Cannot get Struts 2 to Work

[J Ellis]

I am trying to learn Struts 2 and I am having a problem getting my first application to work. The application is supposed to have two actions, "Product_input" and "Product_save." When I try to perform either action (e.g., I navigate to " http://localhost:8080/Struts2App02/app02a/Product_input.action") I get a 404 error message: "There is no Action mapped for action name Product_input."

I am using Eclipse for my test environment (I can get non-strut JSP Model 2 applications to work just fine). One strange thing is that in my console it first says, "INFO: Unable to locate configuration files of the name struts.xml, skipping" and then it says, "INFO: Parsing configuration file [struts.xml]." Does this mean it is, or it is not finding my struts.xml file? The struts.xml file is sitting in the "WebContent" directory.

Here is my console output:

Aug 30, 2009 11:46:32 PM org.apache.tomcat.util.digester.SetPropertiesRule begin
WARNING: [SetPropertiesRule]{Server/Service/Engine/Host/Context} Setting property 'source' to 'org.eclipse.jst.jee.server:Struts2App02' did not find a matching property.
Aug 30, 2009 11:46:32 PM org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener init
INFO: The APR based Apache Tomcat Native library which allows optimal performance in production environments was not found on the java.library.path: /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.14/jre/lib/i386/server:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.14/jre/lib/i386:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.14/jre/../lib/i386:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.14/jre/lib/i386/client:/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.14/jre/lib/i386:/usr/lib/xulrunner-addons:/usr/lib/xulrunner-addons:/usr/java/packages/lib/i386:/lib:/usr/lib
Aug 30, 2009 11:46:32 PM org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol init
INFO: Initializing Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-8080
Aug 30, 2009 11:46:32 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina load
INFO: Initialization processed in 505 ms
Aug 30, 2009 11:46:32 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService start
INFO: Starting service Catalina
Aug 30, 2009 11:46:32 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine start
INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/6.0.18
Aug 30, 2009 11:46:33 PM com.opensymphony.xwork2.util.logging.commons.CommonsLogger info
INFO: Parsing configuration file [struts-default.xml]
Aug 30, 2009 11:46:33 PM com.opensymphony.xwork2.util.logging.commons.CommonsLogger info
INFO: Unable to locate configuration files of the name struts-plugin.xml, skipping
Aug 30, 2009 11:46:33 PM com.opensymphony.xwork2.util.logging.commons.CommonsLogger info
INFO: Parsing configuration file [struts-plugin.xml]
Aug 30, 2009 11:46:33 PM com.opensymphony.xwork2.util.logging.commons.CommonsLogger info
INFO: Unable to locate configuration files of the name struts.xml, skipping
Aug 30, 2009 11:46:33 PM com.opensymphony.xwork2.util.logging.commons.CommonsLogger info
INFO: Parsing configuration file [struts.xml]
Aug 30, 2009 11:46:33 PM org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol start
INFO: Starting Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-8080
Aug 30, 2009 11:46:33 PM org.apache.jk.common.ChannelSocket init
INFO: JK: ajp13 listening on /0.0.0.0:8009
Aug 30, 2009 11:46:34 PM org.apache.jk.server.JkMain start
INFO: Jk running ID=0 time=0/180  config=null
Aug 30, 2009 11:46:34 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
INFO: Server startup in 1436 ms
Aug 30, 2009 11:53:31 PM com.opensymphony.xwork2.util.logging.commons.CommonsLogger warn
WARNING: Could not find action or result
There is no Action mapped for action name Product_input. - [unknown location]
	at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionProxy.prepare(DefaultActionProxy.java:177)
	at org.apache.struts2.impl.StrutsActionProxy.prepare(StrutsActionProxy.java:61)
	at org.apache.struts2.impl.StrutsActionProxyFactory.createActionProxy(StrutsActionProxyFactory.java:39)
	at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionProxyFactory.createActionProxy(DefaultActionProxyFactory.java:47)
	at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.Dispatcher.serviceAction(Dispatcher.java:458)
	at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.FilterDispatcher.doFilter(FilterDispatcher.java:395)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
	at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:433)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:128)
	at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:102)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
	at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:286)
	at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:845)
	at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11Protocol.java:583)
	at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$Worker.run(JIoEndpoint.java:447)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)

