Struts is the most popular framework for building scalable Java Web applications. The first part of this book explains the latest version of Struts and teaches how to build real-world Struts applications. The second part goes the extra mile to discuss how to design Struts applications and solve common problems in Struts development. It's like two books at the price of one.

More importantly, this book is a tutorial designed to make the reader truly understand the concepts. It explains not only how to use Struts' features, but also how a certain feature works under the hood and which to choose if similar features exist. Examples are relevant and based on real-world applications. Several important topics rarely mentioned in other books—such as file upload, paging, object caching—are given detailed treatment.

The first part is for beginners and Struts developers who don't feel they have a complete grasp of Struts. It explains the following and many more:

- The Model-View-Controller design pattern
- Action forms
- User input validation
- The Validator Plug-in
- JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL)
- The JSP 2.0 Expression Language (EL)
- HTML, Bean, Logic, Nested Tag Libraries
- Application configuration
- The Custom SelectLabel Tag
- Tiles - Message handling and internationalization
- Struts-JSF Plug-in
- The open source DisplayTag Library
- File upload and programmable file download
- Jakarta Commons BeanUtil Class

In addition, this book deals with many design topics such as
- Data persistence
- Transfer objects
- Configuration information sharing
- Object caching
- Application security
- Paging and sorting
- HttpServletRequest wrapping
- Early session invalidation

The last chapter, "How Struts Works", dissects Struts' source code and explains the components that together make Struts tick. This chapter is particularly interesting to readers who want to know how Struts works in the background and how to extend Struts. Understanding it helps you design and develop more effective Struts applications.

This book is for you if you need one written with clarity and readability in mind.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 24 Ratings

Excellent Book!!! - 2006-12-17
Reviewer Rating:
I bought this book based on the very positive reviews on this forum and I was not disappointed. I read the entire book from cover to cover and tested the sample code that can be downloaded from the publisher's website. With the exception of a single chapter (13), I was able to run all applications successfully with Tomcat. Note that there are a few errors in the code (not syntax but logical, so you don't see the desired result on the web page once you hit submit on the initial page) but these can easily be fixed. This book has a load of valuable information on Struts. While you do need patience to read it, it does not get boring at any point. Well deserved kudos to the author for doing an excellent job explaining Struts. Highly recommended to any one wanting to learn from Struts. If you have no experience with J2EE but you have experience with Java, do not start with this book as it might get too hard at times. Instead start with some thing more basic such as Head First Servlet and JSP and then move on to this book. If you already know JSPs and Servlets, then this book will teach you pretty much everything you need to know about Struts.

Good layout, unclear explanations - 2007-03-08
Reviewer Rating:
I bought this book after reading a lot of positive reviews... and i'm a little disappointed.

Minuses of this books are:
- language - it's very poor - i guess the author is not a native speaker; the content of the book may be very unclear for people who don't speak english in everyday life (as i do),
- unclear explanations - a lot of easy things are explained in an obscure way. In addition some parts of the book just seem to be incomplete - sometimes you just want to grasp something and you can't because there is lack of information - you turn the page in hope you'll find what you think should be there and... there's entirely new subject there,
- some examples are not printed in the book so if you want to read them you have to turn on you computer - i don't like it.

Pluses:
- nice layout - chapters are arranged in a logical and intuitive way, the most simple and general ones at the beginning, the most exceptional at the end. I suppose it will be fast and easy to find something if there is a need to recall it,
- a lot of simple examples - even if you are not able to understand the explanations of some subjects you can easily grasp them by reading the examples.

In general - this book can help you learn Struts but you have to read it very patiently and carefully. Don't buy this book if you think you have a better choice.

good book overall - lacking details - expensive for the content - 2007-03-08
Reviewer Rating:

Excellent reference to learn struts - 2007-02-21
Reviewer Rating:
I found this book very clear and concise. I used it as a reference in my work and it has been of a great help to me.
I highly recommend it!!

Pretty good book - 2007-01-09
Reviewer Rating:
In my opinion, there aren't many great books out there on learning struts, that will also get you into some of the real life details and reality of struts programming. I went back in forth between this book and Ted Husted's Struts In Action (which is better but a few years older so not quite as up to date). Between the 2 of these books I've been able to get a fairly good understanding of struts and tiles.

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