Namespaces

The namespace attribute allows you to segregate action configurations into namespaces, so that you may use the same action alias in more than one namespace with different classes, parameters, etc. This is in contrast to Webwork 1.x, where all action names and aliases were global and could not be re-used in an applicationand so forth.

Default Namespace

The default namespace, which is "" (an empty string), is used as a "catch-all" namespace, so if an action configuration is not found in a specified namespace, the default namespace will also be searched. This allows you The local/global strategy allows an application to have global action configurations outside of the "extends" hierarchy, as well as to allow the previous Webwork 1.x behavior by not specifying namespaces. It is also intended that the namespace functionality can be used for security, for instance by having the path before the action name be used as the namespace by the Webwork 2.0 ServletDispatcher, thus allowing the use of J2EE declarative security on paths to be easily implemented and maintained.

The namespace prefix can be registered with J2EE declarative security, to ensure only authorized users can access the actions in a given namespace.

Root Namesapce

Root namespace, which is "/" is also allowed in WebWork. It will be the namespace when a request directly under the context path is received. As with other namespace, it will fall back to the default namespace if no such action alias is found in it.

Namespace example

<package name="default">
    <action name="foo" class="mypackage.simpleAction>
        <result name="success" type="dispatcher">greeting.jsp</result>
    </action>
    <action name="bar" class="mypackage.simpleAction"> 
        <result name="success" type="dispatcher">bar1.jsp</result> 
    </action> 
</package>

<package name="mypackage1" namespace="/">
    <action name="moo" class="mypackage.simpleActtionsimpleAction">
        <result name="success" type="dispatcher">moo.jsp</result>
    </action>
</package>

<package name="mypackage2" namespace="/barspace"> 
    <action name="bar" class="mypackage.simpleAction"> 
        <result name="success" type="dispatcher">bar2.jsp</result> 
    </action> 
</package>

...

How the Code Works

If a request for /barspace/bar.action is made, '/barspace' namespace is searched and if it is found the bar action is executed, else it will fall back to the default namespace. In this example, bar alias do does exists in the '/barspace' namespace, so it will get executed and if success is returned, the request will be forwarded to bar2.jsp.Note:

If a request for / moo.action is made, the root namespace ('/') is searched for 'moo' action alias, if it is not found it will fall back to trying to find it in the default namespace. In this example, moo action alias does exists and hence will be executed. Upon sucess, the request will get forwarded to bar2.jsp.

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