especially since Struts is java based and works fine with any db that has a JDBC driver.
...begins in wonder
Maybe if we trot out the ol' "Al Gore invented X" meme for a few more years it might get tired, but it sure isn't yet. Hey! I have an idea! Maybe we can even COMBINE CLICHES!
Hahahaha. I'm so clever. And let me just take a moment to make a joke about cigars and interns. And maybe even drop some comment about Vincent Foster, if I'm feeling really bona fide. MMMMMhmm.
Anyone with 3+ years experience can find a job fairly easily
Speaking of fairly large assumptions...
ich muß mehr Kuhglocke haben
Al Gore did not invent the Internet but then again he never said that he did that's a republican lie that gets told over and over.
Despite the fact that Al Gore did not invent the internet he was chanpioning it when virtually every other politician knew nothing about it. Al Gore recognized the importance of the internet very early while the rest of the dunces in congress were totally ignorant about it.
Go ahead and do some research, I dare you. I know it will be harder then listening Bill )'Reilly and parroting what he says but you may find it educational.
War is necrophilia.
Did you happen to see my nic? And it's not just some fashionably new nic since he won the Nobel Prize.
;)
It's NYE and you are all trolls.
-- jimmycarter
How do you get from that to "I invented it"
War is necrophilia.