Preface

WebWork is a popular, easy-to-use MVC framework, for more information on the WebWork project, please visit WebWork.
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

Distribution Download and Information Resources

Download Webwork Distribution

You can download the full WebWork distribution here. It contains the webwork.jar file as well as full documentation, sources, all required and optional dependent libraries and examples. For more information on how to build WebWork from source or even checkout from CVS, please refer to Building Webwork.

Information and Project Resources

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

• Download Webwork - download Webwork Distribution
• Join the WebWork Forums - The forums are full of active developers, contributors, and power users - often even available for chat. This is the best and quickest way to get a question answered.
• Subscribe to Mailing List or browse Mail Archive or post a question. All posts from the forum are posted to the mailing lists, as well as your posts to the list will make it to the forum.
• 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

Distribution Quickstart

Overview

The distribution contains the following directory layout:

docs/
lib/
src/
src/java/template/
webapps/
README.txt
build.properties
build.xml
webwork-(VERSION)-src.jar
webwork-(VERSION).jar
webwork.jar

The docs directory contains the current Javadocs, the full user documentation including the document you are reading, taglib documentation, as well as Clover, JUnit and dependency reports for the build.

The lib directory contains the required as well as the optional dependencies for Webwork, organized in subdirectories to represent different optional configurations and thereby induced Dependencies:

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.

Running demos with QuickStart

WebWork provides a quick way to get started called QuickStart. QuickStart is essentially a combination of a few technologies, including the possibility to run web applications such as the provided examples out of the box with a stripped Jetty container.

With that, running the demos is as easy as can be. You just need to call

java -jar webwork.jar quickstart:<application-name>

from the distribution's top directory, whereby <application-name> is to be replaced by one of the subdirectory names under webapps/, representing the various supplied demo applications. So if you want to start the shopping cart example, just type on your commandline

java -jar webwork.jar quickstart:shopping-cart

The packaged examples are:

Read Quickstart documentation to learn more about how it works and how you can utilize it for your own applications.

Running Demos with Your Favorite Webcontainer

TODO: Review / comment lastest changes

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*

Your first WebWork Application

Using the Starter Template

The distribution contains a simple webapp called starter in meant as a template for your webapplications. Just copy starter directory to a newly named destination and edit the configuration files as needed.

Setting up from Scratch

Structure of your Webapplication

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 configuration) 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

Minimum Set of Libraries and Config Files

The following files are a minium requirement for your application.

The library files (*.jar) needs to be copied to your /mywebapp/WEB-INF/lib/ directory. If you need optional functionalities inducing dependencies to optional jars, they need to be copied to this directory, too.

web.xml:

Create the following web.xml file in [webapp]/WEB-INF. If you already have a web.xml file, just add the content of the <web-app> tag below to your existing <web-app> tag.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE web-app PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD Web Application 2.3//EN"
"http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-app_2_3.dtd">

<web-app>
  <display-name>My WebWork Application</display-name>
  <filter>
    <filter-name>webwork</filter-name>
    <filter-class>com.opensymphony.webwork.dispatcher.FilterDispatcher</filter-class>
  </filter>

  <filter-mapping>
    <filter-name>webwork</filter-name>
    <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
  </filter-mapping>
  <!-- As of 2.2, Spring is the preferred IoC container rather than XWork,
       so you'll have to include the spring jars if you want to use 
       Spring's IoC capabilities in WebWork / Thank you, Hani 
  -->
  <listener>
    <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
  </listener>

  <taglib>
    <taglib-uri>/webwork</taglib-uri>
    <taglib-location>/WEB-INF/lib/webwork.jar</taglib-location>
  </taglib>
</web-app>

This registers FilterDispatcher to induce webwork functionality in your requests. The ContextLoaderListener will take care of setting up Spring as your IoC container for WebWork. The taglib entry will help you use Tags in your JSP pages.

Read more: web.xml

xwork.xml:

Create the following file xwork.xml in [webapp]/WEB-INF/classes/.

<!DOCTYPE xwork PUBLIC "-//OpenSymphony Group//XWork 1.1.1//EN"
"http://www.opensymphony.com/xwork/xwork-1.1.1.dtd">

<xwork>
	<!-- Include webwork defaults (from WebWork JAR). -->
	<include file="webwork-default.xml" />

	<!-- Configuration for the default package. -->
	<package name="default" extends="webwork-default">
	</package>
</xwork>

For now, this xwork.xml does only two things:

• It informs WebWork that it should import the configuration information from webwork-default.xml. (This file is located at the root of the webwork.jar, so it is sure to be found.)

• It defines a default package (with the <package> section) where WebWork elements like actions, results and interceptors are registered.

Read more: xwork.xml

Onward to the First lesson or return to the Webwork Start page