Workflow Status and suggestions

[Don Elliott <do...@key-signature.com>]

Hi Struts Users,

I'm wondering how development of the 1.1 release of struts is coming along, specifically the enhancements to actions.xml / dtd to allow workflow processing ? (do we have a dtd / sample xml file, etc)

I've been thinking about this from an internationalization perspective and have the following suggestion:

REQUEST: Is it possible to have the forward action altered to use a similar process to the standard java resource bundle to pick up different jsps dependant upon the Locale being used ?  (eg. if the Locale language is French, look for page mainmenu_fr.jsp instead of mainmenu.jsp, but default to mainmenu.jsp if the '_fr' page isn't found).

REASON:  for a lot of English-like languages (German, French, etc) it is quite likely that just substituting a resource bundle will solve a lot of the language issues in a multi-lingual site (you'd also have to have some smarts to pick up the appropriately translated data from your database, some timezone smarts, etc).

However, some languages (eg. Chinese, Thai, Japanese) will not lend themselves very well to this method of serving, as the standard screen design principles for these languages may be quite different, and the length of the text may also be significantly longer).  

In these cases it would be good to be able to keep a separate version of your pages / templates that are served automatically without you having to code logic to test each page for an alternate version based on language.

Any thoughts ?

Regards,
Don Elliott
don@key-signature.com

Re: Workflow Status and suggestions

[Maya Muchnik <mm...@pumatech.com>]

Don,
You can find an example how to use different JSP-files corresponding to
different languages (changed on-line) in a component project
(http://www.lifl.fr/~dumoulin/components/).
Maya

Craig Tataryn wrote:

> Hi Don.  Nic Hobbs and I have stepped forward to head up the work flow
> processing enchancements to struts.  Serious work on this (as far as
> implementation goes) will probably not start until mid to late April
> (that's when my schedule allows for it), but planning and design will
> be going on in the meantime.
>
> As for your i18n of forwards, it does kinda make sense that you might
> want to do this (i.e. I wouldn't want to put *all* my website content
> in resource bundles).  Perhaps by just adding a new locale attribute
> to the <forward> tag in struts-config.xml might do it.  Something
> like:
>
> <forward name="success" path="default.jsp"/>
> <forward name="success" locale="fr" path="default_fr.jsp"/>
> .
> .
> .
>
> Everytime you call mappings.findForward("success") it will take into
> consideration the locale, and make sure to forward the user to the
> right page.
>
> That might be easier for the commiters to implement than a full blown
> i18n automagic foward system.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Craig T.
>
> Don Elliott wrote:
>
>> Hi Struts Users, I'm wondering how development of the 1.1 release of
>> struts is coming along, specifically the enhancements to actions.xml
>> / dtd to allow workflow processing ? (do we have a dtd / sample xml
>> file, etc) I've been thinking about this from an
>> internationalization perspective and have the following suggestion:
>> REQUEST: Is it possible to have the forward action altered to use a
>> similar process to the standard java resource bundle to pick up
>> different jsps dependant upon the Locale being used ?  (eg. if the
>> Locale language is French, look for page mainmenu_fr.jsp instead of
>> mainmenu.jsp, but default to mainmenu.jsp if the '_fr' page isn't
>> found). REASON:  for a lot of English-like languages (German,
>> French, etc) it is quite likely that just substituting a resource
>> bundle will solve a lot of the language issues in a multi-lingual
>> site (you'd also have to have some smarts to pick up the
>> appropriately translated data from your database, some timezone
>> smarts, etc). However, some languages (eg. Chinese, Thai, Japanese)
>> will not lend themselves very well to this method of serving, as the
>> standard screen design principles for these languages may be quite
>> different, and the length of the text may also be significantly
>> longer). In these cases it would be good to be able to keep a
>> separate version of your pages / templates that are served
>> automatically without you having to code logic to test each page for
>> an alternate version based on language. Any thoughts ? Regards,Don
>> Elliottdon@key-signature.com
>
> --
> I've been trying to change the world for years, but they just won't
> give me the source code....
>

Re: Workflow Status and suggestions

[Craig Tataryn <Cr...@msdw.com>]

Hi Don.  Nic Hobbs and I have stepped forward to head up the work flow
processing enchancements to struts.  Serious work on this (as far as
implementation goes) will probably not start until mid to late April
(that's when my schedule allows for it), but planning and design will be
going on in the meantime.

As for your i18n of forwards, it does kinda make sense that you might
want to do this (i.e. I wouldn't want to put *all* my website content in
resource bundles).  Perhaps by just adding a new locale attribute to the
<forward> tag in struts-config.xml might do it.  Something like:

<forward name="success" path="default.jsp"/>
<forward name="success" locale="fr" path="default_fr.jsp"/>
.
.
.

Everytime you call mappings.findForward("success") it will take into
consideration the locale, and make sure to forward the user to the right
page.

That might be easier for the commiters to implement than a full blown
i18n automagic foward system.

What do you think?

Craig T.

Don Elliott wrote:

> Hi Struts Users, I'm wondering how development of the 1.1 release of
> struts is coming along, specifically the enhancements to actions.xml /
> dtd to allow workflow processing ? (do we have a dtd / sample xml
> file, etc) I've been thinking about this from an internationalization
> perspective and have the following suggestion: REQUEST: Is it possible
> to have the forward action altered to use a similar process to the
> standard java resource bundle to pick up different jsps dependant upon
> the Locale being used ?  (eg. if the Locale language is French, look
> for page mainmenu_fr.jsp instead of mainmenu.jsp, but default to
> mainmenu.jsp if the '_fr' page isn't found). REASON:  for a lot of
> English-like languages (German, French, etc) it is quite likely that
> just substituting a resource bundle will solve a lot of the language
> issues in a multi-lingual site (you'd also have to have some smarts to
> pick up the appropriately translated data from your database, some
> timezone smarts, etc). However, some languages (eg. Chinese, Thai,
> Japanese) will not lend themselves very well to this method of
> serving, as the standard screen design principles for these languages
> may be quite different, and the length of the text may also be
> significantly longer). In these cases it would be good to be able to
> keep a separate version of your pages / templates that are served
> automatically without you having to code logic to test each page for
> an alternate version based on language. Any thoughts ? Regards,Don
> Elliottdon@key-signature.com

--
I've been trying to change the world for years, but they just won't give
me the source code....