Page History

Templates ae are loaded first by searching the application and then by searching the classpath. If a template needs to be overridden, an edited copy can be placed in the application, so that is found first.

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Templates are loaded based the template directory and theme name (see Selecting Themes). The template directory is defined by the actionstruts.ui.templateDir property in action struts.properties (defaults to template). if If a tag is using the ajax xhtml theme, the following two locations will be searched (in this order):

For performance reasons, you may want to prefer the first location, although the second one is more flexible. See Performance Tuning for a discussion on this topic.

Overriding Templates

The default templates provided in the struts-actioncore.jar should suit the needs of many applications. However, if a template needs to be modified, it's easy to plug in a new version. Extract the template you need to change from the struts-actioncore.jar, make the modifications, and save the updated copy to /template/$theme/$template.ftl. If you are using the xhmtl theme and need to change how the select tags render, edit that template and save it to /template/xhtml/select.ftl.

It is easier and better to edit and override an existing template than provide a new one of your own.

Altering Template Loading

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Behaviour

It is possible to load template from other locations, like the file system or a URL. Loading templates from alternate locations can be useful not only for tags, but for custom results. For details, see the FreeMarker documentation and consult the section on extending the FreeMarkerManager.

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The framework supports three template engines, which can be controlled by the actionstruts.ui.templateSuffix in action struts.properties.

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