Struts Interview

7/27/2019 Struts Interview

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1.What is MVC?Model-View-Controller (MVC) is a design pattern put together to help control change. MVC decouplesinterface from business logic and data.

Model : The model contains the core of the application's functionality. The model encapsulatesthe state of the application. Sometimes the only functionality it contains is state. It knows

nothing about the view or controller.

View: The view provides the presentation of the model. It is the look of the application. Theview can access the model getters, but it has no knowledge of the setters. In addition, it knowsnothing about the controller. The view should be notified when changes to the model occur.

Controller:The controller reacts to the user input. It creates and sets the model.

More about Model-View-Controller Architecture >>2.What is a framework?A framework is made up of the set of classes which allow us to use a library in a best possible way for aspecific requirement.

3.What is Struts framework?Struts framework is an open-source framework for developing the web applications in Java EE, basedon MVC-2 architecture. It uses and extends the Java Servlet API. Struts is robust architecture and can

be used for the development of application of any size. Struts framework makes it much easier todesign scalable, reliable Web applications with Java.

4.What are the components of Struts?Struts components can be categorize into Model, View and Controller:

Model: Components like business logic /business processes and data are the part of model.

View: HTML, JSP are the view components.

Controller: Action Servlet of Struts is part of Controller components which works as frontcontroller to handle all the requests.

5.What are the core classes of the Struts Framework?Struts is a set of cooperating classes, servlets, and JSP tags that make up a reusable MVC 2 design.

JavaBeans components for managing application state and behavior.

Event-driven development (via listeners as in traditional GUI development).

Pages that represent MVC-style views; pages reference view roots via the JSF component tree.

6.What is ActionServlet?ActionServlet is a simple servlet which is the backbone of all Struts applications. It is the mainController component that handles client requests and determines which Action will process each
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received request. It serves as an Action factory creating specific Action classes based on usersrequest.

7.What is role of ActionServlet?ActionServlet performs the role of Controller:

Process user requests

Determine what the user is trying to achieve according to the request

Pull data from the model (if necessary) to be given to the appropriate view,

Select the proper view to respond to the user

Delegates most of this grunt work to Action classes

Is responsible for initialization and clean-up of resources

8.What is the ActionForm?ActionForm is javabean which represents the form inputs containing the request parameters from theView referencing the Action bean.

9.What are the important methods of ActionForm?The important methods of ActionForm are : validate() & reset().

10.Describe validate() and reset() methods ?validate() : Used to validate properties after they have been populated; Called before FormBean ishanded to Action. Returns a collection ofActionError as ActionErrors. Following is the method

signature for the validate() method.

public ActionErrors validate(ActionMapping mapping,HttpServletRequest

request)

reset(): reset() method is called by Struts Framework with each request that uses the definedActionForm. The purpose of this method is to reset all of the ActionForm's data members prior to thenew request values being set.

public void reset() {}

11.What is ActionMapping?Action mapping contains all the deployment information for a particular Action bean. This class is to

determine where the results of the Action will be sent once its processing is complete.

12.How is the Action Mapping specified ?We can specify the action mapping in the configuration file called struts-config.xml. Struts

framework creates ActionMappingobject from configuration element ofstruts-

config.xml file


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13.What is role of Action Class?An Action Class performs a role of an adapter between the contents of an incoming HTTP request andthe corresponding business logic that should be executed to process this request.

14.In which method of Action class the business logic is executed ?In the execute() method of Action class the business logic is executed.

public ActionForward execute(

ActionMapping mapping,

ActionForm form,

HttpServletRequest request,

HttpServletResponse response)

throws Exception ;

execute() method of Action class:

Perform the processing required to deal with this request

Update the server-side objects (Scope variables) that will be used to create the next page ofthe user interface

Return an appropriate ActionForward object

15.What design patterns are used in Struts?Struts is based on model 2 MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture. Struts controller usesthe command design pattern and the action classes use the adapter design pattern.

Theprocess() method of the RequestProcessor uses the template method design pattern. Struts alsoimplement the following J2EE design patterns.

