How to begin coding a struts app

1
How to begin coding a struts app

• Now you understand some of the pieces in a struts
  application, but how do you go about putting one
  together
• There are at least two different approaches
• Jsp/form flow first
• Logic first
• Important first step is the use cases
• Its going to be iterative

2
Jsp/flow first

• Good when you want customer feedback on how the
  site will flow.
• Write all the jsps and formbeans and then hook
  them up with dummy actions that forward on
• They should be treated as prelim since flow may
  have to change based upon logic
• Dangerous because client may want things not to
  change
• What I have used so far

3
Logic first

• Might be a preferred method
• You write all your logic and then wire the view
  around it.
• Makes it so that you can have a java applet as a
  front-end or struts

4
Hybrid

• Web design team works on flow with dummy actions
• Java coders and DB people work on logic
• Wire it together when finished
• Needs increased communication throughout the
  process

5
Spielmans book (abbrev)

• Use case
• Define screen requirements
• Determine access paths between screens
• Define ActionMappings
• Create ActionForms
• Make your actions
• Develop logic
• Create jsps
• Final wiring with struts-config or web.xml
• Build, test, deploy
• Grain of salt

6
What we need to do

• Change the jsp page to a strutsified jsp page
• Make a formbean
• Make a data-access object
• Write the code to hook it up
• Lets go to the lab

7
Final application

• We are going to make the book list dynamic from
  the database
• Need to put the data in the FormBean before we
  render the form.
• Not well documented (at least when I checked it
  out)