Struts2 In Action : AJAX & Spring

[Narayan Nayak]

Hi Donald Brown / Chad Michael

I hope you are doing well.

This is regarding Struts2. I read that S2 is using DOJO to make RICH UI component for our web tier. I wanted to know

1) Does your book have enough reference material for using S2 AJAX tags.
2) How do i make a Rich UI component using S2?
3) Even Spring has web MVC model and it support all features which are available under Struts2, why do i go for Struts2?

Regards,
Narayan

E-mail: [email protected]

[chad michael davis]

I'll stick to the Ajax stuff . . .

The Ajax tags are still in development and a bit of state of flux. I recommend keeping an eye on them.

In general, the real bonus of Struts 2 for Ajax folks is the flexibility of the result type. In the book, we provide an example of writing your own custom result type that returns the result from any action in the form of JSON. This makes integrating your backend with your rich ui very easy and flexibile.

[Narayan Nayak]

Thanks for your reply. Also looking to know your view on my 3'rd question.

"Even Spring has web MVC model and it support all features which are available under Struts2, why do i go for Struts2?"

[Christophe Verré]

I think it would be like asking for ketchup or mustard It may depend on your taste, on the team you are working with (experienced in Struts or Spring)... Try them both, and see which one you feel most comfortable with.

[Narayan Nayak]

Spring widely accepted for wiring the application's layers where on presentation side Struts 2 provides better tags library compare to Spring. Actually i 've worked earlier on Struts 2 but not on Spring so not aware of whether Spring 've presentation tags lib. for view including tags for AJAX?

[Christophe Verré]

There's a Spring form tag library, containing basic tags for user interaction (checkbox, button, select...)

[Narayan Nayak]

How about the tags supporting AJAX in case of Spring's FORM tag library ?

[Christophe Verré]

What do you mean by tags supporting AJAX ?

[chad michael davis]

I would like to say that IMHO Ajax tags aren't really that important, when choosing a framework for AJAX, compared with how well the framework supports exposing your backend to the asynchronous, non-page rendering calls of a rich UI / ajax app. This is very important, and struts 2 supports it with the result type flexibility, which allows you to quickly add JSON or XML to any action. Most importantly, the action doesn't have to be modified from its previous, or alternative, life as servicer of fullpage responses to a classic web application.