J2EE and Struts

So, how does J2EE fit into the Struts picture? Apart from the fact that a Struts-based application will always be runnable on a J2EE platform because it contains all of the request components , there's a bigger picture.

Assume for the moment that you're on a project large and complex enough to require technologies like EJB. Struts provides a natural front end to an EJB application.

EJB applications divide things into the business logic, which lives on the EJB server, and the stubs, which are used by applications to gain access to the backend code.

In a Struts-fronted EJB application, the model piece of the MVC pattern would be EJB client objects. The Struts standard already coerces developers into dividing their application into the presentation side and the business logic side. That means the model can integrate directly into the EJB beans without having to worry about the JSP page or control flow logic having been written to require access to business logic objects because Struts does not allow it (or at least strongly discourages it). You'll see how this works in Chapter 18, "Using Struts with Enterprise JavaBeans."