Struts 2 Tiles Plugin Tutorial with Example in Eclipse
- By Viral Patel on December 28, 2009
Welcome to Part-4 of the 7-part series where we will go through different aspects for Struts2 Framework with some useful examples. In previous part we went through Struts2 Validation Framework. We saw how easy it is to integrate validation in your struts2 application.
In this part we will discuss about Tiles Framework and its Integration with Struts2. We will add Tiles support to our HelloWorld Struts application that we created in previous parts. I strongly recommend you to go through previous articles and download the source code of our sample application.
Struts 2 Tutorials
- Part 1: Introduction to Struts 2
- Part 2: Create Hello World Application in Struts 2
- Part 3: Struts 2 Validation Framework Tutorial with Example
- Part 4: Struts 2 Tiles Plugin Tutorial with Example
- Part 5: Struts 2 Interceptors Tutorial with Example
- Part 6: Struts 2 File Upload and Save Example
- Part 7: Struts 2 Ajax Tutorial with Example
Introduction to Tiles 2
Nowadays, website are generally divided into pieces of reusable template that are being rendered among different web pages. For example a site containing header, footer, menu etc. This items remains same through out the website and give it a common look and feel. It is very difficult to hard code this in each and every webpage and if later a change is needed than all the pages needs to be modified. Hence we use templatization mechanism. We create a common Header, Footer, Menu page and include this in each page.
Tiles Plugin allow both templating and componentization. In fact, both mechanisms are similar: you
define parts of page (a “Tile”) that you assemble to build another part or a full page. A part can
take parameters, allowing dynamic content, and can be seen as a method in JAVA language. Tiles is a templating system used to maintain a consistent look and feel across all the web pages of a web application. It increase the reusability of template and reduce code duplication.
A common layout of website is defined in a central configuration file and this layout can be extended across all the webpages of the web application.
Our Application Layout
Our goal is to add Header, Footer and Menu to our StrutsHelloWorld application. Following will be the layout of the same.
Required JAR files
In order to add Tiles support to our Struts2 application, we will need few jar files. Following is the list of JARs in our example. Add these JARs in WEB-INF/lib folder.
Configuring Tiles in web.xml
To configure Tiles, an entry for listener has to be made in web.xml. Open the web.xml from WEB-INF folder and add following code into it.
<listener> <listener-class> org.apache.struts2.tiles.StrutsTilesListener </listener-class> </listener> <context-param> <param-name>tilesDefinitions</param-name> <param-value>/WEB-INF/tiles.xml</param-value> </context-param>
The above code configure Tiles listener in web.xml. An input configuration file /WEB-INF/tiles.xml is passed as argument. This file contains the Tiles definition for our web application.
Create a file tiles.xml in WEB-INF folder and copy following code into it.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE tiles-definitions PUBLIC
"-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Tiles Configuration 2.0//EN"
"http://tiles.apache.org/dtds/tiles-config_2_0.dtd">
<tiles-definitions>
<definition name="baseLayout" template="/BaseLayout.jsp">
<put-attribute name="title" value="" />
<put-attribute name="header" value="/Header.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="menu" value="/Menu.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="" />
<put-attribute name="footer" value="/Footer.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="/welcome.tiles" extends="baseLayout">
<put-attribute name="title" value="Welcome" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="/Welcome.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="/customer.tiles" extends="baseLayout">
<put-attribute name="title" value="Customer Form" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="/Customer.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="/customer.success.tiles" extends="baseLayout">
<put-attribute name="title" value="Customer Added" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="/SuccessCustomer.jsp" />
</definition>
</tiles-definitions>
Here in tiles.xml we have define a template baseLayout. This layout contains attributes such as Header, Title, Body, Menu and Footer. The layout is then extended and new definitions for Welcome page and Customer page is defined. We have override the default layout and changed the content for Body and Title.
Creating JSPs
We will define the template for our webapplication in a JSP file called BaseLayout.jsp. This template will contain different segments of web page (Header, Footer, Menu etc). Create 4 new JSP files BaseLayout.jsp, Header.jsp, Menu.jsp and Footer.jsp and copy following content in each of them.
