Changing default file structure in a Java Struts App

Question

Hey,

I have been working with Struts for some time, but for a project I am finishing I was asked to separate Templates (velocity .vm files), configs (struts.xml, persistence.xml) from main WAR file.

I have all in default structure like:

    application
    |-- META-INF            -- Some configs are here
    |-- WEB-INF             -- others here
    |   |-- classes
    |   |   |-- META-INF
    |   |   `-- mypackage
    |   |       `-- class-files
    |   `-- lib
    |-- css
    `-- tpl                 -- Template dir to be relocated

And I apparently can't find documentation about how to setup (probably in struts.xml) where my templates go, and where config files will be.

I think I will have to use configurations on the application server too (I am using Jetty 5.1.14).

So, any lights on how to configure it ?

Thanks

Answer 1

For persistence.xml, specifically, you can put a persistence unit in a separate JAR, which you can deploy separately from your web application WAR, or both together in an EAR archive, depending on what your application server supports. For example, the JBoss manual describes this as Deploy EAR with EJB3 JAR.

For struts-config.xml I expect that you are going to have to override the Struts code that loads it, if you want to use a non-standard location.

I don't know about the Velocity templates.

In general, web applications only load resources from within the WAR, for security reasons. There are other techniques you can use, but you may find it easier to try weblets, which seems to be a framework designed to let you load resources from a separate JAR.

Answer 2

Well, the whole thing about changing templates place is to put the templates in a designer accessible area, so any modification needed, the designer can load them to his/her computer, edit, and upload it again. I think this is a common scenario. So, probably I am missing something in my research. Maybe I am focusing in configuring it on the wrong place ... Any thoughts ?

Answer 3

You need to look into velocity.properties file in your WEB_INF folder.IMHO it is here where you need to change your template root changing the property file.resource.loader.path.

Hope it helps, Petr

Answer 4

If I understood your question about Struts config files right, they are specified in web.xml. Find the Struts servlet config param. The param-value can be a list of comma separated list of XML files to load. Eg:

<servlet>
    <servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
    <servlet-class>org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet</servlet-class>
    <init-param>
     <param-name>config</param-name>
     <param-value>
      WEB-INF/config/struts-config.xml,
      WEB-INF/config/struts-config-stuff.xml,
      WEB-INF/config/struts-config-good.xml,
      WEB-INF/config/struts-config-bad.xml,
      WEB-INF/config/struts-config-ugly.xml
     </param-value>
    </init-param>
    ...
</servlet>

See this Struts guide under 5.3.2. And yes, this applies to 2.x also.