KB-1506 How to update legacy customizations

Nick Vigilante — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 18:26:36 GMT

Current Revision posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Nick Vigilante on 2/26/2018 6:26:36 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java)
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
JSP Replacements
Cancellable Actions
Java API Changes
Notes

Core Struts JARs

If your customizations require copying Core Struts JARs to specific folders (an uncommon scenario), please note that Struts now consists of multiple jars, including core, el, tiles, taglib, and extras. Be sure to download Struts from Fedora (see link above) and copy all the jars if needed. Otherwise, the Appian installation will provide the jars by default and no action is needed.

web.xml Changes

If using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), make the following changes:

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>
Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

You would remove this parameter, and then add an equivalent set-property element the inside the <controller> element in your customized version of struts-config-framework.xml, like so:
<controller>
...
<set-property property="maxFileSize" value="1G" />
</controller>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching the customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File available:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that the XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Document Type Definition (*.DTD) files are used to verify that Struts Configuration Files (struts-config-*.xml) are of the correct structure. Struts configuration files declare which DTD verification file to use at the top of the XML file. This declaration needs to be updated to point to the latest DTD in every Struts Configuration File.

Example 1: change
<!DOCTYPE struts-config PUBLIC '-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 1.1//EN' 'http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/dtds/struts-config_1_1.dtd'>
to
<!DOCTYPE struts-config PUBLIC '-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 1.3//EN' 'http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-config_1_3.dtd'>

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

Example 2: change
<!DOCTYPE struts-config PUBLIC '-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 1.1//EN' '/struts-config_1_1.dtd' >
to
<!DOCTYPE struts-config PUBLIC '-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 1.3//EN' '/struts-config_1_3.dtd' >

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating the Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If the XML is not constructed appropriately, the following error may be thrown:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in the customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in the customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

If these attributes are present, check the struts-config-*.xml file containing the action configuration corresponding to this JSP file. If the corresponding action already has these parameters defined with the same values, no further action is necessary. Otherwise, add these parameters to the action mapping.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You find the corresponding Struts Configuration file that contains the action mapping for the referenced action:
<action path="/admin/data/updateDashboard" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" name="dashboardForm" scope="request">
...
</action>

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Since there isn't a good way to statistically determine if an action is cancellable, it is recommended to manually verify that performing (and cancelling if possible) every custom action in the GUI does not result in errors. However, if a less intensive approach is needed, setting cancellable="true" on every custom action may be acceptable.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in the customization directories for the following replacements:

Action.perform
- Replace usages with Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
- Replace usages with ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator)
- Replace usages with ValidatorUtils (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator.util)
org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator
- Replace usages with org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator
The org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles namespace
- Replace usages with org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib
DataSourceConfig
- Remove usages
Action.defaultLocale
- Replace usages with Locale.getDefault
Action.getDataSource
- Remove usages
Action.LOCALE_KEY
- Replace usages with Globals.LOCALE_KEY
Action.saveErrors called with ActionErrors parameter
- Call with ActionMessages parameter instead
- E.g. saveErrors(... actionErrors ...) becomes saveErrors(... actionMessages...)
ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR
- Replace usages with ActionMessage.GLOBAL_MESSAGE
ActionErrors.add called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. add(... actionError …) becomes add(... actionMessage …)
ActionForward constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call without contextRelative parameter
- E.g. ActionForward(... contextRelative …) becomes ActionForward(...)
DynaActionFormClass.clear
- Remove usages
ExceptionHandler.storeException called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. storeException(... actionError …) becomes storeException(... actionMessage …)
RequestProcessor.log
- Remove, or use Commons Logging class instead
FormBeanConfig.setDynamic
- Remove usages
ForwardConfig.contextRelative
- Replace usages with module
ForwardConfig constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call with module parameter instead
- E.g. ForwardConfig(... contextRelative …) becomes ForwardConfig(... module ...)
ModuleException.error
- Replace usages with message
ModuleException.getError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
MultipartRequestWrapper.getRequest
- Now returns ServletRequestWrapper instead of HttpServletRequest
- Note: Casting to HttpServletRequest is safe
validator.Resources.SERVLET_CONTEXT_KEY
- Replace usages with SERVLET_CONTEXT_PARAM
validator.Resources.HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_KEY
- Replace usages with HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_PARAM
validator.Resources.ACTION_ERRORS_KEY
- Replace usages with ACTION_MESSAGES_PARAM
validator.Resources.getLocale
- Replace usages with RequestUtils.getUserLocale
validator.Resources.getActionError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
RequestUtils.computeURL
- Replace usages with TagUtils.computeURL
RequestUtils.selectModule
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.selectModule
RequestUtils.getModuleName
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleName
RequestUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
- Replace with ModuleUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
RequestUtils.saveException
- Replace usages with TagUtils.saveException
RequestUtils.getModuleConfig
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleConfig
RequestUtils.getModulePrefixes
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModulePrefixes
MessageTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
BaseHandlerTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
JavascriptValidatorTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
OptionTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.lineEnd
- Remove usages
HtmlTag.getCurrentLocale
- Remove usages
ImgTag.isContextRelativeSet
- Remove usages
ImgTag.lowsrc
- Remove usages
TagUtils.getActionErrors
- Replace usages with getActionMessages
TagUtils.getProperty
- Replace usages with PropertyUtils.getProperty
ResponseUtils.write
- Replace usages with TagUtils.write
ResponseUtils.writePrevious
- Replace usages with TagUtils.writePrevious
RequestUtils and ResponseUtils usages not covered above
- Replace RequestUtils.* or ResponseUtils.* usages with TagUtils.getInstance().*

