In this post, you will find all the possible and most recent Job Interview questions and answers of Struts for JAVA category which you might be asked by your employer. These interview questions and answers will help you to get the job.
These Interview Questions and answers are not only for Upwork job, you will have some idea about the related job interview for your permanent or real life job. This is just some sample answers, don't just copy and paste them, read them carefully and make your own answer.
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1. Are Interceptors and Filters different ? , If yes then how ?
Apart from the fact that both Interceptors and filters are based on intercepting filter,there are few differences when it comes to Struts2.
Filters: (1)Based on Servlet Specification (2)Executes on the pattern matches on the request.(3) Not configurable method calls
Interceptors: (1)Based on Struts2. (2)Executes for all the request qualifies for a front controller( A Servlet filter ).And can be configured to execute additional interceptor for a particular action execution.(3)Methods in the Interceptors can be configured whether to execute or not by means of excludemethods or includeMethods.
2. Describe Validate() and reset() methods?
alidate() Method: this method is used to validate the properties after they are explored by the application.
• Validate method is Called before FormBean is handed to Action.
• This method returns a collection of ActionError.
• Syntax of Validate() Method:
public ActionErrors validate(ActionMapping mapping,HttpServletRequest request)
Reset() Method: this method is called by the Struts Framework with each request that uses the defined ActionForm.
• Used to reset all the data from the ActionForm
• Syntax of Reset() Method:
public void reset() {}
3. Difference between Html tags and Struts specific HTML Tags?
Difference between HTML tag and Struts specific HTLM tags are:
• HTML tags are static in nature but Struts specific HTML tags are dynamic in nature.
• HTML tags are not User Defined whereas Struts tags can be user defined.
• HTML tags provide the different templates and themes to the programmer whereas Struts specific HTML tag provides the integrating the property value with the Formbean properties.
• HTML tags are integral part of Struts whereas Struts have HTML tag libraries.
4. Does the order in which interceptors execute matters ? If yes then why ?
Well, the answer is yes and no.Some Interceptors are designed to be independent so the order doesn't matter,but some interceptors are totally dependent on the previous interceptors execution.For example the validation and workflow interceptors,the validation interceptors checks if there is any error in the form being submitted to the action, then comes the workflow interceptor who checks if validation ( occured in the last) has any error,in presence of error it will not let the rest of the interceptors ( if any ) in the stack to execute.So this is very important that the validation interceptors execute first before the workflow. On the other hand lets say you wrote an interceptors who is doing the authentication and you have the user credential provided ( by the time this executes) it doesn't matter where this interceptors is placed( It is a different fact that you would like to keep it in the top ).
5. How do you get the HttpServletRequest object in an interceptor ?
Here is the intercept method
public String intercept(ActionInvocation <span class="eng2ik" id="eng2ik_6" style="height: 12px;">invoke</span>) throws Exception {
ActionContext action=invoke.getInvocationContext();
HttpServletRequest req=(HttpServletRequest)action.get(StrutsStatics.HTTP_REQUEST);
return null;
}
6. How does Interceptors help achieve Struts2 a better framework than Struts1 ?
> Most of the trivial work are made easier to achieve for example automatic form population.
> Intelligent configuration and defaults for example you can have struts.xml or annotation based configuration and out of box interceptors can provide facilities that a common web application needs
>Now Struts2 can be used anywhere in desktop applications also, with minimal or no change of existing web application,since actions are now POJO.POJO actions are even easier to unit test.Thanks to interceptors
>Easier UI and validation in form of themes and well known DOJO framework.
>Highly plugable,Integrate other technologies like Spring,Hibernate etc at ease.
> Ready for next generation RESTFUL services
7. How exceptions are handled in Struts application?
Exceptions are handled in struts by using any one of the following two ways:
• Programmatically handling: In this exception are handled by using try and catch block in program. Using this programmer can define how to handle the situation when exception arises.
• Declarative handling: In this exception handling is done by using the XML file. Programmer defines the exception handling logic in the XML file. There are two ways of defining the exception handling logic in the XML file:
-Global Action Specific Exception Handler Definition.
-Local Action Specific Exception Handler Definition.
