The Apache Project

Introduction

Application frameworks, like the applications we build with them, never seem to be completed. The following major areas of improvement are being considered for implementation in a future version of Struts.

Which features are implemented first depends greatly on individual developers becoming involved in the process. Many key features in Struts grew out of code first distributed on the mailing list. If there is a feature here that you need, or already have, please start a thread and show us the code!

So, when is the next release coming out?

An external development that is likely to affect the development of Struts 1.1 will be the emerging Standard Tag Library, being produced under the Java Community Process. A very early release is now available at Jakarta Taglibs.

The existing Struts tags were used as input to the standardization process, but in the case where standard tags with similar functionality are adopted, we should migrate Struts tags to maintain maximum compatibility with the new standard library.

Pending Tasks

See also the Service Manager packages in the contrib folder.

The wish list tasks are divided into functional areas that correspond to the major components of the Struts Framework. References in square brackets are the Java package containing the corresponding source code. Listing a task here is not a guarantee that it will be present in the next release. Again, whether a wish becomes a feature depends on whether there are volunteers who choose to work on the task.

Struts Documentation

Omnibus task list for items related to the Struts Documentation, which do not have direct relationships with code bases.

Description Volunteer
Taglib Chapters for User Guide. Incorporate the Taglib documentation and Developer Guides into the User Guide, by including the source of these from their present locations.
TODO stylesheet. Revise TODO stylesheet to add Status and Source elements, and to support mailto links for volunteers in Assigned element. All elements should support hypertext links.
Taglib stylesheet. Add support for "since" element for tracking changes to tags between versions.
Contribution Reviews. Area to post articles about contributions from Struts developers.
Expanded FAQ. Area to post a "choice" FAQ of truly common questions.

Struts Example Application

An example web application utilizing the Struts framework and custom tag library.

Description Volunteer
Better Database Support. Use a "real" database of some sort (while still making Struts easy to install. Ted Husted
Locale Switching. Add support for switching Locales on the fly to the Struts example application. Ted Husted

MVC Framework [org.apache.struts.action]

This is the core controller servlet, with support for the developer's action and form bean classes, plus the supporting data structures.

Description Volunteer
Workflow Processing. Create a mechanism by which business logic (now encoded in Action classes) can be subdivided into individual work Tasks that are combined according to configuration information (including flow control and iteration support) in the struts-config.xml file. Support for workflow processing would be provided by a set of standard Actions, and will offer an alternative mechanism (not a replacement of Actions) to organizing your business logic. A Workflow Proposal is pending. Craig Tataryn, Nic Hobbs
PropertyEditor Support. Add support for JavaBeans that include a PropertyEditor class for conversion to and from the string representation used in an HTML input field. This support should operate in a manner consistent with the way that standard JSP tags do in JSP 1.2.
Event and Listener Model. Retrofit the Struts controller framework with supports for event generation (and the corresponding registration of listeners) for all interesting events created by the framework. The list of interesting events will undoubtedly be influenced by changes related to other work items on this list (such as workflow processing and standard validations), so work on this should be coordinated with those changes. [STRUTS-DEV, Robert Leland, 10/10/2000] [STRUTS-DEV, David Geary, 12/20/2000] [STRUTS-USER, Ted Husted, 12/23/2000]
EJB Design Patterns. Begin adding design patterns and support for easy integration with Enterprise JavaBeans (EJBs) for encapsulation of business logic and application data. Mike Schachter
HTML No-Cache Support. Improve the current Struts support for generating no-cache headers to provide finer-grained, configurable control on a per-page basis. [STRUTS-DEV, Hou Yunfeng, 10/07/2000] [STRUTS-DEV, Matthias Kerkhoff, 11/18/2000]

Bean Tag Library [org.apache.struts.taglib.bean]

This tag library contains basic tags useful in manipulating JavaBeans and their properties. It includes support for getting and setting bean properties using simple, nested, and subscripted accessor expressions.

Description Volunteer
XPath Support. Update all of the relevant tags to include property accessor support using the syntax specified by the XPath standard (www.w3c.org). Dave Bettin
XML DOM Support. Update all of the relevant tags to get and set attributes from a Java object that implements the XML Document Object Model, as well as from the current tree of JavaBean objects. How the underlying data object is stored should be transparent to page writers using these tags. Dave Bettin
XML DOM / JDBC RowSet Support. Update all of the relevant tags to get and set attributes from a JDBC RowSet (or ResultSet) object, as well as from XML DOM objects and the current tree of JavaBean objects. How the underlying data object is stored should be transparent to page writers using these tags. Dave Bettin
Formatting Support. Add the ability to use formatting patterns (suitably localized) for presenting numbers, dates, times, timestamps, and so on via formatted patterns. [STRUTS-DEV, Oleg Alexeev, 10/27/2000] [STRUTS-USER, Ned Seagoon, 12/11/2000] [STRUTS-DEV, Ned Seagoon, 12/13/2000] [STRUTS-USER, Ned Seagoon, 01/04/2001] Dave Bettin

HTML Tag Library [org.apache.struts.taglib.html]

This tag library contains tags useful in preparing web applications that use HTML forms as their primary mechanism for user data entry, as well as support for internationalized and localized applications.

