[Springframework-developer] Spring's web support vs Struts

[<jue...@we...>]

Hi everybody,

I've recently browsed through the thread "Struts design flaw -- =
ActionForms are not true domain objects" on the Struts mailing list. =
Obviously, some people treat that as a religious issue - after all, form =
handling, i.e. the design of the ActionForm class, is a central aspect =
of Struts. Interestingly, Rod's book is explictly mentioned and =
discussed.

There seem to some real fans of Struts' design, e.g. =
http://nagoya.apache.org/eyebrowse/ReadMsg?listId=3D42&msgNo=3D64642:
"Now does it break this book's opinion of proper design patterns? I'm =
sure it does, but what GREAT engineers don't break design pattern rules =
when it benefits the end result of an application or framework? Patters =
are there to solve issues we have, not to stick us into lala land with =
shackles and whips telling us that we must do it that way. They're =
merely there to help us write better OO design, and from where I sit the =
Struts design is as close to perfect as you can get right now=20
for WEB-based development."

An interesting and quite offensive posting is the following one, from =
Peter Pilgrim, dedicated "Struts Consultant" (who also wrote some =
Expresso article for TheServerSide, IIRC):
http://nagoya.apache.org/eyebrowse/ReadMsg?listId=3D42&msgNo=3D65119. He =
virtually dismisses Rod's views on Struts' flaws in the twinkling of an =
eye. Now that's what I call open discussion...

So everybody seems to love writing ActionForms and copying the =
properties to the respective domain objects on submit, using Commons =
BeanUtils. I don't consider this elegant, but I respect their views too. =
I simply believe that there is a better way.

I consider the ubiquitousness of ActionForms an even greater design flaw =
of Struts. Struts' Action API only knows one single execute/perform =
signature, with ActionMapping, ActionForm, HttpServletRequest, and =
HttpServletResponse. This is inflexible and inelegant. Of course, the =
form may be null, according to your action mapping declaration. =
Generally, why do I have to declare form beans in a descriptor? And =
ActionMapping is basically just needed for resolving symbolic view =
names. All things considered, the Action/ActionMapping approach is at =
least as flawed as the ActionForm class.

Of course, anybody is free to choose and even like Struts' approach. =
BTW, what's the status of our proposed Struts plugin? I really like that =
idea because it gives the application developer choices. After all, =
Spring is more than "just" a web framework, and deserves to get used in =
a wide variety of scenarios. It offers such appropriate generic =
infrastructure for the middle tier, with nice integration with but clear =
separation from the web support on top of it.

Anyway, IMHO Spring's way of web MVC is so much cleaner and so much more =
sophisticated than Struts'. Consider the choice between Controller, =
CommandController, and FormController, or the flexibility of =
HandlerMapping and ViewResolver. Due to the latter interfaces, you don't =
need to explictly map something in a config file that you don't want to =
- simply use an implicit mapping strategy like BeanNameUrlHandlerMapping =
or InternalResourceViewResolver, or implement your own. And we haven't =
even talked about validation, or retrieval and configuration of business =
logic services yet.

In the end, I guess I'm simply a fan... ;-)

Regards,
Juergen


DI J=FCrgen H=F6ller
Senior System Architect
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