Where Struts Is Going

What will the future bring? It's impossible to say for sure, but we believe it's possible to extrapolate at least a little.

Integration with JSTL

As the various applications servers adopt JSP 1.2, they can take advantage of the full power of the Java Standard Tag Library (JSTL). The main effect that this will have on Struts is to provide a much more powerful alternative to the Struts Tag Library that interoperates with non-Struts platforms.

As a result, you should expect to see the Struts tags gradually fall out of favor as time progresses.

Integration with JavaServer Faces

In addition to being a key Struts contributor , Craig McClanahan is also deeply involved in developing the JavaServer Faces specifications. Not surprisingly, Struts and JSF will become closely intermingled as time progresses.

Again, the main effect will be to de- emphasize the importance of the current Struts tags because the combination of JSTL and JSF (which work together) will make the proprietary Struts tags obsolete.

Struts Will Become More Widely Accepted

At the time of this writing, Struts was about to have its 1.1 release. This release is a major improvement over the previous one, both in features and code stability. As a result, it will become a more attractive platform for commercial applications development.

These things feed on themselves . As Struts becomes more popular, more people will contribute bug fixes and new features, which will in turn make Struts more popular. Certainly Struts will be the predominant applications framework inside the Jakarta community.