Here is my Web.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">
  <display-name>Struts2App02</display-name>
  
  <!-- http://localhost:8080/Struts2App02/app02a/Product_input.action -->
  
  <filter>
  	<filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
  	<filter-class>org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.FilterDispatcher</filter-class>
  </filter>
  <filter-mapping>
  	<filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
  	<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
  </filter-mapping>
  
  <!--  Restrict direct access to JSPs
  		For the security constraint to work, the auth-constraint
  		and login-config elements must be present -->
  		
  <security-constraint>
  	<web-resource-collection>
  		<web-resource-name>JSPs</web-resource-name>
  		<url-pattern>/jsp/*</url-pattern>
  	</web-resource-collection>
  	<auth-constraint/>
  </security-constraint>
  
  <login-config>
  	<auth-method>BASIC</auth-method>
  </login-config>
  
</web-app>

Here is my struts.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE struts PUBLIC "-//APache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 2.0//EN" "http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-2.0.dtd">

<struts>

	<!-- Un-comment to disable dynamic method invocation -->
	<!-- <constant name="struts.enable.DynamicMethodInvoication" value="false"/> -->
	
	<!-- Un-comment to switch struts to development mode -->
	<!-- <constant name="struts.devMode" value="true"/> -->
	
	<package name="app02a" namespace="/" extends="struts-default">
	
		<!--	The Product_input action does not have an action class;
				it simply forwards control to the ProductFOrm.jsp page -->
		<action name="Product_input">
			<result>/app02a/jsp/ProductForm.jsp</result>
		</action>
		
		<!--	The Product_save action has a non-default action class (app02.Product);
				since no method attribute is present in the action declaration,
				the execute method in the Product class will be invoked -->
		<action name="Product_save" class="app02a.Product">
			<result>/app02a/jsp/ProductDetails.jsp</result>
		</action>
	
	</package>
</struts>

Here is my directory structure:



Anyone have any ideas?

J

[Ankit Garg]

Your struts.xml file should go into the WEB-INF/classes directory in the generated .war file. For that I think you will need to put it into the root of your src folder i.e. directly under the src folder (at least this is how it is done in Netbeans, can't say about eclipse)...

[Nishan Patel]

(at least this is how it is done in Netbeans, can't say about eclipse

Hi Ankit, yes it is same at the eclipse and MyEclipse...

Struts.xml file put under the direct src folder of your application... or WEB-INF/classe at your deployment environment .....

[J Ellis]

Ankit and Nishan,

Thank you very much, moving struts.xml to the src directory worked! However, my application is still not working as I expected, and the book I am using to learn this is very vague. Basically, the application is supposed to allow you to input some text fields (you enter a product's name, the product's description, and a price) and then it is supposed to display a page showing what you just entered. On my application the second page is displaying, but it is displaying blanks where it is supposed to show the information I entered. This application consists of 1 java class and 2 jsp pages. Would you please look at the code and the configuration files above and tell me where I am going wrong?

Project.class:

package app02a;

import java.io.Serializable;

public class Product implements Serializable {
	private String productName;
	private String description;
	private String price;
	
	public String getProductName() {
		return productName;
	}
	public void setProductName(String productName) {
		this.productName = productName;
	}
	
	public String getDescription() {
		return description;
	}
	public void setDescription(String description) {
		this.description = description;
	}
	
	public String getPrice() {
		return price;
	}
	public void setPrice(String price) {
		this.price = price;
	}

	public String execute() {
		return "success";
	}
}

ProductForm.jsp:

