Create Struts portlets and projects

Creating Struts portlets and projects

Struts portlet projects share common characteristics with standard portlet and Struts projects, although there are some differences that you should be aware of. The Struts portlet project structure and related resources are dictated by the Struts Portlet Framework (SPF) support provided by WebSphere Portal and included in Rational Developer.

Struts portlet projects are created using the New Portlet Project wizard. A default Struts-type portlet, and, optionally, a Web diagram file, will be added in the process of creating the project. The wizard automatically generates Struts portlet configuration files and the necessary updates to the web.xml file, and adds all of the SPF tag libraries and JAR files to the project, in the directory structure that is required.

The following types of resources defined by the Struts Portlet Framework will be included in the project:

Resource type Files Target directory Notes
TLDs All of the *.tld files in the SPFLegacyBlank.war WEB-INF
JARs All the *.jar files with the exception of Blank.jar in the SPFLegacyBlank.war WEB-INF/lib
Configuration files
struts-config.xml
struts-config-mode.xml (for different modes/markup)
portlet.xml

WEB-INF
The <controller> element that defines the Request Processor class is automatically generated in the Struts configuration file.

Deployment descriptors
portlet.xml
web.xml

WEB-INF
The following modifications are made to the standard web.xml file:

The servlet WpsStrutsPortlet is added.
Web-app, servlet, and servlet-mapping tags have ID attributes with string values, suffixed with a unique ID to prevent conflicts with other portlets.
WpsStrutsPortlet is configured using a prefix-based mapping, with an extension-based servlet-mapping defined in the struts-servlet-mapping init parameter of the servlet. An extension-based mapping should be used when including Struts links. If you want to run this Struts portlet project as an standalone application, change the servlet-mapping entry from an extension-based servlet-mapping (*.do) to a prefix-based mapping (for example, a URL pattern such as /app/*).
Note: You cannot use the same configuration for a Web project and an portlet application.
Extension-based mapping is required and is defined in the initial parameter for the WpsStrutsPortlet, for the parameter struts-servlet-mapping.
Struts portlet tag library definitions are used.
Portlet mode configuration information is included in portlet.xml. Since (for SPF) mode and markup are treated as Struts modules, these modules are also defined as part of the initial parameter for the WpsStrutsPortlet.
Welcome-file list support for Struts modes is supplied.
Struts portlet-related init-param values are supplied.

The following sample configuration and deployment descriptor file snippets show representative tagging used within Struts portlet projects:
struts-config.xml
The following controller section is added to all struts configuration files:
<controller processorClass="com.ibm.wps.portlets.struts.WpsRequestProcessor">
</controller>
web.xml
This shows a sample Struts portlet servlet added to web.xml. (Struts portlet-specific values in bold.):
<servlet id="Struts_Unique_Servlet_Name">
     <servlet-name>Struts</servlet-name>
     <display-name>Struts Portlet</display-name>
     <servlet-class>com.ibm.wps.portlets.struts.WpsStrutsPortlet</servlet-class>

   
     <init-param>
       <param-name>config</param-name>
       <param-value>/WEB-INF/struts-config.xml</param-value>
     </init-param>
     <init-param>
       <param-name>struts-servlet-mapping</param-name>
       <param-value>*.do</param-value>
     </init-param> 
     
</servlet>
Note: The config parameter above is the standard way to define a Struts configuration file and modules. This is an example of servlet-mapping for a Struts portlet servlet.
<servlet-mapping id="Struts_Unique_ServletMapping">
      <servlet-name>Struts</servlet-name>
      <url-pattern>/Struts/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
This is an example of additional tag libraries to be added to web.xml:
<taglib>
    <taglib-uri>/WEB-INF/struts-html.tld</taglib-uri>
    <taglib-location>/WEB-INF/struts-html.tld</taglib-location>
</taglib>
portlet.xml
This is an example of an abstract portlet defined in portlet.xml:
<portlet-app uid="A_Unique_ID:1" major-version="1" minor-version="0">
    <portlet-app-name>Struts Portlet Application</portlet-app-name>
    <portlet id="Portlet_1" 
href="WEB-INF/web.xml#Struts_Unique_Servlet_Name"
major-version="1" minor-version="0">
        <portlet-name>Struts Portlet</portlet-name>
        <cache>
            <expires>0</expires>
            <shared>NO</shared>
        </cache>
        <allows>
            <maximized/>
            <minimized/>
        </allows>
            <supports>
               <markup name="html">
                  <view/>
               </markup>
            </supports>
    </portlet>
</portlet-app>
This is an example of a concrete portlet defined in portlet.xml:
<concrete-portlet-app uid="A_Unique_ID:1.1">
    <portlet-app-name>Struts Blank Application</portlet-app-name>
    <concrete-portlet href="#Portlet_1">
        <portlet-name>Struts Portlet</portlet-name>
        <default-locale>en</default-locale>
        <language locale="en">
            <title>Struts Portlet</title>
            <title-short>Struts Portlet</title-short>
            <description>Struts Portlet</description>
            <keywords>WPS, Struts</keywords>
        </language>
        <config-param>
           <param-name>FilterChain</param-name>
           <param-value>StrutsTranscoding</param-value>
        </config-param>
        
    </concrete-portlet>
</concrete-portlet-app>
Note: The <config-param> element is not used with WebSphere Portal v5.1.
Related concepts
Struts portlet applications
Struts Portlet Framework
Working with portlet deployment descriptors
Struts-based Web applications - overview
Struts tools for application development

Related tasks
Creating Struts portlets
Creating Struts portlet JSP files
Creating well-architected Web applications using Struts

Related reference
Differences between Struts 1.1 and SPF tag library classes

Resource type	Files	Target directory	Notes
TLDs	All of the *.tld files in the SPFLegacyBlank.war	WEB-INF
JARs	All the *.jar files with the exception of Blank.jar in the SPFLegacyBlank.war	WEB-INF/lib
Configuration files	struts-config.xml struts-config-mode.xml (for different modes/markup) portlet.xml	WEB-INF	The <controller> element that defines the Request Processor class is automatically generated in the Struts configuration file.
Deployment descriptors	portlet.xml web.xml	WEB-INF	The following modifications are made to the standard web.xml file: The servlet WpsStrutsPortlet is added. Web-app, servlet, and servlet-mapping tags have ID attributes with string values, suffixed with a unique ID to prevent conflicts with other portlets. WpsStrutsPortlet is configured using a prefix-based mapping, with an extension-based servlet-mapping defined in the struts-servlet-mapping init parameter of the servlet. An extension-based mapping should be used when including Struts links. If you want to run this Struts portlet project as an standalone application, change the servlet-mapping entry from an extension-based servlet-mapping (`.do`) to a prefix-based mapping (for example, a URL pattern such as `/app/`). Note: You cannot use the same configuration for a Web project and an portlet application. Extension-based mapping is required and is defined in the initial parameter for the WpsStrutsPortlet, for the parameter struts-servlet-mapping. Struts portlet tag library definitions are used. Portlet mode configuration information is included in portlet.xml. Since (for SPF) mode and markup are treated as Struts modules, these modules are also defined as part of the initial parameter for the WpsStrutsPortlet. Welcome-file list support for Struts modes is supplied. Struts portlet-related init-param values are supplied.