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade, and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.1 and later.

Last Reviewed: January 2018

Tags: how-to, legacy interfaces, application design

DRAFT KB-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Nick Vigilante — Mon, 22 Jan 2018 08:24:56 GMT

Revision 22 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Nick Vigilante on 1/22/2018 8:24:56 AM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java)
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
JSP Replacements
Cancellable Actions
Java API Changes
Notes

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), make the following changes:

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>
Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching the customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File available:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that the XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating the Struts Configuration Files

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in the customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in the customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in the customization directories for the following replacements:

Action.perform
- Replace usages with Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
- Replace usages with ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator)
- Replace usages with ValidatorUtils (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator.util)
org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator
- Replace usages with org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator
The org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles namespace
- Replace usages with org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib
DataSourceConfig
- Remove usages
Action.defaultLocale
- Replace usages with Locale.getDefault
Action.getDataSource
- Remove usages
Action.LOCALE_KEY
- Replace usages with Globals.LOCALE_KEY
Action.saveErrors called with ActionErrors parameter
- Call with ActionMessages parameter instead
- E.g. saveErrors(... actionErrors ...) becomes saveErrors(... actionMessages...)
ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR
- Replace usages with ActionMessage.GLOBAL_MESSAGE
ActionErrors.add called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. add(... actionError …) becomes add(... actionMessage …)
ActionForward constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call without contextRelative parameter
- E.g. ActionForward(... contextRelative …) becomes ActionForward(...)
DynaActionFormClass.clear
- Remove usages
ExceptionHandler.storeException called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. storeException(... actionError …) becomes storeException(... actionMessage …)
RequestProcessor.log
- Remove, or use Commons Logging class instead
FormBeanConfig.setDynamic
- Remove usages
ForwardConfig.contextRelative
- Replace usages with module
ForwardConfig constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call with module parameter instead
- E.g. ForwardConfig(... contextRelative …) becomes ForwardConfig(... module ...)
ModuleException.error
- Replace usages with message
ModuleException.getError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
MultipartRequestWrapper.getRequest
- Now returns ServletRequestWrapper instead of HttpServletRequest
- Note: Casting to HttpServletRequest is safe
validator.Resources.SERVLET_CONTEXT_KEY
- Replace usages with SERVLET_CONTEXT_PARAM
validator.Resources.HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_KEY
- Replace usages with HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_PARAM
validator.Resources.ACTION_ERRORS_KEY
- Replace usages with ACTION_MESSAGES_PARAM
validator.Resources.getLocale
- Replace usages with RequestUtils.getUserLocale
validator.Resources.getActionError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
RequestUtils.computeURL
- Replace usages with TagUtils.computeURL
RequestUtils.selectModule
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.selectModule
RequestUtils.getModuleName
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleName
RequestUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
- Replace with ModuleUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
RequestUtils.saveException
- Replace usages with TagUtils.saveException
RequestUtils.getModuleConfig
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleConfig
RequestUtils.getModulePrefixes
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModulePrefixes
MessageTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
BaseHandlerTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
JavascriptValidatorTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
OptionTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.lineEnd
- Remove usages
HtmlTag.getCurrentLocale
- Remove usages
ImgTag.isContextRelativeSet
- Remove usages
ImgTag.lowsrc
- Remove usages
TagUtils.getActionErrors
- Replace usages with getActionMessages
TagUtils.getProperty
- Replace usages with PropertyUtils.getProperty
ResponseUtils.write
- Replace usages with TagUtils.write
ResponseUtils.writePrevious
- Replace usages with TagUtils.writePrevious
RequestUtils and ResponseUtils usages not covered above
- Replace RequestUtils.* or ResponseUtils.* usages with TagUtils.getInstance().*

