Part 2. Core concepts: actions, interceptors, and type conversion

Now that we’ve taken the general lay of the land, it’s time to get down to business. The next few chapters introduce all the core components of the Struts 2 architecture. These components make up the functionality of your application as well as the framework itself. We’ll provide in-depth discussions of the roles these components play in the framework, and back that up with real code samples as we start to build our Struts 2 Portfolio sample application.

In chapter 3, we jump right in and start working with the Struts 2 action. This component is the heart of the framework and is the component that a developer will spend the most time with on a daily basis. After that, chapter 4 introduces the interceptors. These critical components, while taking less of a developer’s time, are where all of the framework’s functionality is. Some developers will be unfamiliar with these components, but they’re powerful and we take plenty of time to make sure everyone comes away with a firm grip on them. Chapter 5 finishes up the tour of the framework’s core pieces by introducing the mechanisms that support the automatic data transfer and type conversion facilities. You can get by without knowing much about this stuff, but a solid footing will open new horizons of efficient and effective development.