8. How to combine the Struts with Velocity Template?
We can combine Struts and Velocity template by performing following steps:
1. Set classpath to Velocity JARs
2. Make web.xml file to identify the Velocity servlet.
3. Select Velocity toolbox.xml in WEB-INF directory.
4. Modify struts-config to point its views to Velocity templates instead of JSPs.
5. Create a Velocity template for each page you want to render.
9. How to display validation errors on JSP page?
Validation error: Validation error are those error which arises when user or client enters the invalid format data into the form. For this validation of data struts enables the programmer with the Validator() method which validates both the data from client side and the server side.
We can display all error in the JSP page by using the following syntax in the code.
SYNTAX: <html:error/>
10. How to use DispatchAction?
We can use the Dispatch Action we executing following steps:
• Create a class that extends DispatchAction.
• In a new class, add a method: method has the same signature as the execute() method of an Action class.
• Do not override execute() method.
• Add an entry to struts-config.xml
11. How to use forward action to restrict a strut application to MVC?
We can use the ForwarAction to restrict the Struts application to Model View Controller by following coding:
<global-forwards>
<statements>
path="/gotoCitizenDetails.do" />
</global-forwards>
<action-mappings>
<statements>
<action path=”/gotoCitizenDetails”
parameter=”/CitizenDetails.jsp”
type=”org.apache.struts.actions.ForwardAction” />
</action-mappings>
12. In how many ways duplicate form submission can occurs?
The submission form can be duplicated by the any of the following ways:
• Using refresh button.
• By clicking submit button more than once before the server sent back the response.
• By clicking back navigation button present in browser.
• The browser is restores to submit the form again.
• By clicking multiple times on a transaction that is delayed than usual.
13. In Struts1, the front-controller was a Servlet but in Struts2, it is a filter. What is the possible reason to change it to a filter ?
There are two possibilities why filter is designated as front controller in Strtus2
(1)Servlet made as front controller needs developer to provide a right value in <load-on-startup> which lets the framework to initialize many important aspects( viz. struts configuration file)as the container starts.In absense of which the framework gets initialized only as the first request hits.Struts2 makes our life easy by providing front-controller as a filter,and by nature the filters in web.xml gets initialized automatically as the container starts.There is no need of such load-on-startup tag.
(2).The second but important one is , the introduction of Interceptors in Struts2 framework.It not just reduce our coding effort,but helps us write any code which we would have used filters for coding and necessary change in the web.xml as opposed to Struts1.So now any code that fits better in Filter can now moved to interceptors( which is more controllable than filters), all configuration can be controlled in struts.xml file, no need to touch the web.xml file.
(3).The front controller being a filter also helps towards the new feature of Struts ie UI Themes. All the static resources in the Themes now served through the filter
14. What are action errors?
Action error: when user or client submits the incorrect or invalid data in the application, then these errors are known as Action error.
• Action errors are generated by the clients.
• Action error should be determined as soon as possible.
The impacts of such Action Error are:
• Wastage of server time and resources.
• Negative impact on code quality.
15. What are inner class and anonymous class?
Inner class: classes that are defined within other classes.
• The nesting is a relationship performed between two different classes.
• An inner class can access private members and data.
• Inner classes have clearly two benefits:
o Name control
o Access control.
Anonymous class: Anonymous class is a class defined inside a method without a name.
• It is instantiated and declared in the same method.
• It does not have explicit constructors.
16. What are Pull-MVC and push-MVC based architecture ? Whicharchitecture does Struts2 follow ?
Pull-MVC and Push-MVC are better understood with how the view layer is getting data i.e. Model to render. In case of Push-MVC the data( Model) is constructed and given to the view layer by the Controllers by putting it in the scoped variables like request or session. Typical example is Spring MVC and Struts1. Pull-MVC on the other hand puts the model data typically constructed in Controllers are kept in a common place i.e. in actions, which then gets rendered by view layer. Struts2 is a Pull-MVC based architecture, in which all data is stored in Value Stack and retrieved by view layer for rendering.
17. What are the classes used in Struts?
Struts Framework consists of following classes:
• Action Servlets: used to control the response for each incoming request.
• Action Class: used to handle the request.
• Action Form: it is java bean, used to referred to forms and associated with action mapping
• Action Mapping: used for mapping between object and action.
• Action Forward: used to forward the result from controller to destination.
18. What are the Custom tags?
Custom Tags are User Defined Tags, which means that user can create those tags depending upon their need in the application.
• When a JSP page consisting of user- defined or custom tag is translated into a Servlet, the custom is also get translated into operation
• Help in fast development of the application due to custom tag reusability.
