Announcements - 2007

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23 October 2007 - Struts 2.0.11 General Availability Release

The Apache Struts group is pleased to announce that Struts 2.0.11 is available as a "General Availability" release. The GA designation is our highest quality grade.

Apache Struts 2 is an elegant, extensible framework for creating enterprise-ready Java web applications. The framework is designed to streamline the full development cycle, from building, to deploying, to maintaining applications over time.

This release includes a number of fixes and improvements since the 2.0.9 GA release. Struts 2.0.11 is available in a full distribution, or as separate library, source, example and documentation distributions, from the releases page. The release is also available through the central Maven repository under Group ID "org.apache.struts". The release notes are available online.

The 2.0.x series of the Apache Struts framework has a minimum requirement of the following specification versions: Servlet API 2.4, JSP API 2.0, Java 5, Backported Java 4 JARs are also available.

Should any issues arise with your use of any version of the Struts framework, please post your comments to the user list, and, if appropriate, file a tracking ticket.

12 October 2007 - New Struts Committer -- Dave Newton

Please join us in welcoming Dave Newton as a new Struts committer.

Dave's been doing "yeoman work" on the user list for some time now, filing issues, and helping with the documentation. It's likely that he's edited the most documentation pages of any non-committer.

Welcome, Dave, now you can update the JavaDocs to better match the Confluence pages!

PMC vote: 5 +1.

12 October 2007 - New Struts Committer -- Brian Pontarelli

Please join us in welcoming Brian Pontarelli as a new Struts committer.

Brian developed the SmartURLs plugin, which is being merged with the CodeBehind plugin for bundling with Struts 2.1. The original CodeBehind plugin and Zero-Configuration code, developed by Don Brown, was loosely based on the ASP.NET approach. Brian's SmartURLs plugin gives the original approach a more Struts-like spin and adds SEO URIs.

Welcome, Brian, I think we're all looking forward to an agile, XML-free future!

PMC vote: 4 +1; 1 +0.

22 September 2007 - New Struts Committer -- Matt Raible

Please join us in welcoming Matt Raible as a new Struts committer.

Over many years, Matt Raible has been one the most involved members of our community, for Struts 1, Struts 2, and WebWork. He's also a member of the Apache Roller project, which recently migrated from Struts 1 to Struts 2. Though sometimes critical, his comments are always meant to be constructive. He's participated in over fifty JIRA tickets, and over a hundred threads on struts-user and struts-dev. Of course, many of us have also met Matt, since he frequently attends ApacheCon and other conventions.

Welcome, Matt ... BTW, have you heard that our invalid property error reporting sucks^g^g^g^g needs work?

PMC vote: 12 +1. (Could be a record!)

01 August 2007 - Struts v1.3.9 Beta Release

The Apache Struts group is pleased to announce that Struts 1.3.9 is available as a "Beta" release.

Struts 1.3.9 is available in a full distribution, or as separate library, source, example and documentation distributions.

http://struts.apache.org/download.cgi#struts139

It is also available in the central Maven repository under Group ID ID "org.apache.struts".

24 July 2007 - Struts 2.0.9 General Availability Release with Important Security Fix

Apache Struts 2.0.9 includes an important security fix regarding a remote code exploit. ALL STRUTS 2 DEVELOPERS ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO UPDATE TO STRUTS 2.0.9 IMMEDIATELY!

PLEASE NOTE that this bulletin DOES NOT apply to Struts 1.x!

For other changes included in Struts 2.0.9, see the release notes.

8 July 2007 - Struts Downloads Skyrocket in 2007

Since its release in June 2001, Apache Struts (struts.apache.org) has become the most popular web framework for Java. Six years later, by any objective measure, Struts is still Java's most popular web framework.

In February and March 2007, the group released both Struts 1.3.8 and Struts 2.0.6 to the general public, and Struts downloads zoomed to over 340,000 a month from the Apache site alone [1]. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. Most copies of Struts are downloaded from an network of mirrors or obtained from Maven repositories. Meanwhile, monthly page Views for the Struts website soared to over 2.1 million, up from levels of about 1.3 million page views in June 2004. Subscriptions to the Struts mailing lists hold steady at about 3,000 accounts, not counting people who use services like Nabble and GMane.

Since the framework's debut, well over twenty books about Apache Struts have been published [2], along with hundreds of online articles, and dozens of third-party extensions [3]. Books and articles devoted to Struts 2 are already appearing. InfoQ has released "Starting with Struts2" both as a free PDF and as a hardcopy book via LuLu.com [4]. Mark Menard has started a Struts 2 cookbook [5], and sites like Rose India and ArcTech are offering extensive Struts 2 tutorials [6]. Many teams are already moving Struts 1 applications to Struts 2, including the popular Apache Roller blogging application [7].

