How extensively can/is Struts used ?

[Linus Nikander <li...@nikander.net>]

I was wondering how far it is recommended to "keep" using struts when
displaying information. Two examples might make it clearer about where I'm
having trouble deciding.

For instance, I've got lots of forms on my site, I use Struts for all of
them, love the extra functionality and the "one way of doing things" that
Struts gives me.

Then I have lots of "display information only"-pages. Most of these are
tables that are based on some sort of DB table. Right now I:
Call a struts Action.
The Action retrieves the data, populates a boatload of Beans.
The Beans are stuffed into a List, which in turn is put into a List which
resides in my Form.
The jsp retrieves the Form.
The jsp performs a <logic:iterate id="bean" name="myForm" property="myList"
indexId="i"></logic:iterate>
The information is output with a lot of bean:write's

Although this approach appeals to me in some ways (nice separation of
concerns DB / Business-layer / Display for instance) it also seems a bit
over the top at times. I could easily accomplish the same display by letting
the .jsp do the talking with the DB. Or perhaps let a servlet do it all for
me.

My question is, do you guys use the above described method when only
displaying information too ? Could this eventually become a performace
bottleneck (maybe due the large amount of Beans being created) ? Is there
perhaps a better variation of the above that I've missed ?

All points of view welcome.

//Linus Nikander - linus@nikander.net




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Re: Integration with Reporting Systems (was: How extensively can/is Struts used ?)

[Manish Singla <Ma...@Sun.COM>]

Because of following problem and other primary factors, I know a team 
which is using .NET for frontend and J2EE for backend. .NET has some 
components to meet these kind of needs.:-(.
May be JSF can handle this issue. Thus, somebody wrote a component to 
show reports and one can configure renderer..

Manish Singla


Kirk Wylie wrote:
> See below.
> 
> Linus Nikander wrote:
> 
>> Then I have lots of "display information only"-pages. Most of these are
>> tables that are based on some sort of DB table. Right now I:
>> Call a struts Action.
>> The Action retrieves the data, populates a boatload of Beans.
>> The Beans are stuffed into a List, which in turn is put into a List which
>> resides in my Form.
>> The jsp retrieves the Form.
>> The jsp performs a <logic:iterate id="bean" name="myForm" 
>> property="myList"
>> indexId="i"></logic:iterate>
>> The information is output with a lot of bean:write's
>>
>> Although this approach appeals to me in some ways (nice separation of
>> concerns DB / Business-layer / Display for instance) it also seems a bit
>> over the top at times. I could easily accomplish the same display by 
>> letting
>> the .jsp do the talking with the DB. Or perhaps let a servlet do it 
>> all for
>> me.
> 
> 
> This raises an interesting point, which I've not run into yet.
> 
> This is often solved in a non-Struts application by having a "reporting" 
> facility which is used to do the analysis/pure-display pages (i.e. ones 
> which have minimal interaction with the rest of hte application, but 
> which create a lot of heavy-lifting reports). That facility is often 
> provided by a third-party package such as Crystal Reports.
> 
> Does anybody have any experience integrating a Struts application with a 
> third-party package like that? Any tips? I'm curious because some of the 
> stuff I work on may have that type of requirement (big report pages) in 
> the future, and we've got people that are experienced with Crystal 
> Reports, so if I can easily integrate that into the technology stack I'd 
> love to.
> 
> Kirk Wylie
> M7 Corporation
> 
> 
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> 


-- 
Thanks
Manish Singla
x73166


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Integration with Reporting Systems (was: How extensively can/is Struts used ?)

[Kirk Wylie <kw...@m7.com>]

See below.

Linus Nikander wrote:

> Then I have lots of "display information only"-pages. Most of these are
> tables that are based on some sort of DB table. Right now I:
> Call a struts Action.
> The Action retrieves the data, populates a boatload of Beans.
> The Beans are stuffed into a List, which in turn is put into a List which
> resides in my Form.
> The jsp retrieves the Form.
> The jsp performs a <logic:iterate id="bean" name="myForm" property="myList"
> indexId="i"></logic:iterate>
> The information is output with a lot of bean:write's
> 
> Although this approach appeals to me in some ways (nice separation of
> concerns DB / Business-layer / Display for instance) it also seems a bit
> over the top at times. I could easily accomplish the same display by 
> letting
> the .jsp do the talking with the DB. Or perhaps let a servlet do it all for
> me.

This raises an interesting point, which I've not run into yet.

This is often solved in a non-Struts application by having a "reporting" 
facility which is used to do the analysis/pure-display pages (i.e. ones 
which have minimal interaction with the rest of hte application, but 
which create a lot of heavy-lifting reports). That facility is often 
provided by a third-party package such as Crystal Reports.

Does anybody have any experience integrating a Struts application with a 
third-party package like that? Any tips? I'm curious because some of the 
stuff I work on may have that type of requirement (big report pages) in 
the future, and we've got people that are experienced with Crystal 
Reports, so if I can easily integrate that into the technology stack I'd 
love to.

Kirk Wylie
M7 Corporation


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Re: How extensively can/is Struts used ?

[Manish Singla <Ma...@Sun.COM>]

 > Then I have lots of "display information only"-pages. Most of these are
 > tables that are based on some sort of DB table.
 > Although this approach appeals to me in some ways (nice separation of
 > concerns DB / Business-layer / Display for instance) it also seems a bit
 > over the top at times. I could easily accomplish the same display by 
letting
 > the .jsp do the talking with the DB. Or perhaps let a servlet do it 
all for
 > me.

I agree with you that MVC solution for every problem seems a bit over 
the top.
Although, it is written everywhere that MVC is cooool,..:-) but even I 
see FEW cases like yours.


Linus Nikander wrote:
> I was wondering how far it is recommended to "keep" using struts when
> displaying information. Two examples might make it clearer about where I'm
> having trouble deciding.
> 
> For instance, I've got lots of forms on my site, I use Struts for all of
> them, love the extra functionality and the "one way of doing things" that
> Struts gives me.
> 
> Then I have lots of "display information only"-pages. Most of these are
> tables that are based on some sort of DB table. Right now I:
> Call a struts Action.
> The Action retrieves the data, populates a boatload of Beans.
> The Beans are stuffed into a List, which in turn is put into a List which
> resides in my Form.
> The jsp retrieves the Form.
> The jsp performs a <logic:iterate id="bean" name="myForm" property="myList"
> indexId="i"></logic:iterate>
> The information is output with a lot of bean:write's
> 
> Although this approach appeals to me in some ways (nice separation of
> concerns DB / Business-layer / Display for instance) it also seems a bit
> over the top at times. I could easily accomplish the same display by letting
> the .jsp do the talking with the DB. Or perhaps let a servlet do it all for
> me.
> 
> My question is, do you guys use the above described method when only
> displaying information too ? Could this eventually become a performace
> bottleneck (maybe due the large amount of Beans being created) ? Is there
> perhaps a better variation of the above that I've missed ?
> 
> All points of view welcome.
> 
> //Linus Nikander - linus@nikander.net
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> To unsubscribe, e-mail: struts-user-unsubscribe@jakarta.apache.org
> For additional commands, e-mail: struts-user-help@jakarta.apache.org
> 


-- 
Thanks
Manish Singla
x73166


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