Struts2 - Interview Questions

Dear readers, these Struts2 Interview Questions have been designed especially to get you acquainted with the nature of questions you may encounter during your interview for the subject of Struts2 Programming. As per my experience, good interviewers hardly planned to ask any particular question during your interview, normally questions start with some basic concept of the subject and later they continue based on further discussion and what you answer −
Struts2 is popular and mature web application framework based on the MVC design pattern. Struts2 is not just the next version of Struts 1, but it is a complete rewrite of the Struts architecture.
Here are some of the great features that may force you to consider Struts2 −
POJO forms and POJO actions − Struts2 has done away with the Action Forms that were an integral part of the Struts framework. With Struts2, you can use any POJO to receive the form input. Similarly, you can now see any POJO as an Action class.
POJO forms and POJO actions − Struts2 has done away with the Action Forms that were an integral part of the Struts framework. With Struts2, you can use any POJO to receive the form input. Similarly, you can now see any POJO as an Action class.
Tag support − Struts2 has improved the form tags and the new tags allow the developers to write less code.
Tag support − Struts2 has improved the form tags and the new tags allow the developers to write less code.
AJAX support − Struts2 has recognised the take over by Web2.0 technologies, and has integrated AJAX support into the product by creating AJAX tags, that function very similar to the standard Struts2 tags.
AJAX support − Struts2 has recognised the take over by Web2.0 technologies, and has integrated AJAX support into the product by creating AJAX tags, that function very similar to the standard Struts2 tags.
Easy Integration − Integration with other frameworks like Spring, Tiles and SiteMesh is now easier with a variety of integration available with Struts2.
Easy Integration − Integration with other frameworks like Spring, Tiles and SiteMesh is now easier with a variety of integration available with Struts2.
Template Support − Support for generating views using templates.
Template Support − Support for generating views using templates.
Plugin Support − The core Struts2 behaviour can be enhanced and augmented by the use of plugins. A number of plugins are available for Struts2.
Plugin Support − The core Struts2 behaviour can be enhanced and augmented by the use of plugins. A number of plugins are available for Struts2.
The Model-View-Controller pattern in Struts2 is realized with following five core components −
Actions
Actions
Interceptors
Interceptors
Value Stack / OGNL
Value Stack / OGNL
Results / Result types
Results / Result types
View technologies
View technologies
Following is the life cycle of a request in Struct2 application −
User sends a request to the server for requesting for some resource (i.e pages).
User sends a request to the server for requesting for some resource (i.e pages).
The FilterDispatcher looks at the request and then determines the appropriate Action.
The FilterDispatcher looks at the request and then determines the appropriate Action.
Configured interceptors functionalities applies such as validation, file upload etc.
Configured interceptors functionalities applies such as validation, file upload etc.
Selected action is executed to perform the requested operation.
Selected action is executed to perform the requested operation.
Again, configured interceptors are applied to do any post-processing if required.
Again, configured interceptors are applied to do any post-processing if required.
Finally the result is prepared by the view and returns the result to the user.
Finally the result is prepared by the view and returns the result to the user.
The struts.xml file contains the configuration information that you will be modifying as actions are developed. This file can be used to override default settings for an application, for example struts.devMode = false and other settings which are defined in property file. This file can be created under the folder WEB-INF/classes.
The constant tag along with name and value attributes will be used to override any of the following properties defined in default.properties, like we just set struts.devMode property. Setting struts.devMode property allows us to see more debug messages in the log file.
We define action tags corresponds to every URL we want to access and we define a class with execute() method which will be accessed whenever we will access corresponding URL.
Results determine what gets returned to the browser after an action is executed. The string returned from the action should be the name of a result. Results are configured per-action as above, or as a "global" result, available to every action in a package. Results have optional name and type attributes. The default name value is "success".
The struts-config.xml configuration file is a link between the View and Model components in the Web Client.
This is where you map your ActionForm subclass to a name. You use this name as an alias for your ActionForm throughout the rest of the struts-config.xml file, and even on your JSP pages.
This section maps a page on your webapp to a name. You can use this name to refer to the actual page. This avoids hardcoding URLs on your web pages.
This is where you declare form handlers and they are also known as action mappings.
This section tells Struts where to find your properties files, which contain prompts and error messages.
This configuration file provides a mechanism to change the default behavior of the framework. Actually all of the properties contained within the struts.properties configuration file can also be configured in the web.xml using the init-param, as well using the constant tag in the struts.xml configuration file. But if you like to keep the things separate and more struts specific then you can create this file under the folder WEB-INF/classes.
The values configured in this file will override the default values configured in default.properties which is contained in the struts2-core-x.y.z.jar distribution.
Interceptors are conceptually the same as servlet filters or the JDKs Proxy class. Interceptors allow for crosscutting functionality to be implemented separately from the action as well as the framework. You can achieve the following using interceptors −
Providing preprocessing logic before the action is called.
Providing preprocessing logic before the action is called.
Providing postprocessing logic after the action is called.
Providing postprocessing logic after the action is called.
Catching exceptions so that alternate processing can be performed.
Catching exceptions so that alternate processing can be performed.
Creating a custom interceptor is easy; the interface that needs to be extended is the Interceptor interface.
Actual action will be executed using the interceptor by invocation.invoke() call. So you can do some pre-processing and some post-processing based on your requirement.
The framework itself starts the process by making the first call to the ActionInvocation object's invoke(). Each time invoke() is called, ActionInvocation consults its state and executes whichever interceptor comes next. When all of the configured interceptors have been invoked, the invoke() method will cause the action itself to be executed.
The Action class manages the application's state, and the Result Type manages the view.
Default result type is dispatcher, which is used to dispatch to JSP pages.
The dispatcher result type is the default type, and is used if no other result type is specified. It's used to forward to a servlet, JSP, HTML page, and so on, on the server. It uses the RequestDispatcher.forward() method.
he redirect result type calls the standard response.sendRedirect() method, causing the browser to create a new request to the given location.
We can provide the location either in the body of the <result...> element or as a <param name = "location"> element.
The value stack is a set of several objects which keeps the following objects in the provided order −
Temporary Objects − There are various temporary objects which are created during execution of a page. For example the current iteration value for a collection being looped over in a JSP tag.
Temporary Objects − There are various temporary objects which are created during execution of a page. For example the current iteration value for a collection being looped over in a JSP tag.
The Model Object − If you are using model objects in your struts application, the current model object is placed before the action on the value stack.
The Model Object − If you are using model objects in your struts application, the current model object is placed before the action on the value stack.
The Action Object − This will be the current action object which is being executed.
The Action Object − This will be the current action object which is being executed.
Named Objects − These objects include #application, #session, #request, #attr and #parameters and refer to the corresponding servlet scopes.
Named Objects − These objects include #application, #session, #request, #attr and #parameters and refer to the corresponding servlet scopes.
The Object-Graph Navigation Language (OGNL) is a powerful expression language that is used to reference and manipulate data on the ValueStack. OGNL also helps in data transfer and type conversion.
The ActionContext map consists of the following −
application − application scoped variables.
application − application scoped variables.
session − session scoped variables.
session − session scoped variables.
root / value stack − all your action variables are stored here.
root / value stack − all your action variables are stored here.
request − request scoped variables.
request − request scoped variables.
parameters − request parameters.
parameters − request parameters.
atributes − the attributes stored in page, request, session and application scope.
atributes − the attributes stored in page, request, session and application scope.
File uploading in Struts is possible through a pre-defined interceptor called FileUpload interceptor which is available through the org.apache.struts2.interceptor.FileUploadInterceptor class and included as part of the defaultStack.
Following are the Struts2 configuration properties that control file uploading process −
struts.multipart.maxSize − The maximum size (in bytes) of a file to be accepted as a file upload. Default is 250M.
struts.multipart.maxSize − The maximum size (in bytes) of a file to be accepted as a file upload. Default is 250M.
struts.multipart.parser − The library used to upload the multipart form. By default is jakarta.
struts.multipart.parser − The library used to upload the multipart form. By default is jakarta.
struts.multipart.saveDir − The location to store the temporary file. By default is javax.servlet.context.tempdir.
struts.multipart.saveDir − The location to store the temporary file. By default is javax.servlet.context.tempdir.
The fileUplaod interceptor uses several default error message keys −
struts.messages.error.uploading − A general error that occurs when the file could not be uploaded.
struts.messages.error.uploading − A general error that occurs when the file could not be uploaded.
struts.messages.error.file.too.large − Occurs when the uploaded file is too large as specified by maximumSize.
struts.messages.error.file.too.large − Occurs when the uploaded file is too large as specified by maximumSize.
struts.messages.error.content.type.not.allowed − Occurs when the uploaded file does not match the expected content types specified.
struts.messages.error.content.type.not.allowed − Occurs when the uploaded file does not match the expected content types specified.
You can override the text of these messages in WebContent/WEB-INF/classes/messages.properties resource files.
At Struts's core, we have the validation framework that assists the application to run the rules to perform validation before the action method is executed. Action class should extend the ActionSupport class, in order to get the validate method executed.
When the user presses the submit button, Struts 2 will automatically execute the validate method and if any of the if statements listed inside the method are true, Struts 2 will call its addFieldError method. If any errors have been added then Struts 2 will not proceed to call the execute method. Rather the Struts 2 framework will return input as the result of calling the action.
So when validation fails and Struts 2 returns input, the Struts 2 framework will redisplay the view file. Since we used Struts 2 form tags, Struts 2 will automatically add the error messages just above the form filed.
These error messages are the ones we specified in the addFieldError method call. The addFieldError method takes two arguments. The first is the form field name to which the error applies and the second is the error message to display above that form field.
The second method of doing validation is by placing an xml file next to the action class. Struts2 XML based validation provides more options of validation like email validation, integer range validation, form validation field, expression validation, regex validation, required validation, requiredstring validation, stringlength validation and etc.
The xml file needs to be named '[action-class]'-validation.xml.
Following is the list of various types of field level and non-field level validation available in Struts2 −
date validator
date validator
double validator
double validator
email validator
email validator
expression validator
expression validator
int validator
int validator
regex validator
regex validator
required validator
required validator
requiredstring validator
requiredstring validator
stringlength validator
stringlength validator
url validator
url validator
Internationalization (i18n) is the process of planning and implementing products and services so that they can easily be adapted to specific local languages and cultures, a process called localization. The internationalization process is sometimes called translation or localization enablement.
Struts2 provides localization ie. internationalization (i18n) support through resource bundles, interceptors and tag libraries in the following places −
The UI Tags.
The UI Tags.
Messages and Errors.
Messages and Errors.
Within action classes.
Within action classes.
The simplest naming format for a resource file is −
bundlename_language_country.properties
Here bundlename could be ActionClass, Interface, SuperClass, Model, Package, Global resource properties. Next part language_country represents the country locale for example Spanish (Spain) locale is represented by es_ES and English (United States) locale is represented by en_US etc. Here you can skip country part which is optional.
When you reference a message element by its key, Struts framework searches for a corresponding message bundle in the following order −
ActionClass.properties
ActionClass.properties
Interface.properties
Interface.properties
SuperClass.properties
SuperClass.properties
model.properties
model.properties
package.properties
package.properties
struts.properties
struts.properties
global.properties
global.properties
StrutsTypeConverter class tells Struts how to convert Environment to a String and vice versa by overriding two methods convertFromString() and convertToString().
