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| <title>VelocityStruts - Overview</title> | |
| <meta name="author" value="Gabriel Sidler"/> | |
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| <meta name="author" value="Tim Colson"/> | |
| <meta name="email" value="tcolson@cisco.com" /> | |
| <meta name="author" value="Nathan Bubna"/> | |
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| <img src="../images/velocitystruts.png" align="right" alt="< Velocity Tools - Struts >" border="0"/> | |
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| <p><strong><a href="../">Velocity Tools</a></strong></p> | |
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| <strong>VelocityStruts</strong> | |
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| <ul> | |
| <li><a href="index.html">Overview</a></li> | |
| <li><a href="index.html#Benefits">Benefits</a></li> | |
| <li><a href="../index.html#Download">Download</a></li> | |
| <li><a href="userguide.html">User Guide</a></li> | |
| <li><a href="userguide.html#Installation">Installation</a></li> | |
| <li><a href="../index.html#Example Applications">Examples</a></li> | |
| <li><a href="../javadoc/index.html">Javadoc</a></li> | |
| </ul> | |
| <p> | |
| <a href="StrutsTools.html"><strong>VelocityStruts Tools</strong></a> | |
| </p> | |
| <ul> | |
| <li><a href="ActionMessagesTool.html">ActionMessagesTool</a></li> | |
| <li><a href="ErrorsTool.html">ErrorsTool</a></li> | |
| <li><a href="FormTool.html">FormTool</a></li> | |
| <li><a href="MessageTool.html">MessageTool</a></li> | |
| <li><a href="StrutsLinkTool.html">StrutsLinkTool</a></li> | |
| <li><a href="SecureLinkTool.html">SecureLinkTool</a></li> | |
| <li><a href="TilesTool.html">TilesTool</a></li> | |
| <li><a href="ValidatorTool.html">ValidatorTool</a></li> | |
| </ul> | |
| <p> | |
| <strong>Other Subprojects</strong> | |
| </p> | |
| <ul> | |
| <li><a href="../generic/">GenericTools</a></li> | |
| <li><a href="../view/">VelocityView</a></li> | |
| </ul> | |
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| <a name="Overview"> | |
| <strong>Overview</strong></a></font> | |
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| <p>The VelocityStruts sub-project integrates Velocity with the | |
| <a href="http://struts.apache.org/">Apache Struts</a> | |
| web application framework and enables the use of Velocity templates | |
| interchangeably with JSP pages for the view layer.</p> | |
| <p>Various other | |
| <a href="http://wiki.apache.org/jakarta-velocity/PoweredByVelocity">web application frameworks</a> | |
| offer built-in support for Velocity templates. This project | |
| provides the minimal glue necessary to give Struts developers | |
| an alternative to JSP. </p> | |
| <p><img src="../images/velstruts_diag1.png" border="0"/></p> | |
| <p><strong>Diagram 1.</strong> Comparison of JSP and Velocity for | |
| the view layer in a Struts application.</p> | |
| <p>As we follow the typical Struts process flow in Diagram 1, | |
| notice how there is relatively little change except for the addition | |
| of Velocity. The velocity-struts.jar leverages a standalone Velocity | |
| servlet to process template files (specifically, the jar file is | |
| velocity-tools-x.x.jar) and uses some drop-in tools to provide | |
| transparent access to Struts specific objects (ex. message resources, | |
| form beans, errors, links). The action mapping file will simply contain | |
| ActionForwards that send control to a Velocity-based View layer instead | |
| of sending to a JSP. </p> | |
| <p>Also notable is that Velocity and JSP are <strong>not</strong> | |
| mutually exclusive. Both technologies can be used in the same | |
| application without any problems. This allows developers the option | |
| of trying Velocity without heavy modification to existing applications.</p> | |
| <p>We're convinced that once you give Velocity a try, you'll really like it.</p> | |
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| <a name="Benefits"> | |
| <strong>Benefits</strong></a></font> | |
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| <p>There are many different reasons why people are choosing Velocity | |
| technology for the view layer. Here are some:</p> | |
| <p> | |
| <ul> | |
| <li>Velocity helps enforce a clean separation between the view | |
| layer and the model/control layers. This leads to clean application | |
| design and a clear separation of concerns between View Designers | |
| and back-end Developers.</li> | |
| <li><a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/velocity/vtl-reference-guide.html">Velocity Template Language (VTL)</a> | |
| has few directives and is simple and easy to learn. Most | |
| people report being productive within a day.</li> | |
| <li>Velocity is easy to extend with <i>Tools</i> which are simply | |
| any class which has public methods. These are typically much cleaner | |
| and easier to develop than JSP custom tag libraries.</li> | |
| <li>Using the new TilesTool it is now possible | |
| to mix Velocity and JSP tiles in the same page/layout. For those | |
| using Tiles, this makes gradual migration between or integration of | |
| the two view technologies trivially easy!</li> | |
| <li>Velocity 'macros' are a powerful tool for the View Designer. | |
| They enable the creation of reusable snippets of markup, often | |
| eliminating what would have been a need to develop a custom tag | |
| library or other server-side tool.</li> | |
| <li>Velocity templates are <strong>not</strong> limited to HTML | |
| and can be used to produce any type of text output including XML, | |
| SQL, ASCII, PostScript, etc.</li> | |
| <li>Velocity enables easy access to dynamic data | |
| that Web Designers can understand.</li> | |
| <li>Velocity being interpreted, enables a simple development cycle | |
| where template errors can quickly be localized and debugged.</li> | |
| <li>Velocity, which caches templates for speed, has been reported | |
| to have performance comparable or better than JSP.</li> | |
| <li>Velocity is <strong>supported</strong> by an active and helpful | |
| community of users and developers.</li> | |
| </ul> | |
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| <a name="Success Stories"> | |
| <strong>Success Stories</strong></a></font> | |
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| <p>Comments from folks who are using Struts and Velocity:</p> | |
| <p> | |
| <blockquote> | |
| <p>"<i>We've been using Struts/Velocity for some time now and we find it to be | |
| an extremely well matched combination. One of the main advantages of | |
| Velocity is that the syntax is incredibly easy. I can explain it to a | |
| designer who has never seen it before and expect them to be useful | |
| within an hour.</i>" </p> | |
| <p>"<i>One of the nicest things it enforces is the separation of presentation | |
| layer and business logic. It removes the desire to 'fix' problems by | |
| just putting a small change into the JSP via scriptlets. It also makes | |
| the code a <strong>lot</strong> more readable which also reduces the | |
| development time.</i>"</p> | |
| <p>"<i>Struts is a solid framework and Velocity makes it | |
| even better.</i>"</p> | |
| <p>"<i>I find that the Velocity Tools for Struts works as well, or better, with | |
| Struts than another other presentation technology, bar none. In fact, | |
| most of the tools work just as well with any other framework you might | |
| care to name.</i>" | |
| --<a href="http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=velocity-user&m=106520662105461&w=25">Ted Husted</a> | |
| (author of <a href="http://husted.com/struts/book.html">Struts in Action</a>)</p> | |
| </blockquote> | |
| </p> | |
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| <a name="License"> | |
| <strong>License</strong></a></font> | |
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| <p>This software is licensed under the | |
| <a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/velocity/license.html">Apache Software License 2.0</a></p> | |
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| Copyright © 1999-2003, Apache Software Foundation | |
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