Adding and Using the Conventions Plugin
I think every struts2 user should be using the conventions plugin. It reduces xml to almost nothing, speeds up development time and improves readablility. I really can't think of a down side.
Starting with an empty Struts2 project.
All we need to do is add the struts2-conventions-plugin (using the same version as struts2) to your class path.
Using the conventions plugin is very easy!
It forms a relationship between your packages and the JSPs under WEB-INF (you can use other view technology but in this example we'll use JSPs).
Basic Rules you must obey when using conventions
- Packages are scanned for "action", "struts" or "struts2" when such a package is found all Classes which implement ActionSupport or end with the name "Action" become actions.
- The package structure after "action", "struts" or "struts2" become part of the name space for the action.
- JSPs for the root namespace are found under /WEB-INF/content other name spaces are added as folders under content.
- JSPs under /WEB-INF/content automatically become actions even if there is no corresponding action class.
- Action Classes will follow Java standard naming, that is camel case and the JSPs will be all lower case with hyphens between words.
Examples
The following examples use the the following:
Server: http://localhost:8080/
Context Root: Example/
So all our pages will be prefixed with http://localhost:8080/Example/
Example 1 - Create an action to display a Form (No action class required)
The following create an action to display a JSP which allows the user to enter their name, in the next example we allow them to submit it and process the results.
Create a JSP at /WEB-INF/content/enter-name.jsp
<%@taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags"%>
<%@page contentType="text/html" pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>Enter Name Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Enter Name Example</h1>
<s:form action="process-form">
Please enter your name: <s:textfield name="name"/>
<s:submit/>
</s:form>
</body>
</html>
To access this action: http://localhost:8080/Example/enter-name