Struts 2 comes with three built-in themes −
simple theme − A minimal theme with no "bells and whistles". For example, the textfield tag renders the HTML <input/> tag without a label, validation, error reporting, or any other formatting or functionality.
simple theme − A minimal theme with no "bells and whistles". For example, the textfield tag renders the HTML <input/> tag without a label, validation, error reporting, or any other formatting or functionality.
xhtml theme − This is the default theme used by Struts 2 and provides all the basics that the simple theme provides and adds several features like standard two-column table layout for the HTML, Labels for each of the HTML, Validation and error reporting etc.
xhtml theme − This is the default theme used by Struts 2 and provides all the basics that the simple theme provides and adds several features like standard two-column table layout for the HTML, Labels for each of the HTML, Validation and error reporting etc.
css_xhtml theme − This theme provides all the basics that the simple theme provides and adds several features like standard two-column CSS-based layout, using <div> for the HTML Struts Tags, Labels for each of the HTML Struts Tags, placed according to the CSS stylesheet.
css_xhtml theme − This theme provides all the basics that the simple theme provides and adds several features like standard two-column CSS-based layout, using <div> for the HTML Struts Tags, Labels for each of the HTML Struts Tags, placed according to the CSS stylesheet.
Struts makes the exception handling easy by the use of the "exception" interceptor. The "exception" interceptor is included as part of the default stack, so you don't have to do anything extra to configure it. It is available out-of-the-box ready for you to use.
A @Results annotation is a collection of results. Under the @Results annotation, we can have multiple @Result annotations.
@Results({
   @Result(name = "success", value = "/success.jsp"),
   @Result(name = "error", value = "/error.jsp")
})
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
 ...
}
The @result annotations have the name that correspond to the outcome of the execute method. They also contain a location as to which view should be served corresponding to return value from execute().
@Result(name = "success", value = "/success.jsp")
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
 ...
}
This is used to decorate the execute() method. The Action method also takes in a value which is the URL on which the action is invoked.
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
   private String name;
   private int age;
   @Action(value = "/empinfo")
   public String execute() {
      return SUCCESS;
   }
}
The @After annotation marks a action method that needs to be called after the main action method and the result was executed. Return value is ignored.
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
   @After
   public void isValid() throws ValidationException {
      // validate model object, throw exception if failed
   }
   public String execute() {
      // perform secure action
      return SUCCESS;
   }
}
The @Before annotation marks a action method that needs to be called before the main action method and the result was executed. Return value is ignored.
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
   @Before
   public void isAuthorized() throws AuthenticationException {
      // authorize request, throw exception if failed
   }
   public String execute() {
      // perform secure action
      return SUCCESS;
   }
}
The @BeforeResult annotation marks a action method that needs to be executed before the result. Return value is ignored.
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
   @BeforeResult
   public void isValid() throws ValidationException {
    // validate model object, throw exception if failed
   }
   public String execute() {
      // perform action
      return SUCCESS;
   }
}
This validation annotation checks if there are any conversion errors for a field and applies them if they exist.
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
   @ConversionErrorFieldValidator(message = "Default message", 
                        key = "i18n.key", shortCircuit = true)
   public String getName() {
       return name;
   }
}
This validation annotation checks that a date field has a value within a specified range.
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
   @DateRangeFieldValidator(message = "Default message", 
   key = "i18n.key", shortCircuit = true, 
   min = "2005/01/01", max = "2005/12/31")
   public String getDOB() {
       return dob;
   }
}
This validation annotation checks that a double field has a value within a specified range. If neither min nor max is set, nothing will be done.
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
   @DoubleRangeFieldValidator(message = "Default message", 
   key = "i18n.key", shortCircuit = true, 
   minInclusive = "0.123", maxInclusive = "99.987")
   public String getIncome() {
       return income;
   }
}
This validation annotation checks that a field is a valid e-mail address if it contains a non-empty String.
