Question

I’m newbie to Struts2 framework and i didn’t really have much time to read any Struts2 books. I just learn it from YouTube. Anyway here’s my question.

Supposedly my struts.xml is as per below:

<struts>
<package name="p1" namespace="/" extends="struts-default">
    <action name="login" class="org.tutorial.struts2.action.LoginAction">
        <result name="success"  type="redirect" >searchTutorialForm</result>
        <result name="error">/login.jsp</result>
    </action>
    <action name="searchTutorialForm">
        <result>/searchForm.jsp</result>
    </action>
</package>  
</struts>

Lets talk about package p1.

If the URL is say [http://localhost:8080/Struts2/login], the org.tutorial.struts2.action.LoginAction gets called and upon success it gets redirected to the searchTutorialForm action tag which calls the searchForm.jsp.

So the URL the client would see is [http://localhost:8080/Struts2/searchTutorialForm]
(purpose is not for the client to see [http://localhost:8080/Struts2/searchForm.jsp])

Now there are some member variables in LoginAction which is being displayed in searchForm.jsp using tag. However using this approach they are not displayed since i think the object LoginAction is no longer in the ValueStack (after the redirect, i think??).

Of course if i do not use the above approach but instead as per below:

<struts>
<package name="p1" namespace="/" extends="struts-default">
    <action name="login" class="org.tutorial.struts2.action.LoginAction">
        <result name="success">/searchForm.jsp</result>
        <result name="error">/login.jsp</result>
    </action>
</package>  
</struts>

then the member variable in the LoginAction object is displayed in success.jsp using the tag (but then user would see the URL [http://localhost:8080/Struts2/searchForm.jsp])

Basically my intention is for the user not to see any specific internal file or calling like .jsp or .action.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
There is no action class in action tag searchTutorialForm – basically a dummy action.

Question:
1. How do i display the member variable in LoginAction object using the first approach?
2. What is the life cycle of the LoginAction object in Value Stack?

Thanks.

Answer 1

• Actions are created per-request.
• A redirect causes a new request.
• Therefor objects in previous actions are no longer available.

The questions:

1. You put it in session or include them as parameters in the redirect.
2. Actions go away at the end of the request.