An exciting feature of Struts 2 is configuration-free plugins. Third-party components can be added to the framework just by putting a JAR on the Java classpath. In fact, many of the framework's advanced features are provided by plugins that ship with Struts 2. A plugin repository site is open to the public [8], and several plugins are already available, including plugins for JSON, WebFlow, Google Web Toolkit, and Guice.

While there is no lack of choice in the Java framework space, the clear winner with grassroots developers is still Apache Struts. With first-class support for Ajax, JSF, unit testing, and dependency injection, Struts 2 is an excellent choice for teams that want to step forward, without stepping away.

Links:

[1] - Apache Stats
[2] - Apache Bookstore
[3] - Struts Central
[4] - Starting Struts 2
[5] - Struts 2 Cookbook
[6] - Rose India Struts 2 Tutorial and ArchTech Struts 2 Tutorial
[7] - Apache Roller
[8] - Struts Plugins

12 June 2007 - Struts v2.0.8 GA Release

The Apache Struts group is pleased to announce that Struts 2.0.8 is available as a "General Availability" release. The GA designation is our highest quality grade.

Apache Struts 2 was originally known as WebWork 2. After working independently for several years, the WebWork and Struts communities joined forces to create Struts2. This new version of Struts is simpler to use and closer to how Struts was always meant to be.

Build!
- Easy startup - Jumpstart new projects with our bootstrap tutorial and template application or Maven archetype.
- Improved Design - Code clean against HTTP-independent framework interfaces.
- Enhanced Tags - Code less with stylesheet-driven form tags that provide their own markup.
- Stateful Checkboxes - Avoid special handling with smart checkboxes that know when they are toggled.
- Flexible Cancel Buttons - Go directly to a different action on cancel.
- First-class AJAX support - Add interactivity and flexibility with AJAX tags that look and feel just like standard Struts tags.
- Easy Spring integration - Inject dependencies into Actions using Spring without glue code or red tape. (Plexus support also available.)
- Enhanced Results - Do more with specialty results for JasperReports, JFreeChart, Action chaining, and file downloading.
- POJO forms - No more ActionForms! Use any JavaBean to capture form input or put properties directly on an Action class. Use both binary and String properties!
- POJO Actions - Use any class as an Action class -- even the interface is optional!
Deploy!
- Easy plugins - Add framework extensions by dropping in a JAR. No manual configuration required! Bundled plugins add support for JavaServer Faces, JasperReports, JFreeChart, Tiles, and more ...
- Integrated profiling - Peek inside Struts² to find where the cycles are going!
- Precise Error Reporting - Flip directly to the location and line of an error.
Maintain!
- Easy-to-test Actions - Test Struts² Actions directly, without resorting to mock HTTP objects.
- Intelligent Defaults - Skip obvious and redundant settings. Most framework configuration elements have a default value that we can set and forget. Say it once!
- Easy-to-customize controller - Customize the request handling per action, if desired. Struts² only does what you want it to do!
- Integrating Debugging - Research problem reports with built-in debugging tools.
- Easy-to-tweak tags - Customize tag markup by editing a FreeMarker template. No need to grok the taglib API! JSP, FreeMarker, and Velocity tags are fully supported.

This release has over 60 bug fixes and improvements since 2.0.6! New Features include:

Cookie Interceptor
Inject cookie with a certain configurable name / value into action.
Restful2ActionMapper
Allow automatic id setting from Restful2ActionMapper.

Struts 2.0.8 is available in a full distribution, or as separate library, source, example and documentation distributions, from the releases page. The release is also available through the central Maven repository under Group ID "org.apache.struts". The release notes are available online.

The 2.0.x series of the Apache Struts framework has a minimum requirement of the following specification versions: Servlet API 2.4, JSP API 2.0, Java 5, Backported Java 4 JARs are also available.

Should any issues arise with your use of any version of the Struts framework, please post your comments to the user list, and, if appropriate, file a ticket with JIRA.

10 March 2007 - Struts v1.3.8 GA Release

The Apache Struts group is pleased to announce that Struts 1.3.8 is available as a "General Availability" release. The GA designation is our highest quality grade.

This release has over 40 bug fixes and improvements since 1.3.5! New Features include:

Action ID
New actionId attribute to uniquely identify action mappings within a module. Just as the TilesRequestProcessor could recognize a tile definition and resolve it to the intended JSP, so does Struts now have built-in recognition for URIs that begin with an actionId and will automatically translate forwards.
I18N Properties
Tag libraries now include the HTML I18N properties. This allows sites that specialize in internationalization to specify both bi-directional text and language at the tag level.
Dynamic Link Parameters
The Struts <html:link>, <html:frame>, <html:rewrite> tag libraries now allow their bodies to nest the new <html:param> tag.
Property MessageResources Modes
Compatibility mode option which allows message resources to operate in modes compatible with either JSTL or PropertyResourceBundle.

