Struts 2 ActionError & ActionMessage Example

By mkyong | June 10, 2010 | Viewed : 231,522 | +206 pv/w

Download It – Struts2-ActionError-ActionMessage-Example.zip

A tutorial to show the use of the Struts 2’s ActionError and ActionMessage class.

1. ActionError – is used to send error feedback message to user – display via <s:actionerror/>.


<s:if test="hasActionErrors()">
   <div class="errors">
      <s:actionerror/>
   </div>
</s:if>

2. ActionMessage – is used to send information feedback message to user, display via <s:actionmessage/>.


<s:if test="hasActionMessages()">
   <div class="welcome">
      <s:actionmessage/>
   </div>
</s:if>

Here’s a simple login form, display the error message (actionerror) if the username is not equal to “mkyong”, otherwise redirect to another page and display the a welcome message (actionmessage). In addition, all the label and error messages are retrieve from the resource bundle (properties file).

1. Folder Structure

See this project structure

2. Properties file

Two properties files to store the messages.

LoginAction.properties


#Welcome messages
welcome.hello = Hello

#error message
username.required = Username is required
password.required = Password is required

global.properties


#Global messages
global.username = Username
global.password = Password
global.submit = Submit
global.reset = Reset

3. Action

A classic action class, do a simple checking to make sure the username is equal to “mkyong”, and set the error message with addActionError() or successful message with addActionMessage().


package com.mkyong.user.action;

import com.opensymphony.xwork2.ActionSupport;

public class LoginAction extends ActionSupport{

	private String username;
	private String password;
	 
	public String getPassword() {
		return password;
	}

	public void setPassword(String password) {
		this.password = password;
	}

	public String getUsername() {
		return username;
	}

	public void setUsername(String username) {
		this.username = username;
	}

	//business logic
	public String execute() {

		return "SUCCESS";

	}

	//simple validation
	public void validate(){
		if("mkyong".equals(getUsername())){
			addActionMessage("You are valid user!");
		}else{
			addActionError("I don't know you, dont try to hack me!");
		}
	}
}

4. JSP View

Two simple JSP pages with css style to customize the error message.

login.jsp


<%@ page contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8" %>
<%@ taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags" %>
<html>
<head>

<style type="text/css">
.errors {
	background-color:#FFCCCC;
	border:1px solid #CC0000;
	width:400px;
	margin-bottom:8px;
}
.errors li{ 
	list-style: none; 
}
</style>

</head>

<body>
<h1>Struts 2 ActionError & ActionMessage Example</h1>

<s:if test="hasActionErrors()">
   <div class="errors">
      <s:actionerror/>
   </div>
</s:if>

<s:form action="validateUser">
	<s:textfield key="global.username" name="username"/>
	<s:password key="global.password" name="password"/>
	<s:submit key="global.submit" name="submit"/>
</s:form>

</body>
</html>

welcome.jsp


<%@ page contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8" %>
<%@ taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags" %>
<html>
<head>

<style type="text/css">
.welcome {
	background-color:#DDFFDD;
	border:1px solid #009900;
	width:200px;
}
.welcome li{ 
	list-style: none; 
}
</style>

</head>
<body>
<h1>Struts 2 Struts 2 ActionError & ActionMessage Example</h1>

<s:if test="hasActionMessages()">
   <div class="welcome">
      <s:actionmessage/>
   </div>
</s:if>

<h2>

<s:property value="getText('welcome.hello')" /> : 
<s:property value="username"/>

</h2>

</body>
</html>

5. struts.xml

Link all together.


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE struts PUBLIC
"-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 2.0//EN"
"http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-2.0.dtd">
 
<struts>

  <constant name="struts.custom.i18n.resources" value="global" />

  <package name="user" namespace="/user" extends="struts-default">
     <action name="login">
	 <result>pages/login.jsp</result>
     </action>
     <action name="validateUser" class="com.mkyong.user.action.LoginAction">
	 <result name="SUCCESS">pages/welcome.jsp</result>
	 <result name="input">pages/login.jsp</result>
     </action>
   </package>
	
</struts>

In Struts 2, the functionality and usage of ActionError & ActionMessage are quite similar with Struts 1.

6. Run it

http://localhost:8080/Struts2Example/user/login.action

Username is invalid, display error message with <s:actionerror/>

Username is valid, display welcome message <s:actionmessage/>

Reference

ValidationAware documentation

struts2

About the Author

mkyong

Founder of Mkyong.com, love Java and open source stuff. Follow him on Twitter, or befriend him on Facebook or Google Plus. If you like my tutorials, consider make a donation to these charities.