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade, and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.1 and later.

Last Reviewed: January 2018

Tags: how-to, legacy interfaces, application design

DRAFT KB-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Sun, 21 Jan 2018 17:19:39 GMT

Revision 21 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 1/21/2018 5:19:39 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java)
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
JSP Replacements
Cancellable Actions
Java API Changes
Notes

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes:

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>
Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

If you find these attributes, check the struts-config-*.xml file containing the action configuration corresponding to this JSP file. If the corresponding action already has these parameters defined with the same values, no further action is necessary. Otherwise, add these parameters to the action mapping.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Action.perform
- Replace usages with Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
- Replace usages with ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator)
- Replace usages with ValidatorUtils (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator.util)
org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator
- Replace usages with org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator
The org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles namespace
- Replace usages with org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib
DataSourceConfig
- Remove usages
Action.defaultLocale
- Replace usages with Locale.getDefault
Action.getDataSource
- Remove usages
Action.LOCALE_KEY
- Replace usages with Globals.LOCALE_KEY
Action.saveErrors called with ActionErrors parameter
- Call with ActionMessages parameter instead
- E.g. saveErrors(... actionErrors ...) becomes saveErrors(... actionMessages...)
ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR
- Replace usages with ActionMessage.GLOBAL_MESSAGE
ActionErrors.add called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. add(... actionError …) becomes add(... actionMessage …)
ActionForward constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call without contextRelative parameter
- E.g. ActionForward(... contextRelative …) becomes ActionForward(...)
DynaActionFormClass.clear
- Remove usages
ExceptionHandler.storeException called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. storeException(... actionError …) becomes storeException(... actionMessage …)
RequestProcessor.log
- Remove, or use Commons Logging class instead
FormBeanConfig.setDynamic
- Remove usages
ForwardConfig.contextRelative
- Replace usages with module
ForwardConfig constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call with module parameter instead
- E.g. ForwardConfig(... contextRelative …) becomes ForwardConfig(... module ...)
ModuleException.error
- Replace usages with message
ModuleException.getError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
MultipartRequestWrapper.getRequest
- Now returns ServletRequestWrapper instead of HttpServletRequest
- Note: Casting to HttpServletRequest is safe
validator.Resources.SERVLET_CONTEXT_KEY
- Replace usages with SERVLET_CONTEXT_PARAM
validator.Resources.HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_KEY
- Replace usages with HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_PARAM
validator.Resources.ACTION_ERRORS_KEY
- Replace usages with ACTION_MESSAGES_PARAM
validator.Resources.getLocale
- Replace usages with RequestUtils.getUserLocale
validator.Resources.getActionError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
RequestUtils.computeURL
- Replace usages with TagUtils.computeURL
RequestUtils.selectModule
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.selectModule
RequestUtils.getModuleName
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleName
RequestUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
- Replace with ModuleUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
RequestUtils.saveException
- Replace usages with TagUtils.saveException
RequestUtils.getModuleConfig
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleConfig
RequestUtils.getModulePrefixes
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModulePrefixes
MessageTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
BaseHandlerTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
JavascriptValidatorTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
OptionTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.lineEnd
- Remove usages
HtmlTag.getCurrentLocale
- Remove usages
ImgTag.isContextRelativeSet
- Remove usages
ImgTag.lowsrc
- Remove usages
TagUtils.getActionErrors
- Replace usages with getActionMessages
TagUtils.getProperty
- Replace usages with PropertyUtils.getProperty
ResponseUtils.write
- Replace usages with TagUtils.write
ResponseUtils.writePrevious
- Replace usages with TagUtils.writePrevious
RequestUtils and ResponseUtils usages not covered above
- Replace RequestUtils.* or ResponseUtils.* usages with TagUtils.getInstance().*

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade, and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.1 and later.

