Struts GenericDataSource Just a general question - I'm building an application that will run stand-alone, not in an application server. I need to manage some database connections. Is the struts GenericDataSource a good candidate to do this for me? I basicly just need a connection pool from where I can get connections and then return them to optimize performance.
If this struts class is not a good candidate, can someone recommend a similar pool-manager that is lean and mean and easy to use?
Answer 1
The Struts 1.0 GenericDataSource is not a good candidate for a production server. In Struts 1.1, the Commons DBCP is used istead, which is a good candidate for a production server. (You can also use the DBCP in Struts 1.0 by specifying the type and including the Commons JARs.)
Another popular choice is Poolman. It's not under active development, but I believe you can still download it from SourceForge. Poolman is also very easy to use outside of Struts.
Many containers also offer support for connection pools. The one that ships with Resin is quite good. The later versions of Tomcat bundle the Commons DBCP.
Regardless of what pool you use, a good practice is to hide it behind some type of adaptor class of your own (often a singleton), to make it easy to change later. So your classes call your adaptor, and your adaptor calls whichever pool you are using.
A neat and often-overlooked aspect of the Struts DataSource manager is that it supports loading multiple connection pools and giving each a name. So you might have one pool for internal use and another for public use. This way, the public connections can't swap your administrative access to the application. Each pool could also have its own login, and therefore different rights to the underlying database.
Answer 2


int i=1;

with Struts 1.0 and jdbc i'am use GenericDataSource
not in struts-xml, but in Client.properties

my Client.properties
instanceBd=oraID
userPasswd=xxx/yyyy
maxCount=20
minCount=19
port=1521
driver=oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver
url=jdbc:oracle:thin:@serverName:port:instanceBd

then, on my code i have init (struts 1.0 or struts 1.1):

GenericDataSource ng = new GenericDataSource ();

ng.setUser (mprop.getUserBd());
ng.setPassword (mprop.getPasswdBd());
ng.setUrl (mprop.getUrl());
ng.setDriverClass(mprop.getDriverClass());
ng.setMaxCount(mprop.getMaxCount());
ng.setMinCount (mprop.getMinCount());
ng.setDescription("jdbc OracleDriver");
ng.setAutoCommit(true);
try { ng.open(); } catch (java.sql.SQLException e) {
}


in business logic (or pool) :
Connect cn = ng.getConnection();

it's work.

with struts 1.1 , struts-legacy.jar is necessy for this codes.

it's work.

Dynamic pages using struts
Is it possible to create the elements of a page(jsp) dynamically based on the results of a data base query, when using struts framework?
If you are talking about rendering a report, then sure. The Action iteracts with the business layer/data access objects to acquire the data, and then passes it to the presentation page bundled up as a JavaBean or a collection of JavaBeans. The JSP tags (and other systems) all use reflection, so you can use whatever JavaBean you like.
If you are talking about creating a dynamic data-entry form, then "not so much".
Struts 1.1 supports map-backed ActionForms, but the page still needs to know what input fields are going to be needed. For a truly dynamic input form, I guess the key would be some type of tag that took a map and then generated a column of input fields. (Wouldn't work for everyone, since a lot of forms must be designed just so.) For extra credit, the entry names could (optionally) be resource keys that were used to find the label text.
Text fields would be easy. Others would need some type of JavaBean with properties to tell the tag what to output. A bit of work, but obviously doable.
Of course, you'd probably want to validate the form before passing it back to the database. I imagine it's possible to use the validator in a non-declarative way, but I don't know anyone whose doing that. If you can do a db query to get the information about the form, I imagine you could also do a query to get the information about validations for the form. It would probably be easier to write your own engine than adopt the validator. (It's not really that complicated to do.)
People often ask about "dynamic input forms", but most of us just can't get our head around the use case. It's hard to understand what you do with the dynamic data when it comes back. Most application don't allow you to input or update an arbitrary (e.g. dynamic) set of fields.

Both JSF and Struts will continue to exist for a while. The Struts community is aware of JSF and is positioning itself to have strong support for JSF. See What about JSTL and JavaServer faces?
From a tools perspective, if you look at the support for JSF versus Struts in WebSphere Studio, the Struts tools are focused around the controller aspects. The Web Diagram editor helps build your Struts configuration and the wizards/editors build Struts artifacts. The JSF tools are geared towards building pages, and in essence, hide the JSF framework from you. Expect WebSphere Studio to support both frameworks for a while. As JSF matures, expect to see some of the controller aspects in JSF to become toolable.

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