Struts 1.3.8 is available in a full distribution, or as separate library, source, example and documentation distributions.

http://struts.apache.org/download.cgi#struts138

It is also available in the central Maven repository under Group ID ID "org.apache.struts".

22 Feb 2007 - Struts v2.0.6 GA Release

The Apache Struts group is pleased to announce that Struts 2.0.6 is available as a "General Availability" release. The GA designation is our highest quality grade.

Build!
- Easy startup - Jumpstart new projects with our bootstrap tutorial and template application or Maven archetype.
- Improved Design - Code clean against HTTP-independent framework interfaces.
- Enhanced Tags - Code less with stylesheet-driven form tags that provide their own markup.
- Stateful Checkboxes - Avoid special handling with smart checkboxes that know when they are toggled.
- Flexible Cancel Buttons - Go directly to a different action on cancel.
- First-class AJAX support - Add interactivity and flexibility with AJAX tags that look and feel just like standard Struts tags.
- Easy Spring integration - Inject dependencies into Actions using Spring without glue code or red tape. (Plexus support also available.)
- Enhanced Results - Do more with specialty results for JasperReports, JFreeChart, Action chaining, and file downloading.
- POJO forms - No more ActionForms! Use any JavaBean to capture form input or put properties directly on an Action class. Use both binary and String properties!
- POJO Actions - Use any class as an Action class -- even the interface is optional!
Deploy!
- Easy plugins - Add framework extensions by dropping in a JAR. No manual configuration required! Bundled plugins add support for JavaServer Faces, JasperReports, JFreeChart, Tiles, and more ...
- Integrated profiling - Peek inside Struts² to find where the cycles are going!
- Precise Error Reporting - Flip directly to the location and line of an error.
Maintain!
- Easy-to-test Actions - Test Struts² Actions directly, without resorting to mock HTTP objects.
- Intelligent Defaults - Skip obvious and redundant settings. Most framework configuration elements have a default value that we can set and forget. Say it once!
- Easy-to-customize controller - Customize the request handling per action, if desired. Struts² only does what you want it to do!
- Integrating Debugging - Research problem reports with built-in debugging tools.
- Easy-to-tweak tags - Customize tag markup by editing a FreeMarker template. No need to grok the taglib API! JSP, FreeMarker, and Velocity tags are fully supported.

Struts 2.0.6 is available in a full distribution, or as separate library, source, example and documentation distributions, from the releases page. The release is also available through the central Maven repository under Group ID "org.apache.struts". The release notes are available online.

The 2.0.x series of the Apache Struts framework has a minimum requirement of the following specification versions: Servlet API 2.4, JSP API 2.0, Java 5, Backported Java 4 JARs are also available.

Should any issues arise with your use of any version of the Struts framework, please post your comments to the user list, and, if appropriate, file a ticket with JIRA.

09 Feb 2007 - Struts v2.0.5 BETA Release

The Apache Struts project is pleased to announce the release of Struts 2.0.5 BETA

Struts 2.0.5 is available in a full distribution, or as separate library, source, example and documentation distributions from the Releases page.

It is also available in the central Maven repository under Group ID "org.apache.struts".

The 2.0.x series of the Apache Struts framework has a minimum requirement of the following specification versions: Servlet API 2.4, JSP API 2.0, Java 5, Backported Java 4 JARs are also available.

The release notes are available online.

29 Jan 2007 - New Struts Committer -- Philip Luppens

Phil, as he is generally known, is the most active member of the WebWork user community, as judged by their forum/mailing list with over 1400 posts. He has also been listed a WebWork developer, contributing ideas, code, and documentation for several years and is a highly respected member as the WebWork developers can attest.

Phil has also been actively involved in the Struts 2 project, helping to keep the WebWork 2 tickets in sync as well as participating in Struts developer discussions.

Welcome aboard, Phil, keep those syncronizations coming!

29 Jan 2007 - New Struts Committer -- Tom Schneider

Tom has been around the Struts and WebWork communities for several months in the Struts and WebWork [2] user and developer forums. He has opened several JIRA tickets with high quality patches. He is also the author of several Struts 2 plugins, and Tom has recently been helping with defining plugins that provide tag libraries, abstracting OGNL from XWork, and optimizing OGNL within the tags. He has also been active in the Struts user mailing list providing users with help with basic issues encountered when transitioning to Struts 2.

Welcome aboard, Tom, keep those optimizations coming!

29 Jan 2007 - New Struts Committer -- Musachy Barrosso

Please join us in welcoming Musachy Barrosso as a new Struts committer.

Musachy has only been active in Struts since late October, but since that time he has participated in hundreds of list postings, filed a dozen JIRA tickets, and provided patches for several others.

Welcome aboard, Musachy, we appreciate your help in keeping the Ajax code clean!

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