struts forward link?

[Pat Peg]

Hi,

I have tried finding an answer but I cna't seem to locate a simple code example of how to do what should be a simple thing (Still learning struts)

I want to do this

<a href="somePage.jsp">page</a>

Do you still just do links the same way or is there a 'struts way' of doing this? If so, how?

Thanks

[Pat Peg]

I found an example here...
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/rtnlhelp/v6r0m0/index.jsp?topic=/com.ibm.etools.struts.doc/topics/cstrdoc006.html

and I am trying to implemet. What is the difference between a local and global forward? When would I use what?

In this part of the example....

<html:link forward="logoff"><bean:message key="mainMenu.logoff"/></html:link>

what is the "bean:message key="mainMenu.logoff"/" part doing?

[Merrill Higginson]

One of the differences between a global forward and a local forward is that you can't use a local forward in an <html:link> tag. You must use a global forward. The main difference, though, is that a global forward can be used in an Action class, whereas a local forward can be used only in the Action class for which the forward is defined.

As for the <bean:message> tag: here is a link to the documentation for the <bean> tags.

[Pat Peg]

Thanks for the link. I am trying to digest it but I think I am only confusing myself.

I learn best from examples, is there a simple code example somewhere that does just this one function? It seams like in the entire crawl-walk-run learning cycle struts has a few crawl, more run but almost no walk. It is very frustrating.

[Pat Peg]

Here is the code I have so far but it isn't working...

--------------------------------------------------struts-config file--------------------------------------------------------------------------
<!--Sturts config file for AST-->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE struts-config PUBLIC
"-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 1.1//EN"
"http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/dtds/struts-config_1_1.dtd">
<struts-config>
<!--  ==========   Form Bean Definitions   ========  -->

<!-- No form beans at this time -->
 
<!--  ==========   Action Mapping Definition   ========  -->
 
<!-- No Action Mappings at this time -->
 
<!--  ==========   Global Forward Definitions   ========  -->
<global-forwards>
<forward name="Next Page" path="/loggedIn.jsp"/>
</global-forwards>
<!--  ==========   Message Resource Definitions   ========  -->
<!-- No Message Resources at this time -->
</struts-congig>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
--------------------------------------------------------web.xml file--------------------------------------------------------------------------
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
 
<!DOCTYPE web-app
  PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.2//EN"
  "http://java.sun.com/j2ee/dtds/web-app_2_2.dtd">
 
<web-app>
 
  <!-- Action Servlet Configuration -->
  <servlet>
    <servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
      <param-name>config</param-name>
      <param-value>/WEB-INF/struts-config.xml</param-value>
    </init-param>
    <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
  </servlet>
 
  <!-- Action Servlet Mapping -->
  <servlet-mapping>
    <servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
    <url-pattern>*.do</url-pattern>
  </servlet-mapping>
 
  <!-- The Welcome File List -->
  <welcome-file-list>
    <welcome-file>login.jsp</welcome-file>
  </welcome-file-list>
 
  <!-- JSTL Tag Library Descriptor -->
  <taglib>
    <taglib-uri>/WEB-INF/c.tld</taglib-uri>
    <taglib-location>/WEB-INF/c.tld</taglib-location>
  </taglib>
 
  <taglib>
    <taglib-uri>/WEB-INF/fmt.tld</taglib-uri>
    <taglib-location>/WEB-INF/fmt.tld</taglib-location>
  </taglib>
 
  <taglib>
    <taglib-uri>/WEB-INF/sql.tld</taglib-uri>
    <taglib-location>/WEB-INF/sql.tld</taglib-location>
  </taglib>
 
  <taglib>
    <taglib-uri>/WEB-INF/x.tld</taglib-uri>
    <taglib-location>/WEB-INF/x.tld</taglib-location>
  </taglib>
  
  <!-- Struts Tag Library Descriptors -->
  <taglib>
    <taglib-uri>/WEB-INF/struts-bean-el.tld</taglib-uri>
    <taglib-location>/WEB-INF/struts-bean-el.tld</taglib-location>
  </taglib>
 
  <taglib>
    <taglib-uri>/WEB-INF/struts-html-el.tld</taglib-uri>
    <taglib-location>/WEB-INF/struts-html-el.tld</taglib-location>
  </taglib>
 
  <taglib>
    <taglib-uri>/WEB-INF/struts-logic-el.tld</taglib-uri>
    <taglib-location>/WEB-INF/struts-logic-el.tld</taglib-location>
  </taglib>
 
</web-app>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
--------------------------------------------------------login.jsp file--------------------------------------------------------------------------
<%@ page contentType="text/html;charset=UTF-8" language="java"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="fmt" uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="html" uri="/WEB-INF/struts-html-el.tld" %>
 
<html>
<Head>
<title>Test Page</title>
</Head>
<Body>
<html:link forward="Next Page"></html:link>
</Body>
<html>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
--------------------------------------------------------PageForward.java file------------------------------------------------------------
package struts;
 
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;
 
import org.apache.struts.action.Action;
import org.apache.struts.action.ActionForm;
import org.apache.struts.action.ActionForward;
import org.apache.struts.action.ActionMapping;
 
public class PageForward extends Action{
public ActionForward execute( ActionMapping mapping,
ActionForm form,
HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws Exception
{
String returnValue = "failure";
if(true)//always works at this point
{
returnValue = "success";
}
return(mapping.findForward(returnValue));
}
 
}
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I did not put a bean in because I am not sure that I need one-I don't know if that is allowed

Also, on my pageforward class, I couldn't think of a fail case so I am not sure if what I did there was correct or not.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Merrill Higginson]

Pat,

I'm going to suggest a change in approach here. Rather than struggling through creating your own application without any guidelines, I'd suggest you lay this project aside for a while, and do one of the many good Struts tutorials that are out there. These will walk you step-by-step through the process of creating and testing a Struts application. Once you have done one or two of these, I think you'll be much more ready to tackle your own application.

Here are some links to a few good Struts tutorials:

http://javaboutique.internet.com/tutorials/Struts/

http://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsTutorials