Still need help with VAJ & Struts

[Tom Miller <tm...@kdsi.net>]

Struts Amigos

I am still trying to work out a way to develop Struts applications
within Visual Age for Java. (Feb. 19 Struts build, Tomcat 3.2.1, VAJ
3.5.2, see 'Problem w/ Struts and VA for Java' last Tuesday). I got some
suggestions but have been unable to reproduce the results.

I believe the problem has to do with the custom class loader mechanism
of Tomcat which is used for individual web apps. Craig explained in
"Classpaths and the "struts.jar" file (Feb. 13th (#4566)) why it is that
struts.jar must be in WEB-INF/lib and NOT on the classpath at execution
time. Classes visible on the CLASSPATH are loaded on by the system
loader, and cannot find class for classes which are loaded earlier by
the custom class loaders of the web apps.

In trying to use VAJ, one would want all code (at least all Struts code
(contents of struts.jar plus your application code)) in the IDE instead
of in WEB-INF/lib. But that seems to put it effectively on the
CLASSPATH, and thus loaded by the system loader (the IDE environment).

It is not that hard to get Tomcat running from within VAJ, but when one
trys to access a Struts web app, say the struts-example, the first
bean:message tag throws a JSP exception, presumeably because it is
looking for WEB-INF/lib/struts.jar, instead of the Struts code within
the IDE.

I'm not sure, but I have a feeling that the custom class loaders for web
apps may pose a significant challenge to developing with Struts inside
VAJ. I know my understanding and/or my VAJ setup are hosed somehow or
other, and that is why I'm asking for help.

--
Tom Miller
Miller Associates, Inc.
tmiller@kdsi.net
641.469.3535 Phone
413.581.6326 FAX