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8"
    pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>Add Product Form</title>
</head>
<body>
<div id="global">
	<h3>Add a product</h3>
	<form method="post" action="Product_save">
	<table>
	<tr>
		<td>Product Name:</td>
		<td><input type="text" name="productName"/></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Description:</td>
		<td><input type="text" name="description"/></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td>Price:</td>
		<td><input type="text" name="price"/></td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
		<td><input type="reset"/></td>
		<td><input type="submit" value="Add Product"/></td>
	</tr>
	</table>
	</form>
</div>
</body>
</html>

ProductDetails.jsp:

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8"
    pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>Saved Product</title>
<style type="text/css">@import url(app01a/css/main.css);</style>
</head>
<body>
<div id="global">
	<h4>The product has been saved.</h4>
	<p>
		<h5>Details:</h5>
		Product Name: ${product.productName}<br/>
		Description: ${product.description}<br/>
		Price: ${product.price}<br/>
	</p>
</div>
</body>
</html>

[Ankit Garg]

Can you show us the code for your Action class...

[Nishan Patel]

Hi,

Please make sure your action class declare

 private Product product    

and getter and setter for product.

Now make some change at your jsp code.. like...

  # <form method="post" action="Product_save">  
#     <table>  
 #     <tr>  
 #         <td>Product Name:</td>  
 #         <td><input type="text" name="product.productName"/></td>  
 #     </tr>  
 #     <tr>  
 #         <td>Description:</td>  
 #         <td><input type="text" name="product.description"/></td>  
 #     </tr>  
 #     <tr>  
 #         <td>Price:</td>  
 #         <td><input type="text" name="product.price"/></td>  
 #     </tr>  
 #     <tr>  
 #         <td><input type="reset"/></td>  
 #         <td><input type="submit" value="Add Product"/></td>  
 #     </tr>  
 #     </table>  
#     </form>    

this will set your Product bean automatically and then you can show at your jsp page....

[Ankit Garg]

Nishan is correct. You need to put the word product (the name of Product instance in your Action) before the property names. I was just wondering to see the action because you might have used the model-driven way...

[David Newton]

The Product class (as written) *is* the action:

public class Product implements Serializable {  
    private String productName;  
    private String description;  
    private String price;  
      
    public String getProductName() {  
        return productName;  
    }  
    public void setProductName(String productName) {  
        this.productName = productName;  
    }  
      
    public String getDescription() {  
        return description;  
    }  
    public void setDescription(String description) {  
        this.description = description;  
    }  
      
    public String getPrice() {  
        return price;  
    }  
    public void setPrice(String price) {  
        this.price = price;  
    }  
  
    public String execute() {  
        return "success";  
    }

See the execute() method? The JSP as written is correct; there is no Product bean. That makes the JSP incorrect, since it *does* reference a product bean.

So it should be written one way or the other, but preferably not both.

[Ankit Garg]

But the product class is not inherited from Action interface. Isn't it required for actions to be a sub-type of Action interface??

[J Ellis]

According to the book I am following ("Struts 2 Design and Programming" by Budi Kurniawan) and as far as I can tell, David Newton is correct, the Product class is the action class. From what I gather (and I am very new at this), implementing Action is completely optional in Struts 2. (Ankit, are you thinking about Struts 1?)

David, I am a bit confused by the line in your post:

See the execute() method? The JSP as written is correct; there is no Product bean. That makes the JSP incorrect, since it *does* reference a product bean.

Are you saying that my JSP (the original JSP) is correct or incorrect? It looks like you are saying that it is correct but this line is a little ambiguous.

Assuming the JSP is correct (and I will try it with the word "product" in front when I get home this evening), does anyone have any other idea as to why this would not be working? I am not getting any errors on my console and as far as I can tell I have followed everything in the book. Is there some way I can get more information from Struts 2 as to what is going on behind the scenes?

