Benefits of the Struts Framework

There are literally hundreds of web development frameworks available, each sharing some similarities while providing their own twist on what a web framework should be. Many of these frameworks have been around several years and have positives and negatives

associated with them. While the Struts framework is not completely unique, it provides some key benefits:

• Based on a Model 2 MVC implementation.
• Supports Java's "Write Once, Run Anywhere" philosophy.
• Supports different model implementations (JavaBeans, EJB, etc.).
• Support for internationalization (I18N).
• Includes a rich set of JSP tag libraries.
• Contains many extension points for customization.

Supports different presentation implementations (JSP, XML/XSLT, JavaServer Faces).L

When Struts first arrived on scene, I put together a list of reasons that would help developers and their managers decide if Struts was right for their team. I created a separate list for developers and one list for their managers, because often that the two are focused on different issues. Those lists are still relevant today.

PerformantIs Struts right for your project? (Manager version)

• Developed by industry experts
• Stable and mature
• Manageable learning curve
• Open source (No cost)
• Large user community (several thousand)
• 30,000 downloads per month
• It's probably similar to what you would build if not using Struts
• Good documentation; many books, articles, and resources available

Is Struts right for your team? (Developer version)

• Feature-rich
• Free to develop and deploy
• Many supported third-party tools
• Flexible and extendable
• J2EE technologies
• Expert developers and committers
• Large user community

Performant

Whether you're a manager being pushed by your development team to allow Struts into your organization or a developer wondering if all of the hype is true, these two lists should tell you that Struts is a serious framework. After all, do you think a company the size of BEA would choose Struts for their commercially released administrative console if they didn't have confidence in the open source framework?

Struts' Other Great Features

We're running out of time. I promised you that it wouldn't take longer than five or ten minutes to read this and unfortunately, there are many other areas of Struts that deserve the same amount of attention. Just look at the following list of features that we haven't even talked about yet:

• Support for modulesh
• Declarative exception-handling
• Dynamic ActionForms
• New config package
• Tiles

Plugins

We could go on all day, but you would eventually need another drink and your boss is expecting you to get some work done today, so we should end now and let you get back to work.