BaseLayout.jsp
<%@ taglib uri="http://tiles.apache.org/tags-tiles" prefix="tiles"%> <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> <title><tiles:insertAttribute name="title" ignore="true" /></title> </head> <body> <table border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2" align="center"> <tr> <td height="30" colspan="2"><tiles:insertAttribute name="header" /> </td> </tr> <tr> <td height="250"><tiles:insertAttribute name="menu" /></td> <td width="350"><tiles:insertAttribute name="body" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td height="30" colspan="2"><tiles:insertAttribute name="footer" /> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>
Header.jsp
<%@ page contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8"%> <%@ taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags"%> <h2>Struts2 Example - ViralPatel.net</h2>
Menu.jsp
<%@ page contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8"%> <%@ taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags"%> <s:a href="customer-form">Customer</s:a>
Footer.jsp
<%@ page contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8"%> <%@ taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags"%> Copyright © ViralPatel.net
Modifications in Struts.xml
In struts.xml we defined result tag which maps a particular action with a JSP page. Now we will modify it and map the result with Tiles. Following will be the content of struts.xml file.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE struts PUBLIC
"-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 2.0//EN"
"http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-2.0.dtd">
<struts>
<constant name="struts.enable.DynamicMethodInvocation"
value="false" />
<constant name="struts.devMode" value="false" />
<constant name="struts.custom.i18n.resources"
value="ApplicationResources" />
<package name="default" extends="struts-default" namespace="/">
<result-types>
<result-type name="tiles"
class="org.apache.struts2.views.tiles.TilesResult" />
</result-types>
<action name="login"
class="net.viralpatel.struts2.LoginAction">
<result name="success" type="tiles">/welcome.tiles</result>
<result name="error">Login.jsp</result>
</action>
<action name="customer"
class="net.viralpatel.struts2.CustomerAction">
<result name="success" type="tiles">/customer.success.tiles</result>
<result name="input" type="tiles">/customer.tiles</result>
</action>
<action name="customer-form">
<result name="success" type="tiles">/customer.tiles</result>
</action>
</package>
</struts>
The struts.xml now defines a new Result type for Tiles. This result type is used in <result> tag for different actions. Also note that we have define a new action customer-form. This is just an empty declaration to redirect user to Customer form page when she clicks Customer link from menu.
That’s All Folks
Compile and Execute the application in Eclipse and see that the header, menu and footer are properly applied.
Welcome Page with Tiles
Customer Page with Tiles
Customer Success Page with Tiles
Download Source Code
Click here to download Source Code without JAR files (11KB)
Moving On
Today we saw how we can configure Tiles framework with Struts2 application. In next part we will discuss about Struts2 Interceptors and see example of it. I hope you liked this article. Feel free to post your queries and comments in comment section.
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Hi Viral,
Thanks a lot for you..
Actually the tutorial is very helpful .
what ‘m facing is ,whenever i download the code and setup in the eclipse ,it s working fine.but if do setup by myself throwing an error like The requested resource () is not available.
please help me to resolve this issue.
Thanks in advance.
heyy frnd just check ur class name is correct according to ur package………..
i like your`document which you give me. thank you.
hi guys,this is zain i am devlp project, getting frustrated because of this ERROR can somebody help me…plz
Hi zain,
I am also facing the same issue.
if u got any solution please help me.
Thanks,
venkat
can i use tiles in MVC2 architecture????
pls rpl me…
This is great. u have made me more confident in this profession. Thanks.
HI,
Getting the following errors.
Please Help to resolve the issue.
Thanks
Venkat
Mar 21, 2013 12:41:52 PM org.apache.catalina.core.AprLifecycleListener init
INFO: The Apache Tomcat Native library which allows optimal performance in production environments was not found on the java.library.path: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\MyEclipse Professional\binary\com.sun.java.jdk.win32.x86_1.6.0.u43\bin;C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\MyEclipse Professional\plugins\com.genuitec.eclipse.easie.tomcat.myeclipse_11.0.0.me201211151802\tomcat\bin
Mar 21, 2013 12:41:52 PM org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol init
INFO: Initializing Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-8080
Mar 21, 2013 12:41:52 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina load
INFO: Initialization processed in 305 ms
Mar 21, 2013 12:41:52 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService start
INFO: Starting service Catalina
Mar 21, 2013 12:41:52 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine start
INFO: Starting Servlet Engine: Apache Tomcat/6.0.13
log4j:WARN No appenders could be found for logger (org.apache.tiles.impl.BasicTilesContainer).
log4j:WARN Please initialize the log4j system properly.