Comments

newest oldest most voted

Guest

AnhMV

Thanks you for this post

Guest

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Great information. Lucky me I came across your site by
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Guest

Ahamed Ibrahim

please share web.xml also

Guest

Himanshu

As per my understanding, validate() method will not be executed, since there is No reference to validate method in XML file. correct me if i am wrong

Guest

Rajan Verma

Can i show confirmation dialog saying yes or no … on click event of submit for an example…

Guest

Dheeraj

Hi my struts 2 validation is working fine in WAS 6.1 but when i migrated the application to WAS 8.5 its showing me following errors filter E com.ibm.ws.webcontainer.filter.FilterInstanceWrapper service SRVE8109W: Uncaught exception thrown by filter struts2: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator.ValidatorFactory (initialization failure) at java.lang.J9VMInternals.initialize(J9VMInternals.java:168) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator.ValidatorFileParser.addValidatorConfigs(ValidatorFileParser.java:192) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator.ValidatorFileParser.parseActionValidatorConfigs(ValidatorFileParser.java:72) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator.AnnotationActionValidatorManager.loadFile(AnnotationActionValidatorManager.java:361) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator.AnnotationActionValidatorManager.buildAliasValidatorConfigs(AnnotationActionValidatorManager.java:244) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator.AnnotationActionValidatorManager.buildValidatorConfigs(AnnotationActionValidatorManager.java:343) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator.AnnotationActionValidatorManager.getValidators(AnnotationActionValidatorManager.java:69) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator.AnnotationActionValidatorManager.validate(AnnotationActionValidatorManager.java:138) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator.AnnotationActionValidatorManager.validate(AnnotationActionValidatorManager.java:113) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator.AnnotationActionValidatorManager.validate(AnnotationActionValidatorManager.java:100) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator.ValidationInterceptor.doBeforeInvocation(ValidationInterceptor.java:142) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.validator.ValidationInterceptor.doIntercept(ValidationInterceptor.java:148) at org.apache.struts2.interceptor.validation.AnnotationValidationInterceptor.doIntercept(AnnotationValidationInterceptor.java:48) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor

Guest

Suresh

Hi Mkyong,
I have one requirement in my project.That is Websphere Application Server 8.5 Default cache (Dynamis Cache).
How to cofigure and how to write java code this in struts 2.Could you please tell me some sample example on this topic.Early reply that will be great for me.

Thanks
Suresh

Guest

kanishk kumar

Actually , I am not getting how to create Properties file with which extension.

Guest

Is it possible to do the validation on a helper class instead of in the action class itself? Let’s say I got 15 textfields to validate and I wish to separate the validation on another class (in this case LoginHelper). How should I go about doing this?

Guest

u can try validation through XML file also…

Guest

chethana

Sir, How to display action message in a popup window?

Guest

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Thank you stephanie for this great post

Guest

Ebi

How about if I want to use the addActionMessage method in a class that is not extending ActionSupport but using @Action ?

Guest

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Guest

somu

in my web application i need to set link in error msg

addActionError("User not logged in. <a href=\"logon\">Click Here</a> to log in");"

The problem is the html text appears as normal text and does not appear as a link to click on.

Guest

somu

in my web application
addActionError(“User not logged in. Click Here to log in”);

Guest

Gaurav Dighe

There needs some changes in the struts.xml. Instead of

pages/login.jsp.

We need to change it to

/user/pages/login.jsp

Guest

Gaurav Dighe

Sir, kindly confirm the changes

Guest

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When some one searches for his essential thing, therefore he/she wishes to be
available that in detail, so that thing is maintained
over here.

Guest

joy

I use this:

In jsp . But it shows “welcome.hello” not “Hello”, why ?
It didn’t get the value in the properties. I didn’t declare the LoginAction.properties in struts.xml.

Thanks .

Guest

joy

Sorry, missing something.

I use this:

In jsp

Guest

joy

It also missing.

Guest

Kasturi

Hi,
For accessing the Properties file data.., you need to configure the property file with struts.xml as follows..
<constant name="struts.custom.i18n.resources"
value="then value=Resource)>”/>

please try again after configure the struts.xml.
it will help you.

Thanks,
Kasturi.

Guest

Kasturi

sorry i missed out..
please check.

”/>

Thanks,
Kasturi.

Guest

pallavi

this isn’t working
showing error: Can not find the tag library descriptor for “/struts-tags”
how to resolve this

and in struts2 i did the same no messages are being displayed

Guest

Kasturi

Hi,
You need to add the struts jar. properly,then you can access ‘/struts-tags’ in tag lib..

Regards,
Kasturi…

Guest

mehmet

Hello, good example thank you; but what if we have a warning neither error or message! What can we do then?

Guest

Sandeep

Hello Sir,
First of all hats-off for such a nice tutorial link.It really helps me to learn latest technologies.I just want to add a suggestion that please upload different examples with different name so user can easily import a new example without editing the older one…

Guest

venu

how to clear Action and error messages

Guest

venu

how to clear this Error Message in Struts

Thanks
venu

Guest

?????

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Guest

Siregar

return input while combine with interceptor, why and how can i solve it? thank you

Guest

RAMU

i have a problem in struts2, am new for this,multiple form page data not visible in final jsp, can u solve it

Guest

tasuifmail.com

There is no Action mapped for namespace / and action name .

description The requested resource (There is no Action mapped for namespace / and action name .) is not available.

how to solve this problem