Struts 2 Features

The strut-2 framework is designed for the compilation of the entire development cycle including of building, developing and maintaining the whole application. It is very extensible as each class of the framework is based on an Interface and all the base classes are given an extra application and even you can add your own. The basic platform requirements are Servlet API 2.4, JSP API 2.0 and Java 5. 

Some of the general features of the current Apache Strut 2 framework are given below. 

Architecture – First the web browser request a resource for which the Filter Dispatcher decides the suitable action. Then the Interceptors use the required functions and after that the Action method executes all the functions like storing and retrieving data from a database. Then the result can be seen on the output of the browser in HTML, PDF, images or any other. 

Tags - Tags in Strut 2 allow creating dynamic web applications with less number of coding. Not only these tags contain output data but also provide style sheet driven markup that in turn helps in creating pages with less code. Here the tags also support validation and localization of coding that in turn offer more utilization. The less number of codes also makes it easy to read and maintain. 

MVC – The Model View Controller in Strut 2 framework acts as a coordinator between application’s model and web view. Its Controller and View components can come together with other technology to develop the model. The framework has its library and markup tags to present the data dynamically. 

Configuration – Provides a deployment descriptor to initialize resources in XML format. The initialization takes place simply by scanning all the classes using Java packages or you can use an application configuration file to control the entire configuration. Its general-purpose defaults allow using struts directly Out of the box. 

Configuration files are re-loadable that allows changes without restarting a web container. 

Other Features: 

• All framework classes are based on interfaces and core interfaces are independent from HTTP. 
• Check boxes do not require any kind of special application for false values.
• Any class can be used as an action class and one can input properties by using any JavaBean directly to the action class. 
• Strut 2 actions are Spring friendly and so easy to Spring integration. 
• AJAX theme enables to make the application more dynamic. 
• Portal and servlet deployment are easy due to automatic portlet support without altering code.
•  The request handling in every action makes it easy to customize, when required.