Thank you all again for your help,

J

[Ankit Garg]

No Ellis, I was referring about Struts 2. I think I need to read my book again as its clear I've forgotten a few things . Anyways what David meant was that your JSP in itself is correct. Its just that in your JSP you are referring to properties with product prefix. Since your action class doesn't have any bean named product, so your EL returns empty string. So instead of

Product Name: ${product.productName}<br/>
Description: ${product.description}<br/>
Price: ${product.price}<br/>

use

Product Name: ${productName}<br/>
Description: ${description}<br/>
Price: ${price}<br/>

PS, your productName property doesn't follow the general naming guidelines (its not necessary to follow this one but its a recommended practice). Like the other properties, it should also have been only name instead of productName. If you are doing that because of some database reasons (as many databases don't allow "name " as a column name, then its fine...

[David Newton]

@Ankit: No, actions can be POJOs.

@J Ellis: I meant that one of the two JSPs is (probably) wrong: there's either a product bean, or there isn't. The ProductDetails.jsp file assumes there's an action property named "product", but there doesn't seem to be one in the code.

The Struts 2 documentation wiki discusses some more of the "behind the scenes" stuff, but the book you're referring to is also pretty good and should be enough to get you going--but that doesn't mean there aren't mistakes in it. It also covers a fairly early version of S2, which might trip you up unless you're using the same version (which I wouldn't--lots of stuff has been fixed and/or improved).

[J Ellis]

Thank you everyone for your help!

David and Ankit: you were spot-on, removing the "product." prefix from in front of the three input variables in my ProductDetails.jsp page fixed the problem. I will keep in mind the fact that Struts has changed between the version in the book and the version I am using. Also, Ankit, thank you for the tip about naming conventions. I used "productName" only because it is what they used in the book; I myself was wondering why the author used a different convention for that particular variable, perhaps he had in mind the database limitation you mentioned but just did not state as much in his book.

Thanks again,

J

[Karl Krasnowsky]

Ankit Garg wrote:(at least this is how it is done in Netbeans, can't say about eclipse)...

Hey Ankit,
I'm trying to figure out the best (easiest) method for generating a Struts2 base project within Netbeans 6.7x
I've been able to perform this manually, but I was hoping to find a plugin that would perform the boilerplate work for me.
Got any ideas?

regards,
Karl

[vishnu priya]

Hi
while i was copying the struts.xml in src its not pasting in eclipse
but in my war i have it in web-inf\classes folder
but still i am getting the same error

INFO: Starting service Catalina
Nov 6, 2009 11:46:32 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig deployWAR
INFO: Deploying erb application archive Sample4.ear
NOV 6, 2009 11:46:33 PM com.opensymphony.xwork2.util.logging.commons.CommonsLogger info
INFO: Parsing configuration file [struts-default.xml]
NOV 6, 2009 11:46:34 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext Start
SERVERE: Error filterStart
NOV 6, 2009 11:46:35 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext Start
SERVERE: Context [/Sample4]startup failed due to previous errors

I am using servlet 2.4,tomcat 6.0.16, struts 2.1.8 jars
What can i do and will you please send me the list of jars used for a struts 2 application?

[Ankit Garg]

vishnu try to start a new thread for your new question. You can start a new thread using the New Topic Button

The error that you have shown is from the netbeans output which is not very informational about the problem. Show us the relevant portion of the tomcat logs when you deployed the application (netbeans also has a tab in output window which shows the tomcat output). The dependencies for struts 2.1.8 are listed here. I've not used eclipse much so can't say about the eclipse problem. You can ask IDE specific problems in the IDEs-Version-Control-other-tools forum...

[David Newton]

@Karl: Please start new threads when you're asking a completely unrelated question.

As far as I know there's no "wizard" to create a base Struts 2 in NetBeans. There are, however, Maven archetypes, which should be the preferred methodology. Considering how simple it is, though, I'm not really sure either are really necessary.

[Karl Krasnowsky]

David Newton wrote:@Karl: Please start new threads when you're asking a completely unrelated question.

Hey, I was set up. When they moved an ill posted message to my original thread to this new one they also grabbed parts of my original. Check the date.