The answer to the question
When is the class that extends ActionForm executed?
is that it
never executes. A
class doesn't execute at all, ever. Only a
method executes.
A better question would be "when do the methods of this class execute?". The answer is that each of the methods are called at different times in the
Struts request life cycle.
I'd suggest you study the UML diagrams in the following URL to learn more about the Struts request life cycle and what gets called when.
http://rollerjm.free.fr/pro/Struts11.html Disclaimer: The above URL applies to Struts 1.1, and is not entirely accurate for later releases. However, I'd still suggest getting an understanding of this version's life cycle and then learning the changes for the particular version that you're using.