Programming Jakarta Struts, 2nd Edition [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

4.8 The Struts Console Tool

When
you're developing a small application, the Struts
configuration is manageable. It's still XML, but
typically it's not much of a problem. Some
developers use XML editors, while others use ordinary text editors.
Both of these are fine when the application is relatively small, but
when you are working on a large Struts project, the size and
complexity of the file can be staggering.

The Struts Console application was created by
James Holmes
to solve this and other problems associated with managing large
configuration files. It is a Swing-based application that provides an
easy-to-use interface for editing the various elements of the Struts
configuration file.

You can download the Struts Console for free from http://www.jamesholmes.com/
struts/console, even though it's not open
source software. No license currently is necessary, but you should
check the web site to make sure this hasn't changed.

The formatting of your Struts configuration file might be modified when you save the file using the Console. The Console uses an XML parser to read in the configuration file, and the parser can't maintain complete knowledge of how the file was originally formatted. The Console does provide several output options that you can use to format the XML file based on different formats.

Figure 4-5 shows the action screen from the Struts
Console.

Figure 4-5. The action configuration screen from the Struts Console

The Struts Console application also plugs into multiple popular Java
integrated development environments (IDEs). Currently, the supported
IDEs include:

• JBuilder (4.0 or higher)

• Eclipse (1.0 or higher)

• NetBeans (3.2 or higher)

• Oracle JDeveloper (9i or higher)

• Sun One Studio (3.0 or higher)

Figure 4-6 shows what the Console application looks
like in JBuilder.

Figure 4-6. The Struts Console running in the JBuilder IDE