The document discusses the Struts framework and the Tiles plugin. It provides an overview of Struts, describing its main objects and MVC architecture. It then explains what a plugin is and how it can be used to extend Struts functionality. Specifically, it details how the Tiles plugin addresses limitations of including layouts across pages by defining templates that can be reused. It provides an example of configuring and using the Tiles plugin with Struts to define page layouts, headers, footers and dynamic content in a modular way.

1. Extending Struts Prepared by: Ramez Hassan

2. Agenda Struts Overview : Basic review on struts framework. Stating struts main objects. What is a plug-in? ModuleConfig story. Tiles plug-in: Default design procedure. Tiles with struts.

3. Struts Overview Struts is a framework that is built on MVC 2 architectural pattern. Struts Flow review. Struts gives extension capabilities to each step.

4. Struts Overview Struts Main Objects: ActionServlet. RequestProcessor. ModuleConfig. ActionClass. ActionForm. JSP view.

5. What is a plug-in ? A plug-in is a configuration wrapper for a module-specific resource or service that needs to be notified about application startup and shutdown events.

6. What is a plug-in ? How to plug in a struts plug-in ?

7. What is a plug-in ? How to write a plug-in ?

8. What is a plug-in ? What is ModuleConfig ?

9. So, A Plug-in is … A useful feature in struts framework that facilitate: Dynamically wrap any resource of struts framework, e.g. RequestProcessor. Initialize any business component for the application, e.g. Hibernate.

10. Tiles Plug-in Applying html layout procedures: Default Design procedure was to copy and paste layout to every new page. Altering in design could lead to a resources leak, even though it’s a periodical procedure for any web application.

11. Tiles Plug-in Applying html layout procedures (cont.): <jsp:include> allows you to include either a static or dynamic file in a JSP file {every page will use jsp:include}. The problem: when the architecture changes even a small td in a table will lead to alterations in every page in the site.

12. Tiles Plug-in Tiles Solution : Applying same mechanism of <jsp:include /> but with defining the layout it self in a separate page. The components in this case will be:

13. Tiles Plug-in Tiles Solution (cont.): Each new page in this case will require defining the following : Page body (which the part that changes frequently, 0 to n pages). Page layout (The layout that will be attached when displaying the page). Any dynamic or static content will be referenced in the layout, e.g. header , footer and/or menu. This solution made it much better in changing layout but a little bit difficult in pages maintenance.

14. Tiles Plug-in Struts Tiles plug-in Solution: The same as tile solution except adding XML capabilities in definition and Objects relation as well.

15. Tiles Plug-in Struts Tiles plug-in Solution (cont.): Struts Tiles demo.

16. Tiles Plug-in Struts Tiles demo (cont.): XML Configurations:-

17. Tiles Plug-in Struts Tiles demo (cont.): Static Objects tiles_static/header.jsp tiles_static/menu.jsp tiles_static/footer.jsp

18. Tiles Plug-in Struts Tiles demo (cont.): Layout Definition Page: tiles_layout/layout_small.jsp

19. Tiles Plug-in Struts Tiles demo (cont.): Adding tiles into layout using struts-tiles.tld:

20. Tiles Plug-in Struts Tiles demo (cont.): Finally the page to display :- I can write my code in the page /demos/myPage.jsp and don’t worry about layout any more.

21. Tiles Plug-in Struts Tiles demo (cont.): How can struts actions interact with tile page:

22. Tiles Plug-in Configurations needed :

23. Tiles Plug-in How does tiles plug-in work…? Replaces RequestProcessor in startup with TilesRequestProcessor. TilesRequestProcessor class overrides processForwardConfig() to handle any navigation to any tiles definition. In processing a definition, all pages is included using doForward() doInclude() or of RequestProcessor which uses methods of RequestDispatcher.

24. Tiles Plug-in Tiles attributes: TileScope is a ComponentContext for tiles components (pages). <tile:useAttribute name=“” id=“” scope=“”/> is used to move attributes from tiles scope to request scope.

25. Tiles Plug-in Tiles attributes (cont.): < put:list name=“demoList”> < item value=“link1&quot; link=&quot;/li1.do&quot; /> < item value=“link2&quot; link=&quot;/li2.do&quot; /> < item value=“link2&quot; link=&quot;/li3.do&quot; /> </ put:list > Values can be retrieved and used as List in any scope.

26. Questions ?

27. Thank You