19. What are the loop holes of Struts?
The drawbacks of Struts are following:
• Absence of backward flow mechanism.
• Only one single controller Servlets is used.
• Bigger learning curve
• Worst documentation
• No exception present in this framework
• Less transparent
• Rigid approach.
• With struts 1, embedding application into JSP can’t be prevented.
• Non-XML compliance of JSP syntax
20. What are the steps used to setup dispatch action?
To setup the dispatch action the following steps are used:
• Create a subclass for DispatchAction.
• Create method for logical action and their related actions.
• Request Parameter is created for each action.
• Define ActionMapping.
• The JSP takes on the subclass defined for dispatch action method names as their values
21. What are the various Struts tag libraries?
The various Struts tag libraries are:
• HTML Tags: used to create the struts input forms and GUI of web page.
• Bean Tags: used to access bean and their properties.
• Logic Tags: used to perform the logical operation like comparison
• Template Tags: used to changes the layout and view.
• Nested Tags: used to perform the nested functionality
• Tiles Tags: used to manages the tiles of the application
22. What design patterns are used in Struts?
There are following types of design patterns are used in Struts:
• Service to Worker
• Dispatcher View
• Composite View (Struts Tiles)
• Front Controller
• View Helper
• Synchronizer Token
23. What is Action Class?
An Action class in the struts application is used to handle the request.
• It acts as interface or communication medium between the HTTP request coming to it and business logic used to develop the application.
• Action class consists of RequestProcessor which act as controller. This controller will choose the best action for each incoming request, generate the instance of that action and execute that action.
• This should be in thread-safe manner, because RequestProcessor uses the same instance for no. of requests at same time.
24. What is ActionMapping?
In action mapping is the mapping of the action performed by the user or client on the application.
-We specify the action class for a specific user’s action. Like we provide the path or URL and different view based on user event.
-We can also define where control of the page deviate in case of validation error in the form.
-We can include ActionMapping in code like this:
<action-mappings>
<action path="/a" type=myclasse.A name="myForm">
<forward name="Login" path="/login.jsp"/>
<forward name="error" path="/error.jsp"/>
</action-mappings>
25. What is difference between Interceptors and Filters?
The difference between Interceptors and filter are below:
• Filters are based on Servlet Specification whereas Interceptors are based on Struts2.
• Filters are executed only when patter matches whereas Interceptors executes for all request qualifies for a front controller.
• Filters are not Configurable method calls whereas Interceptors methods can be configured.
26. What is DispatchAction?
The DispatchAction enable the programmer to combine together related function or class.
• Using Dispatch Action programmer can combine the user related action into a single UserAction. like add user, delete user and update user
• DispatchAction execute the action based on the parameter value it receives from the user.
27. What is execute and wait interceptor ?
The ExecuteAndWaitInterceptor is great interceptor provided out of box in Struts2 for running long-lived actions in the background while showing the user a nice progress meter or a progress bar. For example while uploading a large file to the server we can use this interceptor to display a nice running progress bar instead of leaving the user in confusion that the application is not responding.This also prevents the HTTP request from timing out when the action takes more than 5 or 10 minutes
28. What is IncludeAction?
The IncludeAction is used to integrate the one action file in another action file.
• It is same as ForwardAction but the only difference is that the resource is present in HTTP response.
• Is used to combine the Struts functionality and control into an application that uses Servlets.
• Use the IncludeAction class to include another resource in the response to the request being processed.
29. What is MVC?
Model View Controller (MVC) is a design pattern used to perform changes in the application.
• Model: Model is referring to business or database. It stores the state of the application. Model has no knowledge of the View and Controller components.
• View: View is referring to the Page Design Code. It is responsible for the showing the result of the user’s query. View modifies itself when any changes in the model happen.
• Controller: Controller is referring to navigational code. Controller will chose the best action for each incoming request, generate the instance of that action and execute that action.
30. What is role of Action Class?
An Action class in the struts application is used to handle the request.
• It acts as interface or communication medium between the HTTP request coming to it and business logic used to develop the application.
• Action class consists of RequestProcessor which act as controller. This controller will choose the best action for each incoming request, generate the instance of that action and execute that action.
• This should be in thread-safe manner, because RequestProcessor uses the same instance for no. of requests at same time.
