Struts2
Posted by Ken Brooks Wed, 25 Apr 2007 20:46:00 GMT
I figured that I don’t have to always post something earth changing. That is why I probably haven’t posted anything
Not like struts is breaking news to anyone in the java Web community but I thought I would voice my first impressions.
One of the latest things I came across and decided to finally investigate is Struts2. About a year ago I did a small POC in WebWork and I really liked what that framework had to offer for the Java Web community. After learning Ruby on Rails shortly before that I was definitely not interested in dealing with the shortcomings of Struts. I got some encouraging news when the WebWork and Struts teams decided to merge.
The result: Struts2 Basically the equation is this: Struts Name + WebWork2 Framework = Struts2. So really I get the best of both worlds.
I went thru the tutorial last weekend which was very nice to get an overview of a few features. I would have to say tho that (while better documented that many Open Source projects) the documentation is a bit helter skelter. They take you thru a tutorial as if you are writing the code yourself but up front offer a number of precanned examples, some of which don’t match the tutorial they are guiding you thru. Ok, that is my only gripe to get out of the way.
I think one of the things that jumps out at me quickest is the ability to test more parts of the code without resorting to all kinds of tricks or test frameworks. Instantiate the Action and execute. Simple.
The other interesting addition is the validation. Of course validations are a part of pretty much every web framework, big deal. These are driven by annotations however. I think I rather like the idea of that. Less configurations and keeping it closer to the source.
While a tutorial isn’t exactly putting it all thru its paces I think that this framework is heading in the right direction.
Up next: Stripes test drive and trying to implement Guice into my Struts2 example as the IOC.