Description Volunteer
Radio Button Groups. Add a new tag that supports generation of groups of radio buttons. [STRUTS-DEV, Wellington Silva, 08/28/2000]
Improve Options Tag. Improve the mechanism by which you define values and corresponding labels for <html:options>. [STRUTS-DEV, David Winterfeldt, 07/27/2000] [STRUTS-DEV, David Winterfeldt, 08/02/2000] [STRUTS-DEV, Andy Boyko, 11/15/2000] [STRUTS-DEV, Andy Boyko, 12/07/2000]
Additional Attributes. Support additional HTML 4.0.1 attributes (such as "disabled", "readonly", "wrap" on textarea) where appropriate. [STRUTS-USER, , 08/23/2000]
Improved Iteration Support. Improve the ability to use the <logic:iterate> tag over a collection, and generate a set of input fields for each member of the collection (perhaps auto-generating a subscript?). A significant use case is master-detail relationships (say, a customer and their current orders) where you allow editing of any and all fields. [STRUTS-USER, Lars, 12/06/2000] [STRUTS-USER, Chandan Kulkarni, 12/26/2000]
Multi-Page Form Support. Create design patterns and improved internal support for forms that span multiple pages. Nic Hobbs

Logic Tag Library [org.apache.struts.taglib.logic]

This tag library provides mechanisms to conditionally process nested body content based on a variety of logical conditions.

Description Volunteer
'Else' and 'Else If' Capability and Other Conditional Structures. Add "else" and "else if" constructs to the existing conditional tags, in some reasonable format. Add conditional tags that emulate the "case" or "switch" capability of many programming languages. NOTE: Pending the outcome of the JSPTL, this functionality will not be added to the Struts-Logic tags. However, a contributor taglib is available. Niall Pemberton
Iterating Parallel Collections. Enhance <logic:iterate>, or provide a new tag, to iterate over multiple collections in parallel. [STRUTS-DEV, Jeff R., 08/03/2000]

WML Tag Library [org.apache.struts.taglib.wml]

This tag library will contain tags useful in preparing web applications similar to those supported by the HTML tag library, but render output that is well-formed XML in accordance with WML specifications.

XFORMS Tag Library [org.apache.struts.taglib.xforms]

This potential new tag library provides access to facilities in the emerging XForms standards.

Description Volunteer
Generalized Form Handling. Consider how to support more generalized definitions of forms and their fields, perhaps based on emerging XForms standards.

XHTML Tag Library [org.apache.struts.taglib.xhtml]

This tag library will contain tags useful in preparing web applications similar to those supported by the HTML tag library, but render output that is well-formed XML in accordance with the XHTML 1.0 specification.

Tools Support [org.apache.struts.tools]

This package contains code generators and other tools that facilitate the creation of Struts-based applications. Further subdivision into specialized packages should be performed as appropriate.

Description Volunteer
XML --> ActionForm Code Generator. Create a tool that takes an XML-based description of the properties of the form bean, and automatically generates the corresponding Java class. A contributor extension is now available. [STRUTS-DEV, Mark Wutka, 06/01/2000 and 06/16/2000] Ravindran Ramaiah

Utility Classes [org.apache.struts.util]

This package contains a variety of utility classes useful within Struts as well as in stand-alone applications.

Description Volunteer
XmlMessageResources. Implementation of MessageResources and MessageResourcesFactory that loads message keys and strings from one or more XML resources or files. [STRUTS-DEV, Scott Sayles, 01/07/2000]
Enhanced Collections Support. Improve support in BeanUtils, ConvertUtils, and PropertyUtils for property values that implement Collection, List, or Set, treating them in a manner similar to the way that indexed or array-valued properties are handled. [Bugzilla #640]

Unit Test Suites

Unit test components compatible with the JUnit and Cactus testing frameworks, to test and validate internal APIs of the Struts framework. Volunteers will typically agree to develop tests for an entire package within the Java source code of Struts.

Description Volunteer
Action. Unit tests for the org.apache.struts.action package. Rob Leland
Actions. Unit tests for the org.apache.struts.actions package.
Taglib.Bean. Unit tests for the org.apache.struts.taglib.bean package.
Taglib.Html. Unit tests for the org.apache.struts.taglib.html package.
Taglib.Logic. Unit tests for the org.apache.struts.taglib.logic package.
Taglib.Template. Unit tests for the org.apache.struts.taglib.template package.
Upload. Unit tests for the org.apache.struts.taglib.upload package.
Util. Unit tests for the org.apache.struts.util package.

Additional Possibilities

This section is a catch-all for additional areas of functionality to be investigated for inclusion into Struts.

Description Volunteer
Coarse Grain Components. [STRUTS-DEV, Cedric Dumoulin, 10/03/2000]
Multidimensional Properties. [STRUTS-DEV, Eric, 11/07/2000]
Portal Components. [STRUTS-DEV, Phil Grimm, 11/22/2000] Ted Husted
Storefront Example App. [STRUTS-DEV, David D'Orto, 12/11/2000]

Contributors Area

A portion of the Struts web site, and file system, where individually contributed add-ons for Struts can be hosted and downloaded.

Description Volunteer
Proposal. Detailed proposal with implementation plan. [STRUTS-USER, Ned Seagoon, 12/22/2000] Ted Husted