Service to Worker

Dispatcher View


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Composite View (Struts Tiles)

Front Controller

View Helper

Synchronizer Token

16.Can we have more than one struts-config.xml file for a single Struts application?Yes, we can have more than one struts-config.xml for a single Struts application. They can beconfigured as follows:

action

org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet

config

/WEB-INF/struts-config.xml,

/WEB-INF/struts-admin.xml,

/WEB-INF/struts-config-forms.xml

.....


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17.What is the directory structure of Struts application?The directory structure of Struts application :

18.What is the difference between session scope and request scope when saving formbean ?when the scope is request,the values of formbean would be available for the current request.when the scope is session,the values of formbean would be available throughout the session.


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19.What are the important tags of struts-config.xml ?The five important sections are:

20.What are the different kinds of actions in Struts?The different kinds of actions in Struts are:

ForwardAction

IncludeAction

DispatchAction

LookupDispatchAction

SwitchAction


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21.What is DispatchAction?The DispatchAction class is used to group related actions into one class. Using this class, you can have amethod for each logical action compared than a single execute method. The DispatchAction dispatchesto one of the logical actions represented by the methods. It picks a method to invoke based on anincoming request parameter. The value of the incoming parameter is the name of the method that theDispatchAction will invoke.

22.How to use DispatchAction?To use the DispatchAction, follow these steps :

Create a class that extends DispatchAction (instead of Action)

In a new class, add a method for every function you need to perform on the service The

method has the same signature as theexecute() method of an Action class.

Do not override execute() method Because DispatchAction class itself

provides execute() method.

Add an entry to struts-config.xml

DispatchAction Example

23.What is the use of ForwardAction?The ForwardActionclass is useful when youre trying to integrate Struts into an existing applicationthat uses Servlets to perform business logic functions. You can use this class to take advantage of theStruts controller and its functionality, without having to rewrite the existing Servlets.

Use ForwardAction to forward a request to another resource in your application, such as a Servlet thatalready does business logic processing or even another JSP page. By using this predefined action, you

dont have to write your own Action class. You just have to set up thestruts-config file properly to

use ForwardAction.

24.What is IncludeAction?The IncludeAction class is useful when you want to integrate Struts into an application that usesServlets. Use the IncludeAction class to include another resource in the response to the request beingprocessed.

25.What is the difference between ForwardAction and IncludeAction?The difference is that you need to use the IncludeAction only if the action is going to be included by

another action or jsp. UseForwardAction to forward a request to another resource in your application,such as a Servlet that already does business logic processing or even another JSP page.

26.What is LookupDispatchAction?The LookupDispatchAction is a subclass ofDispatchAction. It does a reverse lookup on the resourcebundle to get the key and then gets the method whose name is associated with the key into theResource Bundle.

27.What is the use of LookupDispatchAction?LookupDispatchAction is useful if the method name in the Action is not driven by its name in the frontend, but by the Locale independent key into the resource bundle. Since the key is always the same, theLookupDispatchAction shields your application from the side effects of I18N.
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28.What is difference between LookupDispatchAction and DispatchAction?The difference between LookupDispatchAction and DispatchAction is that the actual method that getscalled in LookupDispatchAction is based on a lookup of a key value instead of specifying the methodname directly.

29.What is SwitchAction?The SwitchAction class provides a means to switch from a resource in one module to another resourcein a different module. SwitchAction is useful only if you have multiple modules in your Strutsapplication. The SwitchAction class can be used as is, without extending.

30.What if element has declaration with same name as global forward?In this case the global forward is not used. Instead the elements takesprecendence.

31.What is DynaActionForm?

A specialized subclass ofActionForm that allows the creation of form beans with dynamic sets of

properties (configured in configuration file), without requiring the developer to create a Java class foreach type of form bean.