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
   @EmailValidator(message = "Default message", 
   key = "i18n.key", shortCircuit = true)
   public String getEmail() {
       return email;
   }
}
This non-field level validator validates a supplied regular expression.
@ExpressionValidator(message = "Default message", key = "i18n.key", 
shortCircuit = true, expression = "an OGNL expression" )
This validation annotation checks that a numeric field has a value within a specified range. If neither min nor max is set, nothing will be done.
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
   @IntRangeFieldValidator(message = "Default message", 
   key = "i18n.key", shortCircuit = true, 
   min = "0", max = "42")
   public String getAge() {
       return age;
   }
}
This annotation validates a string field using a regular expression.
@RegexFieldValidator( key = "regex.field", expression = "yourregexp")
This validation annotation checks that a field is non-null. The annotation must be applied at method level.
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
   @RequiredFieldValidator(message = "Default message", 
   key = "i18n.key", shortCircuit = true)
   public String getAge() {
       return age;
   }
}
This validation annotation checks that a String field is not empty (i.e. non-null with a length > 0).
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
   @RequiredStringValidator(message = "Default message", 
   key = "i18n.key", shortCircuit = true, trim = true)
   public String getName() {
       return name;
   }
}
This validator checks that a String field is of the right length. It assumes that the field is a String. If neither minLength nor maxLength is set, nothing will be done.
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
   @StringLengthFieldValidator(message = "Default message", 
   key = "i18n.key", shortCircuit = true, 
   trim = true, minLength = "5",  maxLength = "12")
   public String getName() {
       return name;
   }
}
This validator checks that a field is a valid URL.
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
   @UrlValidator(message = "Default message", 
   key = "i18n.key", shortCircuit = true)
   public String getURL() {
       return url;
   }
}
If you want to use several annotations of the same type, these annotation must be nested within the @Validations() annotation.
public class Employee extends ActionSupport{
  @Validations(
   requiredFields =
      {@RequiredFieldValidator(type = ValidatorType.SIMPLE, 
      fieldName = "customfield", 
      message = "You must enter a value for field.")},
   requiredStrings =
      {@RequiredStringValidator(type = ValidatorType.SIMPLE, 
      fieldName = "stringisrequired", 
      message = "You must enter a value for string.")}
   )
   public String getName() {
       return name;
   }
}
This annotation can be used for custom validators. Use the ValidationParameter annotation to supply additional params.
@CustomValidator(type ="customValidatorName", fieldName = "myField")
This is a marker annotation for type conversions at Type level. The Conversion annotation must be applied at Type level.
@Conversion()
   public class ConversionAction implements Action {
}
This annotation sets the CreateIfNull for type conversion. The CreateIfNull annotation must be applied at field or method level.
@CreateIfNull( value = true )
private List<User> users;
This annotation sets the Element for type conversion. The Element annotation must be applied at field or method level.
@Element( value = com.acme.User )
private List<User> userList;
This annotation sets the Key for type conversion. The Key annotation must be applied at field or method level.
@Key( value = java.lang.Long.class )
private Map<Long, User> userMap;
This annotation sets the KeyProperty for type conversion. The KeyProperty annotation must be applied at field or method level.
@KeyProperty( value = "userName" )
protected List<User> users = null;
This annotation annotation is used for class and application wide conversion rules. The TypeConversion annotation can be applied at property and method level.
@TypeConversion(rule = ConversionRule.COLLECTION, 
converter = "java.util.String")
public void setUsers( List users ) {
   this.users = users;
}
Further, you can go through your past assignments you have done with the subject and make sure you are able to speak confidently on them. If you are fresher then interviewer does not expect you will answer very complex questions, rather you have to make your basics concepts very strong.
Second it really doesn't matter much if you could not answer few questions but it matters that whatever you answered, you must have answered with confidence. So just feel confident during your interview. We at tutorialspoint wish you best luck to have a good interviewer and all the very best for your future endeavor. Cheers :-)
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