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Struts 1 - How to setup a basic Struts project using Eclipse IDE
How to setup a basic Struts project using Eclipse IDE
Legal Disclamer
* DISCLAIMER - This simple How-To shows you one of many ways to setup a working project using the Struts framework. This is mainly geared toward Struts users who are new to Eclipse, and don't want to spend a lot of time figuring out the differences between their old IDE (if any) and this one. I will also apologize ahead of time for the formatting of this page. In this How-To, I will demonstrate (using Eclipse 2.0.1) how to setup, compile, run, and debug the struts-mailreader web application that is part of the Struts Applications subproject. Next, I will modify the code to pull some data from a MySql database using the popular relational mapping tool OJB. (This is actually quite simple)
Let's get started
Before we begin, you will need to create a directory somewhere to store your project. I typically use C:\personal\development\Projects\(some project) Once that's done, extract the struts-mailreader.war to that directory (using your favorite zip utility) Delete the META-INF folder because this will be created during the build/jar/war process. Add a build.xml file to the project root. I use something like this: <project name="Struts Mailreader" default="main" basedir="."> <!-- This is a basic build script, only the minimums here --> <!-- Tell ant to use my environment variables --> <property environment="env"/> <property file="./build.properties"/> <!-This build script assumes Tomcat 5 is the servlet container. Modify as necessary if a different container is being used. --> <property name="tomcat.home"
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Struts 1 - How to setup a basic Struts project using Eclipse IDE
value="${env.CATALINA_HOME}"/> <property name="servlet.jar" value="${tomcat.home}/common/lib/servlet-api.jar"/> <property name="jsp.jar" value="${tomcat.home}/common/lib/jsp-api.jar"/> <property name="deploy.dir" value="${tomcat.home}/webapps"/> <property name="build.compiler" value="modern"/> <property name="build.dir" value="./WEB-INF/classes" /> <property name="src.dir" value="./WEB-INF/src"/> <property name="war.file" value="struts-mailreader"/> <property name="war.file.name" value="${war.file}.war"/> <path id="project.class.path"> <fileset dir="./WEB-INF/lib/"> <include name="**/*.jar"/> </fileset> <pathelement path="${src.dir}"/> <pathelement path="${servlet.jar}"/> <pathelement path="${jsp.jar}"/> </path> <target name="clean"> <delete dir="${build.dir}" includeEmptyDirs="true" /> </target> <target name="prep"> <mkdir dir="${build.dir}"/> </target> <target name="compile"> <javac srcdir="${src.dir}" destdir="${build.dir}" debug="on" deprecation="on"> <include name="**/*.java"/> <classpath refid="project.class.path"/> </javac> </target> <target name="cleanWebApp"> <delete file="${deploy.dir}/${war.file.name}" /> <delete dir="${deploy.dir}/${war.file}" includeEmptyDirs="true" /> </target> <target name="war"> <war warfile="${war.file.name}" webxml="./WEB-INF/web.xml"> <fileset dir="./" includes="**/*.*" excludes="*.war,
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Struts 1 - How to setup a basic Struts project using Eclipse IDE
**/*.nbattrs, web.xml, **/WEB-INF/**/*.*, **/project-files/**/*.*"/> <webinf dir="./WEB-INF" includes="**/*" excludes="web.xml, **/*.jar, **/*.class"/> <lib dir="./WEB-INF/lib"/> <classes dir="${build.dir}"/> <classes dir="${src.dir}"> <include name="**/*.properties"/> </classes> </war> </target> <target name="deploy"> <copy todir="${deploy.dir}"> <fileset dir="./" includes="${war.file.name}"/> </copy> </target> <target name="main" depends="clean, prep, cleanWebApp, compile, war"/> </project>
1. Create a new project.
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2. New Java Project
3. Browse for the folder you created for your project.
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4. Eclipse will detect your source folders from any subdirectories under your project.
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5. In our case, this is where the src folder was placed.
6. Default standard libs are automatically added depending on the type of project.
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7. Add the existing web app jars.
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8. Now we need to add a few jars from the file system.
9. We always need this one (servlet.jar)
10. Ahhhh...everything looks ok for now. You can always go back and modify these settings later.
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11. When everything settles down, you should see something like this (of course, it might look different depending on your installation/customization):
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12. Compilation warnings and errors are detected immediately. In this screenshot, I drill down into the source folder, package, file, class, and double click on the method....which brings up the source editor. I hover the mouse over the offending warning to see a description of what's wrong.
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Struts 1 - How to setup a basic Struts project using Eclipse IDE
13. I changed ApplicationConfig to ModuleConfig, then saved and now I see new errors. You can right click and import ModuleConfig right from the error.
14. A quick look at the import section.
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15. Right click, Source, Organize Imports
16. Ahhhh...better
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17. From the Package Explorer, right click your build.xml and run Ant:
18. Is this cool or what?
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19. Uh Oh!
20. Quick look at what jars are being used to process my build.
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21. I simply removed all the existing jars from the IDE's Ant configuration and added all from my own installation.
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22. Can't forget that last one
23. Everything went ok (for me)
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24. Time to test-drive
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