Last Reviewed: January 2018

Tags: how-to, legacy interfaces, application design

DRAFT KB-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 23:37:16 GMT

Revision 20 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 1/18/2018 11:37:16 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java)
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
JSP Replacements
Cancellable Actions
Java API Changes
Notes

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes:

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>
Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen automatically when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Unfortunately, we haven't found a good way to statically determine if an action is cancellable. It is recommended that you manually verify that performing (and cancelling if possible) every custom action in the GUI does not result in errors. However, if a less intensive approach is needed, setting cancellable="true" on every custom action may be acceptable.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Action.perform
- Replace usages with Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
- Replace usages with ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator)
- Replace usages with ValidatorUtils (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator.util)
org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator
- Replace usages with org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator
The org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles namespace
- Replace usages with org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib
DataSourceConfig
- Remove usages
Action.defaultLocale
- Replace usages with Locale.getDefault
Action.getDataSource
- Remove usages
Action.LOCALE_KEY
- Replace usages with Globals.LOCALE_KEY
Action.saveErrors called with ActionErrors parameter
- Call with ActionMessages parameter instead
- E.g. saveErrors(... actionErrors ...) becomes saveErrors(... actionMessages...)
ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR
- Replace usages with ActionMessage.GLOBAL_MESSAGE
ActionErrors.add called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. add(... actionError …) becomes add(... actionMessage …)
ActionForward constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call without contextRelative parameter
- E.g. ActionForward(... contextRelative …) becomes ActionForward(...)
DynaActionFormClass.clear
- Remove usages
ExceptionHandler.storeException called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. storeException(... actionError …) becomes storeException(... actionMessage …)
RequestProcessor.log
- Remove, or use Commons Logging class instead
FormBeanConfig.setDynamic
- Remove usages
ForwardConfig.contextRelative
- Replace usages with module
ForwardConfig constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call with module parameter instead
- E.g. ForwardConfig(... contextRelative …) becomes ForwardConfig(... module ...)
ModuleException.error
- Replace usages with message
ModuleException.getError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
MultipartRequestWrapper.getRequest
- Now returns ServletRequestWrapper instead of HttpServletRequest
- Note: Casting to HttpServletRequest is safe
validator.Resources.SERVLET_CONTEXT_KEY
- Replace usages with SERVLET_CONTEXT_PARAM
validator.Resources.HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_KEY
- Replace usages with HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_PARAM
validator.Resources.ACTION_ERRORS_KEY
- Replace usages with ACTION_MESSAGES_PARAM
validator.Resources.getLocale
- Replace usages with RequestUtils.getUserLocale
validator.Resources.getActionError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
RequestUtils.computeURL
- Replace usages with TagUtils.computeURL
RequestUtils.selectModule
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.selectModule
RequestUtils.getModuleName
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleName
RequestUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
- Replace with ModuleUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
RequestUtils.saveException
- Replace usages with TagUtils.saveException
RequestUtils.getModuleConfig
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleConfig
RequestUtils.getModulePrefixes
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModulePrefixes
MessageTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
BaseHandlerTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
JavascriptValidatorTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
OptionTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.lineEnd
- Remove usages
HtmlTag.getCurrentLocale
- Remove usages
ImgTag.isContextRelativeSet
- Remove usages
ImgTag.lowsrc
- Remove usages
TagUtils.getActionErrors
- Replace usages with getActionMessages
TagUtils.getProperty
- Replace usages with PropertyUtils.getProperty
ResponseUtils.write
- Replace usages with TagUtils.write
ResponseUtils.writePrevious
- Replace usages with TagUtils.writePrevious
RequestUtils and ResponseUtils usages not covered above
- Replace RequestUtils.* or ResponseUtils.* usages with TagUtils.getInstance().*

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.1 and later.

