Struts 2 validation framework

Here let’s see how struts2 validation happens with XML configuration.

Lets take an example of a login page , here we will check any of the fields are blank using struts 2 validation framework.

For this we need the following files.

web.xml (WEB-INF)
struts.xml (WEB-INF\classes)
struts.properties(Optional) (WEB-INF\classes)
LoginAction.java (WEB-INF\classes\com\j2eereference\struts2\action)
LoginAction-validation.xml (WEB-INF\classes\com\j2eereference\struts2\action)
UserVO.java (WEB-INF\classes\com\j2eereference\struts2\vo)
login.jsp (\)

The Struts 2 validation framework uses xml based configuration file. The file name should be < your action class name> -validation.xml. In our case our action class name is Login.java, so our validation configuration file will be Login-validation.xml.

One important thing we need to notice that the validation XML should be saved in the same location of your LoginActionClass , In our example its under WEB-INF\classes\com\j2eereference\struts2\action

Now lets see each of the above files closely.

web.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" 
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
&nbsp;id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">
<display-name>j2eereference</display-name>

<filter>
<filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
<filter-class>org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.FilterDispatcher</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>
</web-app>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"

xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"

xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"

 id="WebApp_ID" version="2.5">

<display-name>j2eereference</display-name>

<filter-name>struts2</filter-name>

<filter-class>org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.FilterDispatcher</filter-class>

</filter>

<filter-mapping>

<filter-name>struts2</filter-name>

<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>

</filter-mapping>

</web-app>

struts.xml

<!DOCTYPE struts PUBLIC
"-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 2.0//EN"
"http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-2.0.dtd">
<struts>
<package name="default" extends="struts-default">
  <action name="loginAction" method="validateUser">
     <result name="input">/login.jsp</result>
     <result name="success">/success.jsp</result>
     <result name="failure">/failure.jsp</result>
&nbsp; </action>
</package>
</struts>

<!DOCTYPE struts PUBLIC

"-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 2.0//EN"

"http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-2.0.dtd">

<result name="input">/login.jsp</result>

<result name="success">/success.jsp</result>

<result name="failure">/failure.jsp</result>

  </action>

</package>

</struts>

LoginAction.java

package com.j2eereference.struts2.action;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpSession;
import com.j2eereference.struts2.vo.UserVO;
import com.opensymphony.xwork2.ActionSupport;

public class LoginAction extends ActionSupport {

	private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;	
	private UserVO userVO;
	private String returnValue;

	HttpSession session;

	public String validateUser()
	{
		String userName=userVO.getLoginUserName();
		String password=userVO.getLoginUserName();
		/* Call your business logic layer do the validation,as per the result assign
		 success or failure to the variable returnValue */

		return returnValue;
    }

    public UserVO getUserVO() {
		return userVO;
	}
	public void setUserVO(UserVO userVO) {
		this.userVO = userVO;
	}

}

package com.j2eereference.struts2.action;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpSession;

import com.j2eereference.struts2.vo.UserVO;

import com.opensymphony.xwork2.ActionSupport;

public class LoginAction extends ActionSupport {

private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;

private UserVO userVO;

private String returnValue;

HttpSession session;

public String validateUser()

{

String userName=userVO.getLoginUserName();

String password=userVO.getLoginUserName();

/* Call your business logic layer do the validation,as per the result assign

success or failure to the variable returnValue */

return returnValue;

}

public UserVO getUserVO() {

return userVO;

}

public void setUserVO(UserVO userVO) {

this.userVO = userVO;

}

LoginAction-validation.xml

<!DOCTYPE validators PUBLIC "-//OpenSymphony Group//XWork Validator 1.0.2//EN"
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "http://www.opensymphony.com/xwork/xwork-validator-1.0.2.dtd">
<validators>
<field name="userVO.loginUserName">
<field-validator type="requiredstring">
 <message>User Name is required.</message>
</field-validator>
</field>

<field name="userVO.password">
<field-validator type="requiredstring">
<message>Password is required.</message>
</field-validator>
</field>
</validators>

<!DOCTYPE validators PUBLIC "-//OpenSymphony Group//XWork Validator 1.0.2//EN"

       "http://www.opensymphony.com/xwork/xwork-validator-1.0.2.dtd">

<field-validator type="requiredstring">

<message>User Name is required.</message>

</field-validator>

</field>

<field-validator type="requiredstring">

<message>Password is required.</message>

</field-validator>

</field>

</validators>

UserVo.java

package com.j2eereference.struts2.vo;

public class UserVO {

	private String loginUserName;				   
	private String password;

	public String getLoginUserName() {
		return loginUserName;
	}
	public void setLoginUserName(String loginUserName) {
		this.loginUserName = loginUserName;
	}
	public String getPassword() {
		return password;
	}
	public void setPassword(String password) {
		this.password = password;
	}

}

package com.j2eereference.struts2.vo;

public class UserVO {

private String loginUserName;

private String password;

public String getLoginUserName() {

return loginUserName;

}

public void setLoginUserName(String loginUserName) {

this.loginUserName = loginUserName;

}

public String getPassword() {

return password;

}

public void setPassword(String password) {

this.password = password;

}

login.jsp

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<%@ page contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8"%>
<%@ taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags"%>
<head>
<title>j2eereference</title>
</head>
<body>
<s:form name="loginForm" method="post" action="loginAction">
<table&nbsp; width=50%>
<s:fielderror cssStyle="color: red;font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"/>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td><td>User Name</td><td><s:textfield name="userVO.loginUserName"/></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td><td>Password</td><td><s:password name="userVO.password"/> </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>&nbsp;</td><td></td><td align=right><s:submit/></td>
</tr>
</table>
</s:form>
</body>
</html>

<%@ page contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8"%>

<%@ taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags"%>

<head>

<title>j2eereference</title>

</head>

<body>

<s:form name="loginForm" method="post" action="loginAction">

<table  width=50%>

<s:fielderror cssStyle="color: red;font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"/>

<tr>

</tr>

<tr>

<td> </td><td>Password</td><td><s:password name="userVO.password"/> </td>

</tr>

<tr>

</tr>

</table>

</s:form>

</body>

</html>

struts.properties : This file is for setting the theme . If we are not setting this, struts will set the default theme.

struts.ui.theme=simple

1	struts.ui.theme=simple

Now lets see the screen shot by running the application

Here when you click on the submit button without entering the password , you will get an error message on top saying that password is required.

Here you can notice that

The error messages we are defining in the LoginAction-validation.xml .
Color and style of the message in jsp using the struts tag as below.

<s:fielderror cssStyle="color: red;font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"/>

1

<s:fielderror cssStyle="color: red;font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"/>

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