31. What is Struts Validator Framework?
Struts Validator Framework enables us to validate the data of both client side and server side.
• When some data validation is not present in the Validator framework, then programmer can generate own validation logic, this User Defined Validation logic can be bind with Validation Framework.
• Validation Framework consist of two XML configuration Files:
o Validator-Rules.xml file
o Validation.xml file
32. What is struts.devMode and why it is used ?
struts.devMode is a key used in struts.properties file (Can also be configured in struts.xml file as <constant name="struts.devMode" value="true" />) , to represent whether the framework is running in development mode or production mode by setting true or false. If set to development mode, it gives the following benefits : -
> Resource bundle reload on every request; i.e. all localization properties file can be modified and the change will be reflected without restarting the server.
> struts.xml or any configuration files can be modified without restarting or redeploying the application
> The error occurs in the application will be reported, as oppose to production mode.
Also remember that struts.devMode should be marked as false in production environment to reduce impact of performance. By default it is "false".
33. What is struts.devMode?
The struts.devMode is used to make sure that framework is running in development mode or production mode by setting true or false. struts.devMode is set to false in production phase to reduce impact of performance. By default it is "false". It is used because of the following reasons:
• Resource Reloading: Resource bundle reload on every request
• Modification: struts.xml can be modified without restarting or redeploying the application
• Error Handling: The error occurs in the application will be reported, as oppose to production mode.
34. What is Struts?
Struts is open source software used to develop java based web page.
• Struts uses Jakarta Packages, Java Servlets, JavaBeans, ResourceBundles, and XML
• Struts takes the help of Model View Controller (MVC) architecture. Where Model is referring to business or database, View is referring to the Page Design Code, and Controller is referring to navigational code.
35. What is the difference between Action and ActionSupport ?
Action is interface defines some string like SUCCESS,ERROR etc and an execute() method. For convenience Developer implement this interface to have access to String field in action methods. ActionSupport on other hand implements Action and some other interfaces and provides some feature like data validation and localized error messaging when extended in the action classes by developers.
36. What is the difference between empty default namespace and root namespace?
The difference between the empty default namespace and root name space are:
• When namespace attribute is not defined then it is referred to as Empty Default Namespace whereas when name space attribute is assign with forward slash(/) then it is referred to as Root Name Space.
• The root namespace must be matched.
37. What is the difference between RequestAware and ServletRequestAware interface?
The difference between RequestAware and ServletRequestAware are:
• RequestAware enables programmer with the attributes in the Servlet Request as a map whereas ServletRequestAware enables programmer with HttpServletRequest object.
• ServletRequestAware are more flexible than RequestAware.
• ServletRequestAware makes action class highly coupled with Servlet environment which is not possible in RequestAware.
38. What is the life cycle of ActionForm?
The lifecycle of ActionForm is as follows:
• Retrieve or Create Form Bean associated with Action
• "Store" FormBean in appropriate scope (request or session)
• Reset the properties of the FormBean
• Populate the properties of the FormBean
• Validate the properties of the FormBean
• Pass FormBean to Action
39. What is the need of Struts?
We need Struts in Java because of following reasons:
• Helps in creation and maintenance of the application.
• Make use of Model View Controller (MVC) architecture. Where Model is referring to business or database, View is referring to the Page Design Code, and Controller is referring to navigational code.
• Enables developer to make use of Jakarta Packages, Java Servlets, JavaBeans, ResourceBundles, and XML
40. What is the role of Action/ Model ?
Actions in Struts are POJO , is also considered as a Model. The role of Action are to execute business logic or delegate call to business logic by the means of action methods which is mapped to request and contains business data to be used by the view layer by means of setters and getters inside the Action class and finally helps the framework decide which result to render
41. What is the use of ForwardAction?
The ForwardAction is used when we want to combine Struts with existing application.
• Used when we want to transfer the control form JSP to local server.
• Used to integrate with struts in order to take benefit of struts functionality, without writing the Servlets again.
• Use to forward a request to another resource in your application
42. Who loads the struts.xml file ? Which Struts2 API loads the struts.xml file?
In Struts2 FilterServlet is the responsible class for loading struts.xml file as we deploy the application on the container.Unlike Servlet (as with Struts1) needs the load-on-startup tag to load the front controller,a filter doesn't need to have load on startup tag to be loaded as the application is deployed. As with servlet specification a filter is loaded/executed as the application starts up.