to .do or not to .do?

[Tony Smith]

I get confused sometimes where to put the .do extension.
Assuming struts is setup to handle all the *.do extension:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*.do</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>

Is it safe to assume all the abcs.do in jsp pages will be treated like /abcs ? Can't we just not put .do extention at all? Because sometimes I see places with .do, sometimes I don't.

I know some places if you put .do it may actually crash the program. Such as in Struts-config.xml in the action mapping area...

[Merrill Higginson]

The rule of thumb that I follow is:

If it's in a Struts tag, don't use .do. If it's not a Struts tag, you must use .do. Examples:

<html:form action="/myAction" >
<form action="/myAction.do" >
 
<html:link action="/myAction" >click here</html:link>
<a href="/myAction.do">click here</a>

While Struts tags will generally accept .do, it's generally less confusing if you leave it out.