Jakarta Struts Cookbook

14.8. Integrating JavaServer Faces with Struts

Problem

You want to migrate an existing Struts application to JavaServer Faces without having to rewrite the entire application.

Solution

Use the Struts-Faces integration library.

Discussion

It's reasonable to consider JavaServer Faces (JSF) to be the "son of Struts." In fact, the creator of Struts, Craig McClanahan, serves as co-lead for the JSF specification. Unlike Struts, JSF specifies a component model for the user interface of applications. Theoretically, that model can be rendered by any type of user interface, and not just a web-based interface. But in its current release, JSF targets web application development. There are two implementations of JSF available. The reference implementation (RI) has been developed and is distributed by Sun. MyFaces, an open source Apache project, implements the JSF specification and adds additional components not contained in the reference implementation.

Struts-Faces, initially developed by Craig McClanahan, allows you to use JSF technology in a Struts application. Using this library, you can continue to use your actions and action forms as written, but you use the JSF custom tags instead of the Struts tags for the user interface. Struts-Faces allows you to migrate your existing Struts applications to JSF a page at a time.

This recipe will help you get started with Struts-Faces. It applies this technology to a three-page application having an index page, a login page, and a welcome page displayed upon ...