The main advantage of using ActionForm beans is that it serves as a
Java representation of the data on a page.
Struts automatically "binds" the form bean to the page and transparently transfers data to and from the form bean, thereby saving you a lot of code.
When used in conjunction with the html:xxx tags (html:text, html:select, html:radio, etc.) your form elements will be populated automatically by Struts. So, in stead of writing:
you just write
If the "firstName" property of the form bean has a value when the page is rendered, it will be displayed.
Similarly, when the form is submitted, Struts automatically transfers all values submitted with the form to the ActionForm bean without you having to write any code to do so.