Programming Jakarta Struts

Chapter 3. Overview of the Struts Framework

It’s finally time to introduce the Struts framework. Familiarity with the material from the previous two chapters will allow you to absorb the information here much faster. This chapter provides an overview of the Struts framework. It does not attempt to cover all of its features or go into significant depth; instead, it emphasizes how all the pieces fit into the MVC and Model 2 architecture presented in Chapter 1.

The rest of the book will be spent pulling back the layers and uncovering the details of the framework, expanding on the basic concepts and terminology introduced here. It is important that you have a firm grasp of the fundamentals presented in this chapter—even if you are familiar with the basic concepts of the Struts framework, you should read through this chapter before going on.

A Banking Account Example

This section introduces an online banking application that will be used to familiarize you with Struts. The example presented here is not complete, but it provides an overview of the major components that are present in all Struts applications and shows how those components fit together. A more comprehensive and thorough shopping-cart example will be used throughout the rest of the book.

Most people are familiar with the concept of online banking, so we won’t spend too much time explaining the business requirements. In short, the online banking application will allow an end user to log in to the financial institution’s web ...