InSight: RIVIER ACADEMIC JOURNAL, VOLUME 14, NUMBER 1, FALL 2018
Copyright©2018 by Saroj Maharjan. Published by Rivier University, with permission 1
ISSN 1559-9388 (online version), ISSN 1559-9396 (CD-ROM version).
Abstract
There are a number of framework technologies which can be used to develop web applications. But
since the web applications are getting more complex over time, the frameworks that can used to develop
them should also be advanced to handle the complex requirements. This project walks us thorough
Struts framework, which is one of most popular and used web application frameworks. The project was
part of the final project implemented for CS699 “Professional Seminar in Computer Science” course
which is based on the research on Struts framework and a web application which was developed based
on Struts. This article summaries the benefits of using Struts framework in web application, its
comparison with LAMP technology, drawbacks of Struts and finally, the web application which was
developed following the software development steps.
1 Introduction
Struts is a complete web framework, provides complete web form components, validator,
internalization, error handling, tiles layout, low learning curve and easy to implement it. It is an open
source software that helps developers build web applications quickly and easily. Struts combines Java
Servlets, Java Server Pages, custom tags, and message resources into a unified framework. It is a
cooperative, synergistic platform suitable for development teams, independent developers, and everyone
in between.
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And J2EE is actually a collection of technologies and APIs for the Java platform designed
to support "enterprise" applications which can generally be classed as large-scale, distributed,
transactional and highly-available applications designed to support mission-critical business
requirements.
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MVC (Model View Controller), on the other hand, is a design pattern which separates the
representation of information from the user's interaction with it. The model contains the business logic
and interacts with the persistent storage to store, retrieve and manipulate data. The view is responsible
for displaying the results back to the user. In Struts the view layer is implemented using JSP. The
controller handles all the request from the user and selects the appropriate view to return. And the
controller's job is done by the ActionServlet.
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1.1 How does Struts work?
Apache Struts implements the MVC/Layers pattern using ActionForwards and ActionMappings to keep
control-flow decisions out of the presentation layer. When the Client browser issues an HTTP request,
the ActionServlet receives the request. Then after struts-config.xml file contains the details regarding the
Actions, ActionForms, ActionMappings and ActionForwards. During the startup, the ActionServlet
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n.d. Apache Struts - Welcome to the Apache Struts Project. struts.apache.org.
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1997. DZone. Accessed October 20, 2018. http://www.dzone.com/tutorials/css/struts.
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2000. FYIcenter. Accessed November 10, 2018. http://dev.fyicenter.com.
SOCIAL NETWORKING WEB APPLICATION USING STRUTS
FRAMEWORK
Saroj Maharjan*
Student, M.S./Computer Science Program, Rivier University