Struts FAQs

12.  Why cant we overide create method in StatelessSessionBean?
Answer:  From the EJB Spec : - A Session bean's home interface defines one or morecreate(...) methods. Each create method must be named create and must match one of the ejbCreate methods defined in the enterprise Bean class. The return type of a create method must be the enterprise Bean's remote interface type. The home interface of a stateless session bean must have one create method that takes no arguments.
  
13. Is struts threadsafe?Give an example?
Answer:  Struts is not only thread-safe but thread-dependant. The response to a request is handled by a light-weight Action object, rather than an individual servlet. Struts instantiates each Action class once, and allows other requests to be threaded through the original object. This core strategy conserves resources and provides the best possible throughput. A properly-designed application will exploit this further by routing related operations through a single Action.
   
14. Can we Serialize static variable?
Answer:  Serialization is the process of converting a set of object instances that contain references to each other into a linear stream of bytes, which can then be sent through a socket, stored to a file, or simply manipulated as a stream of data. Serialization is the mechanism used by RMI to pass objects between JVMs, either as arguments in a method invocation from a client to a server or as return values from a method invocation. In the first section of this book, There are three exceptions in which serialization doesnot necessarily read and write to the stream. These are
1. Serialization ignores static fields, because they are not part of any particular object's state.
2. Base class fields are only handled if the base class itself is serializable.
3. Transient fields. There are four basic things you must do when you are making a class serializable. They are:

1. Implement the Serializable interface.
2. Make sure that instance-level, locally defined state is serialized properly.
3. Make sure that superclass state is serialized properly.
4. Override equals( )and hashCode( ).
   it is possible to have control over serialization process. The class should implement Externalizable interface. This interface contains two methods namely readExternal and writeExternal. You should implement these methods and write the logic for customizing the serialization process .... (Source: http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/javarmi/chapter/ch10.html) 
     

15. What are the uses of tiles-def.xml file, resourcebundle.properties file, validation.xml file?
Answer:  tiles-def.xml is is an xml file used to configure tiles with the struts application. You can define the layout / header / footer / body content for your View.

The resourcebundle.properties file is used to configure the message (error/ other messages) for the struts applications. 

The file validation.xml is used to declare sets of validations that should be applied to Form Beans.

   
16. What is the difference between perform() and execute() methods?
Answer:  Perform method is the method which was deprecated in the Struts Version 1.1.  In Struts 1.x, Action.perform() is the method called by the ActionServlet. This is typically where your business logic resides, or at least the flow control to your JavaBeans and EJBs that handle your business logic. As we already mentioned, to support declarative exception handling, the method signature changed in perform. Now execute just throws Exception. Action.perform() is now deprecated; however, the Struts v1.1 ActionServlet is smart enough to know whether or not it should call perform or execute in the Action, depending on which one is available.