32.What are the steps need to use DynaActionForm?Using a DynaActionForm instead of a custom subclass of ActionForm is relatively straightforward. Youneed to make changes in two places:

In struts-config.xml: change your to be

an org.apache.struts.action.DynaActionForm instead of some subclass ofActionForm

In your Action subclass that uses your form bean:

o import org.apache.struts.action.DynaActionForm

o downcast the ActionForm parameter in execute() to a DynaActionForm

o access the form fields with get(field) rather than getField()

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletResponse;


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import org.apache.struts.action.Action;

import org.apache.struts.action.ActionForm;

import org.apache.struts.action.ActionForward;

import org.apache.struts.action.ActionMapping;

import org.apache.struts.action.ActionMessage;

import org.apache.struts.action.ActionMessages;

import org.apache.struts.action.DynaActionForm;

public class DynaActionFormExample extends Action {

public ActionForward execute(ActionMapping mapping, ActionForm form,

HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response)

throws Exception {

DynaActionForm loginForm = (DynaActionForm) form;ActionMessages errors = new ActionMessages();

if (((String) loginForm.get("userName")).equals("")) {

errors.add("userName", new ActionMessage(

"error.userName.required"));

}

if (((String) loginForm.get("password")).equals("")) {

errors.add("password", new ActionMessage(

"error.password.required"));

}

...........

33.How to display validation errors on jsp page?

tag displays all the errors. iterates over ActionErrors requestattribute.

34.What are the various Struts tag libraries?The various Struts tag libraries are:

HTML Tags

Bean Tags

Logic Tags

Template Tags

Nested Tags

Tiles Tags

35.What is the use of ? repeats the nested body content of this tag over a specified collection.


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36.What are differences between and

: is used to retrive keyed values from resource bundle. It also supports the ability toinclude parameters that can be substituted for defined placeholders in the retrieved string.

: is used to retrieve and print the value of the bean property. has no body.

37.How the exceptions are handled in struts?

Exceptions in Struts are handled in two ways:

Programmatic exception handling :

Explicit try/catch blocks in any code that can throw exception. It works well when custom

value (i.e., of variable) needed when error occurs.

Declarative exception handling :You can either define handling tags inyour struts-config.xml or define the exception handling tags

within tag. It works well when custom page needed when error occurs.This approach applies only to exceptions thrown by Actions.

or


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38.What is difference between ActionForm and DynaActionForm?

An ActionForm represents an HTML form that the user interacts with over one or more pages.You will provide properties to hold the state of the form with getters and setters to access

them. Whereas, using DynaActionForm there is no need of providing properties to hold the

state. Instead these properties and their type are declared in the struts-config.xml

The DynaActionForm bloats up the Struts config file with the xml based definition. This getsannoying as the Struts Config file grow larger.

The DynaActionForm is not strongly typed as the ActionForm. This means there is no compiletime checking for the form fields. Detecting them at runtime is painful and makes you gothrough redeployment.

ActionForm can be cleanly organized in packages as against the flat organization in the StrutsConfig file.

ActionForm were designed to act as a Firewall between HTTP and the Action classes, i.e.

isolate and encapsulate the HTTP request parameters from direct use in Actions.With DynaActionForm, the property access is no different than using request.getParameter( ..).

DynaActionForm construction at runtime requires a lot of Java Reflection (Introspection)machinery that can be avoided.

39.How can we make message resources definitions file available to the Struts framework

environment?We can make message resources definitions file (properties file) available to Struts framework

environment by adding this file to struts-config.xml.

40.What is the life cycle of ActionForm?

The lifecycle ofActionForm invoked by the RequestProcessor is as follows:

Retrieve or Create Form Bean associated with Action

"Store" FormBean in appropriate scope (request or session)

Reset the properties of the FormBean

Populate the properties of the FormBean

Validate the properties of the FormBean

Pass FormBean to Action


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Comparing Struts 1 and 2

Feature Struts 1 Struts 2Action

classes

Struts 1 requires Action classes to extend an

abstract base class. A common problem in

Struts 1 is programming to abstract classes

instead of interfaces.

An Struts 2 Action may implement

an Action interface, along with other interfaces

to enable optional and custom services. Struts 2

provides a base ActionSupport class to implement

commonly used interfaces. Albeit, the Action

interface is not required. Any POJO object with

a execute signature can be used as an Struts 2

Action object.