Mar 21, 2013 12:41:54 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext listenerStart
SEVERE: Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.apache.struts2.tiles.StrutsTilesListener
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.getXMLReader(Digester.java:1058)
at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.parse(Digester.java:1887)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.digester.DigesterDefinitionsReader.read(DigesterDefinitionsReader.java:267)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.UrlDefinitionsFactory.readDefinitions(UrlDefinitionsFactory.java:286)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.UrlDefinitionsFactory.init(UrlDefinitionsFactory.java:130)
at org.apache.tiles.impl.BasicTilesContainer.initializeDefinitionsFactory(BasicTilesContainer.java:406)
at org.apache.tiles.impl.BasicTilesContainer.init(BasicTilesContainer.java:130)
at org.apache.tiles.factory.TilesContainerFactory.initializeContainer(TilesContainerFactory.java:232)
at org.apache.tiles.factory.TilesContainerFactory.createTilesContainer(TilesContainerFactory.java:198)
at org.apache.tiles.factory.TilesContainerFactory.createContainer(TilesContainerFactory.java:163)
at org.apache.tiles.web.startup.TilesListener.createContainer(TilesListener.java:90)
at org.apache.struts2.tiles.StrutsTilesListener.createContainer(StrutsTilesListener.java:68)
at org.apache.tiles.web.startup.TilesListener.contextInitialized(TilesListener.java:57)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:3827)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4334)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:791)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:771)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:525)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectory(HostConfig.java:920)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployDirectories(HostConfig.java:883)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:492)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.start(HostConfig.java:1138)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.lifecycleEvent(HostConfig.java:311)
at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleSupport.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleSupport.java:117)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1053)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.start(StandardHost.java:719)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.start(ContainerBase.java:1045)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine.start(StandardEngine.java:443)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService.start(StandardService.java:516)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardServer.start(StandardServer.java:710)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.start(Catalina.java:566)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.start(Bootstrap.java:288)
at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:413)
Mar 21, 2013 12:41:54 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext start
SEVERE: Error listenerStart
Mar 21, 2013 12:41:54 PM org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext start
SEVERE: Context [/StrutsHelloWorld] startup failed due to previous errors
Mar 21, 2013 12:41:54 PM org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol start
INFO: Starting Coyote HTTP/1.1 on http-8080
Mar 21, 2013 12:41:54 PM org.apache.jk.common.ChannelSocket init
INFO: JK: ajp13 listening on /0.0.0.0:8009
Mar 21, 2013 12:41:55 PM org.apache.jk.server.JkMain start
INFO: Jk running ID=0 time=0/16 config=null
Mar 21, 2013 12:41:55 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina start
INFO: Server startup in 2316 ms
org.apache.tiles.TilesException: Attribute ‘header’ not found.
at org.apache.tiles.jsp.taglib.InsertAttributeTag.render(InsertAttributeTag.java:112)
at org.apache.tiles.jsp.taglib.RenderTagSupport.execute(RenderTagSupport.java:154)
at org.apache.tiles.jsp.taglib.RoleSecurityTagSupport.doEndTag(RoleSecurityTagSupport.java:75)
at org.apache.tiles.jsp.taglib.ContainerTagSupport.doEndTag(ContainerTagSupport.java:80)
at org.apache.jsp.BaseLayout_jsp._jspx_meth_tiles_005finsertAttribute_005f1(BaseLayout_jsp.java:145)
at org.apache.jsp.BaseLayout_jsp._jspService(BaseLayout_jsp.java:75)
at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:70)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:388)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:313)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:260)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:717)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:290)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.filter.StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.doFilter(StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.java:88)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:235)
at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:206)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:233)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:127)
at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:103)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:109)
at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:293)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProcessor.process(Http11AprProcessor.java:879)
at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11AprProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.process(Http11AprProtocol.java:600)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.AprEndpoint$Worker.run(AprEndpoint.java:1703)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
The tutorial is superb and your way of explaining is excellent.Thanks a lot.