Getting Started

This site is geared towards developers that have an understanding towards certain technologies. Before diving into how Webwork works and running demos, it is recommended that you review the concepts below:

• Java
• Servlets, JSP, and Tag Libraries
• JavaBeans
• HTML and HTTP
• Web Containers (ex. Tomcat)
• XML

Website & downloads

This site is set up with many features. Here are links to help you around:

• Download Webwork - download Webwork Distribution
• Webwork Mailing List - Browse mail archive or post a question. The list is full of active developers, contributors, and power users. This is the best and quickest way to get a question answered.
• CVS - Browse CVS and source at java.net
• Webwork Wiki - Powered by Confluence, the professional J2EE wiki
• Webwork Bugs & Issues - Powered by JIRA:Bug & Issue Traking System
• OpenSymphony Home

What's included in the distro

The distribution contains the following directory layout:

docs/
lib/
src/
src/java/template/
webwork-(VERSION).jar
webwork-example.war
webwork-migration.jar

The docs directory contains the current Javadocs, the document you are reading, as well as JUnit reports for the build.
The lib directory contains the required as well as the optional dependencies for Webwork:

Note that in current WebWork 2.2 Beta 3 distribution package, libs are not organized in subdirectories, as they will be in upcoming Beta 4.
However, the subdirectories under lib are created while running the 'ant init' target from Beta 3 distribution.
The dependencies are resolved via ivy and will be fetched from the ivy repository during the build process. See Dependencies and Building Webwork for a detailed description.

lib/
      ajax/
      build/
      default/
      fileupload/
      fileupload-cos/
      fileupload-pell/
      freemarker/
      jasperreports/
      jfree/
      portlet/
      quickstart/
      sitemesh/
      spring/
      velocity/
      xslt/

Note that none of the optional packages are required to use Webwork. If you wish to use certain features such as JasperReports and FreeMarker results, you must include the optional packages.

Webwork also comes packaged with all the source files and the templates for the JSP tags.

Installing

The following illustrates how your web application should be set up. Copy the webwork-(VERSION).jar, all the *.jar files in /lib/core and any necessary optional *.jar files in /lib/optional to your webapp/lib directory. If you need to customize your own templates (how HTML is rendered from webwork UI tags), copy the /src/java/template directory into your webapp/ directory. Your webapp should look similar to this:

/mywebapp/
/mywebapp/template/
/mywebapp/META-INF/
/mywebapp/WEB-INF/
/mywebapp/WEB-INF/classes/
/mywebapp/WEB-INF/lib/
/mywebapp/WEB-INF/lib/CORE&OPTIONAL *.jar
/mywebapp/WEB-INF/web.xml

Onward to Configuration or the Webwork Tutorial

Running demos

In order to run webwork applications and demos, you need to have a servlet/jsp engine. If you don't, we suggest you learn about Apache Tomcat, which is a free Servlet container from the Apache Jakarta Project, or Resin, from Caucho Technology, which is free for non-comercial use. Once you a Servlet container setup, you can install the webwork example applications (*.war) and any other demos by placing the .war file inside the containers webapp directory. Example of location with tomcat:

<TOMCAT_HOME>/webapps/webwork-example.war

After the war file is in the correct location, start your web container and access your application through a web browser with the following url.

*http://*??HOST:PORT??*/webwork-example*