Last Reviewed: January 2018

Tags: how-to, legacy interfaces, application design

DRAFT KB-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 23:34:00 GMT

Revision 19 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 1/18/2018 11:34:00 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java)
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
JSP Replacements
Cancellable Actions
Java API Changes
Notes

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes:

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>
Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen automatically when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Action.perform
- Replace usages with Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
- Replace usages with ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator)
- Replace usages with ValidatorUtils (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator.util)
org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator
- Replace usages with org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator
The org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles namespace
- Replace usages with org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib
DataSourceConfig
- Remove usages
Action.defaultLocale
- Replace usages with Locale.getDefault
Action.getDataSource
- Remove usages
Action.LOCALE_KEY
- Replace usages with Globals.LOCALE_KEY
Action.saveErrors called with ActionErrors parameter
- Call with ActionMessages parameter instead
- E.g. saveErrors(... actionErrors ...) becomes saveErrors(... actionMessages...)
ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR
- Replace usages with ActionMessage.GLOBAL_MESSAGE
ActionErrors.add called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. add(... actionError …) becomes add(... actionMessage …)
ActionForward constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call without contextRelative parameter
- E.g. ActionForward(... contextRelative …) becomes ActionForward(...)
DynaActionFormClass.clear
- Remove usages
ExceptionHandler.storeException called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. storeException(... actionError …) becomes storeException(... actionMessage …)
RequestProcessor.log
- Remove, or use Commons Logging class instead
FormBeanConfig.setDynamic
- Remove usages
ForwardConfig.contextRelative
- Replace usages with module
ForwardConfig constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call with module parameter instead
- E.g. ForwardConfig(... contextRelative …) becomes ForwardConfig(... module ...)
ModuleException.error
- Replace usages with message
ModuleException.getError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
MultipartRequestWrapper.getRequest
- Now returns ServletRequestWrapper instead of HttpServletRequest
- Note: Casting to HttpServletRequest is safe
validator.Resources.SERVLET_CONTEXT_KEY
- Replace usages with SERVLET_CONTEXT_PARAM
validator.Resources.HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_KEY
- Replace usages with HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_PARAM
validator.Resources.ACTION_ERRORS_KEY
- Replace usages with ACTION_MESSAGES_PARAM
validator.Resources.getLocale
- Replace usages with RequestUtils.getUserLocale
validator.Resources.getActionError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
RequestUtils.computeURL
- Replace usages with TagUtils.computeURL
RequestUtils.selectModule
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.selectModule
RequestUtils.getModuleName
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleName
RequestUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
- Replace with ModuleUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
RequestUtils.saveException
- Replace usages with TagUtils.saveException
RequestUtils.getModuleConfig
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleConfig
RequestUtils.getModulePrefixes
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModulePrefixes
MessageTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
BaseHandlerTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
JavascriptValidatorTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
OptionTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.lineEnd
- Remove usages
HtmlTag.getCurrentLocale
- Remove usages
ImgTag.isContextRelativeSet
- Remove usages
ImgTag.lowsrc
- Remove usages
TagUtils.getActionErrors
- Replace usages with getActionMessages
TagUtils.getProperty
- Replace usages with PropertyUtils.getProperty
ResponseUtils.write
- Replace usages with TagUtils.write
ResponseUtils.writePrevious
- Replace usages with TagUtils.writePrevious
RequestUtils and ResponseUtils usages not covered above
- Replace RequestUtils.* or ResponseUtils.* usages with TagUtils.getInstance().*

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.1 and later.

