General Why do we need Struts? Java technologies give developers a serious boost when creating and maintaining applications to meet the demands of today's public Web sites and enterprise intranets. Struts combines Java Servlets, Java ServerPages, custom tags, and message resources into a unified framework. The end result is a cooperative, synergistic platform, suitable for development teams, independent developers, and everyone in between. How does Struts work? Java Servlets are designed to handle requests made by Web browsers. Java ServerPages are designed to create dynamic Web pages that can turn billboard sites into live applications. Struts uses a special Servlet as a switchboard to route requests from Web browsers to the appropriate ServerPage. This makes Web applications much easier to design, create, and maintain. Is Struts compatible with other Java technologies? Yes. Struts is committed to supporting industry standards. Our lead developer is a member of JSR052, Sun's Expert group for developing a standard library of custom JSP tags. A primary design criteria is that Struts must be compatible with Sun's J2EE platform for corporate enterprises. In fact, Struts really acts as an integrator of Java technologies, so that they can be used in the "real world". Who wrote Struts?

Struts was created by Craig R. McClanahan, and donated to the Apache Software Foundation in May 2000. Craig is the primary developer of both Struts and Tomcat 4, the basis for the official reference implementation for a servlet 2.3 and JSP 1.2 container. With stable releases of Struts and Tomcat 4 in circulation, Craig is now the Specification Lead for JavaServer Faces (JSR-127), and is the Web Layer Architect for the Java2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) platform as a whole.

There are now many active committers to the Struts project, working cooperatively from around the globe. Other Java developers are invited to contribute to the project. Struts is an Apache Jakarta project, with the common mission to "provide commercial-quality server solutions based on the Java Platform that are developed in an open and cooperative fashion". All told, 17 individual developers and committers contributed to the Struts 1.0 codebase.

 Why is it called Struts? It's a reference to struts in the architectural sense, a reminder of the nearly invisible pieces that hold up buildings, houses, and bridges. How is Struts licensed? Struts is copyrighted software available under a "free-to-use-license" by The Apache Software Foundation. The license appears at the head of every source code file. A reference copy of the license is available here. Can Struts be used in a commercial product?

Yes. The only requirements you must meet are those listed in the Apache Software Foundation license, which is included at the top of each source file and in the file LICENSE in the top-level directory of the distribution.

In addition, contributions of patches, improved code, new features, or even just requests for features are also welcome.

 Do I have to credit Struts on my own website? You need to credit Struts if you redistribute your own framework based on Struts for other people to use. (See the Apache License for details.) But you do not need to credit Struts just because your web application utilizes the framework. It's the same situation as using the Apache HTTPD server or Tomcat. Not required if its just running your web site. Required if you've used the source code to create your own server that you are redistributing to other people. Where can I get a copy of Struts? The best place to download Struts is at jakarta.apache.org/struts. The nightly builds are very stable, and recommended as the best place to start today. How do I install Struts?

To develop applications with Struts, you can usually just add the Struts JAR file to your Java development environment. You can then start using the Struts classes as part of your own application. A blank Struts application (in the webapps directory, open struts-blank.war) is provided, which you can just copy to get a quick-start on your own brainchild.

Since the full source code for Struts is available, we also provide complete instructions for compiling your own Struts JAR from scratch. (This is actually easier than it looks!)

Your Struts application can usually be deployed using a standard WAR file. In most cases, you simply deposit the WAR file on your application server, and it is installed automatically. If not, step-by-step installation instructions for various servlet containers are available.