Threading

Model

Struts 1 Actions are singletons and must be

thread-safe since there will only be one

instance of a class to handle all requests for

that Action. The singleton strategy places

restrictions on what can be done with Struts 1

Actions and requires extra care to develop.

Action resources must be thread-safe or

synchronized.

Struts 2 Action objects are instantiated for each

request, so there are no thread-safety issues. (In

practice, servlet containers generate many

throw-away objects per request, and one more

object does not impose a performance penalty or

impact garbage collection.)

Servlet

Dependency

Struts 1 Actions have dependencies on the

servlet API since the HttpServletRequest and

HttpServletResponse is passed to

the execute method when an Action is

invoked.

Struts 2 Actions are not coupled to a container.

Most often the servlet contexts are represented

as simple Maps, allowing Actions to be tested in

isolation. Struts 2 Actions can still access the

original request and response, if required.However, other architectural elements reduce or

eliminate the need to access the

HttpServetRequest or HttpServletResponse

directly.

Testability A major hurdle to testing Struts 1 Actions is

that the execute method exposes the Servlet

API. A third-party extension, Struts TestCase,

offers a set of mock object for Struts 1.

Struts 2 Actions can be tested by instantiating the

Action, setting properties, and invoking methods.

Dependency Injection support also makes testing

simpler.

Harvesting

Input

Struts 1 uses an ActionForm object to capture

input. Like Actions, all ActionForms must

extend a base class. Since other JavaBeans

cannot be used as ActionForms, developers

often create redundant classes to capture

input. DynaBeans can used as an alternative to

creating conventional ActionForm classes, but,

here too, developers may be redescribing

Struts 2 uses Action properties as input

properties, eliminating the need for a second

input object. Input properties may be rich object

types which may have their own properties. The

Action properties can be accessed from the web

page via the taglibs. Struts 2 also supports the

ActionForm pattern, as well as POJO form objects

and POJO Actions. Rich object types, including

business or domain objects, can be used as


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existing JavaBeans. input/output objects. The ModelDriven feature

simplifies taglb references to POJO input objects.

Expression

Language

Struts 1 integrates with JSTL, so it uses the JSTL

EL. The EL has basic object graph traversal, but

relatively weak collection and indexed propertysupport.

Struts 2 can use JSTL, but the framework also

supports a more powerful and flexible expression

language called "Object Graph NotationLanguage" (OGNL).

Binding

values into

views

Struts 1 uses the standard JSP mechanism for

binding objects into the page context for

access.

Struts 2 uses a "ValueStack" technology so that

the taglibs can access values without coupling

your view to the object type it is rendering. The

ValueStack strategy allows reuse of views across

a range of types which may have the same

property name but different property types.

Type

Conversion

Struts 1 ActionForm properties are usually all

Strings. Struts 1 uses Commons-Beanutils for

type conversion. Converters are per-class, and

not configurable per instance.

Struts 2 uses OGNL for type conversion. The

framework includes converters for basic and

common object types and primitives.

Validation Struts 1 supports manual validation via

a validate method on the ActionForm, or

through an extension to the Commons

Validator. Classes can have different validation

contexts for the same class, but cannot chain

to validations on sub-objects.

Struts 2 supports manual validation via

the validate method and the XWork

Validation framework. The Xwork Validation

Framework supports chaining validation into sub-

properties using the validations defined for the

properties class type and the validation context.

Control Of

Action

Execution

Struts 1 supports separate Request Processors

(lifecycles) for each module, but all the Actions

in the module must share the same lifecycle.

Struts 2 supports creating different lifecycles on a

per Action basis via Interceptor Stacks. Custom

stacks can be created and used with different

Actions, as needed.

Q What is web work ?

Ans. Web work is open source web development framework struts 2 use this framework.


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Q. What is Struts 2 ?

Ans. Struts 2 is open source java base web development framework .

Q . Difference between Struts1.2 and struts 2 ?

