Struts2PluginFeaturesUserGuide

Struts 2 facet

All plugin configuration settings are bundled in a dedicated facet. Simply attach a new Struts 2-facet to an existing Web-facet, create a fileset and add your struts.xml-files from all auto-scanned configuration files in your project and the plugin is ready to work.

Dedicated facet with configuration options

File Set manager

Group and manage your struts.xml-files with an easy to use editor, providing maximum flexibility w/r to your project setup.

Detect struts.xml files not mapped to file sets

Spot setup errors easily, additionally providing a quickfix to add the unmapped struts.xml-files to any existing fileset.

Library validator/setup

Creates IDEA project/module-library and - if required - downloads all necessary JAR files required for Struts 2.

Library validator/setup for standard plugins (Spring, Tiles, JSF, ..)

Autodetection of Struts 2 facets

Existing struts.xml-files are recognized upon opening your project and a new S2 facet will be created automatically.

Integration with "New Project"

Add a blank ready-to-start Struts 2 application template by selecting Struts 2 from the list of available technologies. A S2-facet with default fileset and an empty struts.xml-file already mapped in web.xml will be created automatically, all necessary libraries will be setup as well.

IDE integration

"Go To Action/Package" by name

Press Ctrl+Shift+Alt+N (Go To -> Symbol) to quickly navigate to any Action/Package by simply entering its name (including wildcards):

"Go To -> Related File"

IDEA 10.5+
Use this shortcut to quickly navigate from any web-resource used in <result> to its <action>-declaration and/or Action-method.
IDEA 11+
Also vice versa from Action-class to <action>-declaration and any referenced result(s) files

Dedicated icons for configuration/JAVA (Action) files

Recognize Struts related files/classes at a glance throughout the IDE (Project/Packages View, Editor tabs, Autocompletion, ..):

struts.xml/validation.xml

Autocompletion for all possible elements

Auto-completion is available for virtually all tags and attributes, just give it a try:

Rename refactoring/Find Usages for all referencable elements

Need to refactor your S2 application? Just use the Rename refactoring (Shift+F6) or perform Find Usages (Alt+F7 or Ctrl+Alt+F7):

Navigation to referenced elements

Simply Ctrl-click (or press Ctrl+B) on any element to navigate to its declaration - or take a peek without leaving the current editor using Quick Definition Lookup (Ctrl+Shift+I).

Highlighting of configuration/reference errors

Errors are highlighted immediately in the editor, additional validation is triggered for Make Project.
IDEA 7: see "Validation" tab in S2 facet for more options
IDEA 8+: see Settings->Compiler->Validation

Quickfixes

Various quickfixes to create missing elements etc.

struts.xml: restrict resolving to <result> value depending on result-type (e.g. Tiles, Velocity)

IDEA 10+

Various inspections for common configuration errors

Highlight common configuration errors or possible problems on-the-fly.

Structure View

Visually groups all relevant info with Autoscroll from/to source. Searching for something in the tree? Just start typing its name to find it.

Pageflow graph (struts.xml)

IDEA 8+
Graph of all relevant S2 elements.

validation.xml

Navigation to/from corresponding Action-class

IDEA 11+
Autocompletion/Navigation to Action-class properties in <field> "name"

Show validation.xml node(s) under corresponding Action-class (like GUI-Designer forms)

Create corresponding validation.xml-template from Action

Structure View

I18N-support

IDEA 11+
Support for .properties-based I18N for <message> "key" (can be disabled in S2 facet, tab "Features").

Actions (JAVA/Groovy)

Navigation to Action-declaration in struts.xml

Simply click on the action icon in the left editor bar to quickly open up the corresponding mapping(s) in struts.xml:
IDEA 8.1.1+: also for Groovy

Highlight unused Actions, Quickfixes: Delete, Map in struts.xml

Navigate to result

IDEA 10.5+
Use the gutter icon to directly navigate to any result(s) from your action method:

JSPs

Navigation to Action-declaration/class

Click on the Action-class icon to quickly open the corresponding JAVA/Groovy-class or Ctrl+click on the "action"-attribute to go to the struts.xml-definition:

Autocompletion/navigation for form properties

IDEA 11+
Form properties will be autocompleted/resolved in "surrounding" Action class. Ofcourse, refactoring is supported here as well.

Autocompletion/navigation for other tags

Autocompletion is available for most attributes with static values.

JavaScript support

(plugin "JavaScript Support" must be enabled)
Enjoy the power of IDEA's powerful JavaScript-support within all S2 UI-tags.

CSS support

(IDEA 8+: plugin "CSS Support" must be enabled)
Define inline-styles (cssStyle) or reference existing CSS classes (cssClass).

I18N-support

IDEA 10+
Support for .properties-based I18N for <s:text> (can be disabled in S2 facet, tab "Features").

OGNL support

IDEA 11+
Currently under active development, see Struts2PluginOGNLSupport for details.

Plugins/3rd Party Extensions

Support struts2-spring-plugin

(plugin "Spring Support" must be enabled and Spring facet configured properly)
Reference Spring beans where supported (e.g. in <action> "class", <constant> "value").

Support Convention plugin

IDEA 9+
Sophisticated configuration properties support

Autocompletion/navigation/usage search in annotations (WIP):

Integration with Tiles 2

(plugin "Struts 1.x" must be enabled)
IDEA 8.1.1+
struts2-tiles-plugin.jar must be present as well as Tiles libraries. Configured tiles.xml-files will be set automatically as described in http://struts.apache.org/2.x/docs/tiles-plugin.html.

Freemarker

(plugin "FreeMarker support" must be enabled)
IDEA 8+
All supported S2 taglibs are automatically available:

Global variables as well as properties provided from corresponding Action-class will be resolved:

Velocity

(plugin "Velocity support" must be enabled)
IDEA 10.x+
Add all global macros (struts.vm in struts2-core.jar) automatically.
Autocomplete all global variables.
Blog post incl. screen-shots

Support struts2-jQuery plugin

IDEA 9+
Provides autocompletion, navigation for JSP tags.
Blog post showing off some features

struts-jQuery plugin