Acknowledgments

Writing this book has been a demanding and rewarding experience. I have learned a great deal in the process and I am thankful to many of my friends, family, and peers. First, I want to thank the folks at O'Reilly and especially my editor, Brett McLaughlin. His patience and encouragement helped me make it through some worrisome times. Most of all, Brett emphasized quality above anything else.

I would like to thank my family, as well. As a part-time writer, finding time to write, research, and code was not always easy. I sincerely appreciate the sacrifices that my wife, Debbie, and my boys, Kyle and Cameron, made while I worked on the book. Their encouragement and patience was a blessing. I want to thank my brother, Ed, and my Mom and Dad. Mom, I know you may not know exactly what a "Strut" is, but thanks for always being interested.

This book would not have been possible without the prior work of Chuck Cavaness and Brian Keeton. Chuck's book Programming Jakarta Struts (O'Reilly), a staple of Struts literature, laid the groundwork for this book. Chuck and Brian also wrote the preliminary set of recipes for this book which really helped me get started.

Finally, big thanks go out to my technical editors: Ted Husted, James Mitchell, and James Holmes. Ted can rightly be called a Struts legend and I was honored to have him as a reviewer. He provided a historical perspective which helped me explain and understand the evolution of Struts. As far as James and James go, these fellows are not just my respected colleagues; they are my good friends. I appreciate their time, effort, and encouragement throughout the entire process. In particular, I want to thank James Mitchell for recommending me as a writer and helping out with the initial chapter outlines. I want to thank James Holmes for allowing me to contribute to his book, Struts: The Complete Reference (McGraw-Hill/Osborne).

Finally, this book would not have been possible without the Struts community of developers. Many of the recipes in this book are based on the commonand not so commonquestions, answers, and discussions from the struts-user mailing list. I did my best to give credit where a particular solution was provided by a specific developer. However, I may have missed giving credit where it is due. Please accept my apologies where this has occurred, and let me know of any gross omissions.

I would like to thank Craig McClanahan for developing Struts and helping me with the Struts-Faces recipe. Jonathan Freeman and Stephanie Peretti supplanted my lack of graphic and Spanish-speaking skills. Niall Pemberton and Hubert Rabago provided excellent feedback on a number of recipes. I would like to thank Rick Reumann for the excellent tutorials on his "Struttin' with Struts" web site. Finally, thanks to my good friend, Anuj Soni, whose friendship, advice, and encouragement has been a blessing over the years.