Ans.# Struts 1.2 Struts 2.0

1. Follow MVC Architecture/ Model Follow MVC Architecture/ Model

2. Has Action and FormBean classes Has only Action class

3. Has Action for execute method

andFormBean for data

Data and execute() are defined in Action class

4. Action class is singleton and thread-

safe and has only one

instanceFormBean has instance per

request

Action has instance per request so do not need to be

thread-safe

5. Single validation.xml file created for

all FormBean validation.

Separate actionname-validation.xml files are created for

each action

6. Programmatic validation is done by

overriding FormBean.validate()

method

Programmatic validation is done by overriding

Action.validate() method

8. Configuration file isStruts-config.xml Configuration file is struts.xml

9. Frond controller is ActionServlet Front controller is interceptors

11. Container dependent Container independent

Q. Who populate the data from jsp to action in struts 2 ?

Ans. Interceptor are populate the data from jsp to action class in struts2.

Q. Who dose validation in struts 2.0 ?

Ans. Struts 2.0 provide the validation framework handle the validation in struts 2.0.

Q. What is validation framework ?

Ans. Validation framework is provide by struts 2 done the input validation .

Q. Which design pattern follow by struts 2.0?

Ans. Struts 2 use the Action Class as a Model and Action class follow by commend design patternso struts 2 follow command design pattern its also use Interceptor that are use front control design

pattern .

Q. What are the different result types in struts 2.0 ?

Ans. Struts 2 follow many result types

Chain

Dispatcher


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Redirect

Redirect Action

Tiles

Stream

Plain Text Json

By Default its result type is Dispatcher .

Q. What is difference between Redirect and Redirect Action result type in struts 2 ?

Ans. Main difference between redirect and redirect action is redirect use when we send redirect our

control one url to another url we use redirect. And when we redirect our control one action to another

action at this time we are use redirectaction result type.

Q. What is Action Context in struts 2 ?

Ans. Action Context is memory area where struts 2 tags are read and write the objects. It content

value-Stack and Ognl .

Q. What is Value-Stack in struts 2.0 ?

Ans. Value Stack is the default memory area where struts2 tags are read and write the object (data

) with the help of OGNL(object graph Navigation language) .

Q. What is OGNL ?

Ans. OGNL stands for Object graph Navigation language . Its expression language Struts 2 tags

are use OGNL to read and write the data and object for Action Context and Value-stack .

Q. Why struts 1.2 are container dependent and Struts 2 not container Dependent ?

Ans. In Struts 1.2 we are use Action Servlet that why its Container dependent . But Struts 2 Action

class Dose not use any container dependent object like HttpSession,HttpRequest,HttpResponse etc.

that are container dependent object that is the resin the struts 2 are not container dependent .

Q . What is Aware interfaces in struts 2 ?

Ans . Aware Interfaces are use to make a struts 2 container dependent if Your Application need any

Container Dependent object like Sssion ,Application, Request etc. You can use there

Respective aware interface to implement your Action class. Aware Interface are also use to achieve

the IOC in Struts 2.

Q. How many Types validation Support by Struts validation framework ?

Ans. Struts 2 Support two types validation

Server side Validation

Client side validation

Q. What is Business validation and Input Validation ?

Ans. Business Validation are those validation they are need to communicate with our data base like

Your Login Failed etc.And Input Validation dont need to communicate the database like null value

insert in any filed .


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Q. How to achieve the localization and internalization in struts 2 ?

Ans. Struts 2 support the Localization and Internalization with the help of .properties file.

Q. What is the work of ActionInvocation calss ?

Ans. Function of ActionInvocation class its invock the interceptor and action class.

Q. How many Action class in Struts 2 ?Ans. Action Class object are create a every time when request is come .

Q. What is the function of Interceptor ? Can we create a our custom Interceptor ?

Ans. Interceptor in struts 2 work like Filter its check each and every request and perform the filtering

task in our application . Yes we can Create Our Own interceptor AbstractInterceptor .

Q. What is struts.devMode in struts.xml ?

Ans. Struts.devMode its use to represent your application is ether Development Mode Or

Production Mode by Setting True or false . If Its true than Your Application is Development

Mode and its false Than your Application is Production Mode.

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Struts Interview