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The Sample Code
Before you get directly into code, it is worth mentioning that this demo Web application is of the world's simplest email address book. It allows you to set the name and email of its owner, add your friends' contact information (name and email), and of course, list of all them.
Because this is just demo application, it does not persist all entered information. Entered information will be kept in HttpSession and is be lost once you close your browser. All contact information (name and e-mail) is be kept in the objects of the Java class shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: This Java class contains the contact info.
Every Action class prepares a result Java Bean. Figure 4 shows how such a class will look for ListingScreenAction.
Figure 4: This Java class contains the contact info.
These Java Beans are converted into an XML document by the XML/XSLT controller.
In general, the configuration of the Web application will be similar for almost any other application using the Struts framework. The only thing different is the XML/XSLT controller, which you need to add to /WEB-INF/web.xml:
<web-app>
...
<servlet>
<servlet-name>xmlxslt</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.prokhorenko.XMLHandler</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
...
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>xmlxslt</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/XMLHandler</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
...
</web-app>
Hands-on with the Code
Enough theory, it's time to get your hands dirty. Download the code example webxmlxslt_src.zip, put it into any directory you want, and then open the build.xml file with your favorite text editor. Pay attention to lines 4-7. This is the only thing you need to change. Set the path to all required libraries, if necessary, and type:
ant
In few seconds, everything is built and you should see the mvx.war file. If you are using JBoss, just type ant deploy, otherwise, use your Web Container vendor's tools to deploy the application.
Once deployed, open your browser, type http://localhost:8080/mvx, and you'll see the initial page, from which you will be able to set contacts book owner, add new contact record, and list all records. Take your time and click through it. It doesn't really differ from any other Web application using Struts and JSPs, but it's much more portable with the presentation view!
All the XSLT stylesheet templates are in *.xsl files. You may want to change them or load them with nicer HTML/CSS design.
After you finish exploring, you may want to see how this demo application looks in pure XML. To do so, edit the war/src/com/prokhorenko/Constants.java file and set the xmlOutputOnly variable to value true:
...
public final static boolean xmlOutputOnly = true;
...
Compile, pack, and re-deploy it to see all the changes.
Remember that each Web project needs to be designed and architected depending exactly on its own requirements. XML/XSLT is not a panacea for every Web application, but it can be a really helpful solution.
Resources
Application Server: JBoss
XSLT Processor: Xalan-J
XML Schema Processor: Xerces2
Java Build Tool: Apache Ant
W3C XML Specification
W3C XSL Transformations Specification
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