Last Reviewed: January 2018

Tags: how-to, legacy interfaces, application design

DRAFT KB-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Thu, 18 Jan 2018 23:28:57 GMT

Revision 18 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 1/18/2018 11:28:57 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java)
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
JSP Replacements
Cancellable Actions
Java API Changes
Notes

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes:

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>
Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen automatically when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Action.perform
- Replace usages with Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
- Replace usages with ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator)
- Replace usages with ValidatorUtils (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator.util)
org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator
- Replace usages with org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator
The org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles namespace
- Replace usages with org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib
DataSourceConfig
- Remove usages
Action.defaultLocale
- Replace usages with Locale.getDefault
Action.getDataSource
- Remove usages
Action.LOCALE_KEY
- Replace usages with Globals.LOCALE_KEY
Action.saveErrors called with ActionErrors parameter
- Call with ActionMessages parameter instead
- E.g. saveErrors(... actionErrors ...) becomes saveErrors(... actionMessages...)
ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR
- Replace usages with ActionMessage.GLOBAL_MESSAGE
ActionErrors.add called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. add(... actionError …) becomes add(... actionMessage …)
ActionForward constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call without contextRelative parameter
- E.g. ActionForward(... contextRelative …) becomes ActionForward(...)
DynaActionFormClass.clear
- Remove usages
ExceptionHandler.storeException called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. storeException(... actionError …) becomes storeException(... actionMessage …)
RequestProcessor.log
- Remove or use Commons Logging class instead
FormBeanConfig.setDynamic
- Remove usages
ForwardConfig.contextRelative
- Replace usages with module
ForwardConfig constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call with module parameter instead
- E.g. ForwardConfig(... contextRelative …) becomes ForwardConfig(... module ...)
ModuleException.error
- Replace usages with message
ModuleException.getError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
MultipartRequestWrapper.getRequest
- Now returns ServletRequestWrapper instead of HttpServletRequest
- Note: Casting to HttpServletRequest is safe
validator.Resources.SERVLET_CONTEXT_KEY
- Replace usages with SERVLET_CONTEXT_PARAM
validator.Resources.HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_KEY
- Replace usages with HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_PARAM
validator.Resources.ACTION_ERRORS_KEY
- Replace usages with ACTION_MESSAGES_PARAM
validator.Resources.getLocale
- Replace usages with RequestUtils.getUserLocale
validator.Resources.getActionError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
RequestUtils.computeURL
- Replace usages with TagUtils.computeURL
RequestUtils.selectModule
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.selectModule
RequestUtils.getModuleName
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleName
RequestUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
- Replace with ModuleUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
RequestUtils.saveException
- Replace usages with TagUtils.saveException
RequestUtils.getModuleConfig
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleConfig
RequestUtils.getModulePrefixes
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModulePrefixes
MessageTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
BaseHandlerTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
JavascriptValidatorTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
OptionTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.lineEnd
- Remove usages
HtmlTag.getCurrentLocale
- Remove usages
ImgTag.isContextRelativeSet
- Remove usages
ImgTag.lowsrc
- Remove usages
TagUtils.getActionErrors
- Replace usages with getActionMessages
TagUtils.getProperty
- Replace usages with PropertyUtils.getProperty
ResponseUtils.write
- Replace usages with TagUtils.write
ResponseUtils.writePrevious
- Replace usages with TagUtils.writePrevious
RequestUtils and ResponseUtils usages not covered above
- Replace RequestUtils.* or ResponseUtils.* usages with TagUtils.getInstance().*

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.1 and later.

Last Reviewed: January 2018

Tags: how-to

DRAFT KB-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 23:58:46 GMT

Revision 17 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 1/16/2018 11:58:46 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java)
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
JSP Replacements
Cancellable Actions
Java API Changes
Notes

Core Struts JARs

If your customizations require copying Core Struts JARs to other folders (an uncommon scenario), please note that Struts now consists of multiple jars, including core, el, tiles, taglib, and extras.

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>
Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Document Type Definition (*.DTD) files are used to verify that Struts Configuration Files (struts-config-*.xml) are correct. Struts configuration files declare what DTD verification file to use at the top of the XML file. These declarations need to be updated to point to the latest DTD.

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Action.perform
- Replace usages with Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
- Replace usages with ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator)
- Replace usages with ValidatorUtils (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator.util)
org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator
- Replace usages with org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator
The org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles namespace
- Replace usages with org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib
DataSourceConfig
- Remove usages
Action.defaultLocale
- Replace usages with Locale.getDefault
Action.getDataSource
- Remove usages
Action.LOCALE_KEY
- Replace usages with Globals.LOCALE_KEY
Action.saveErrors called with ActionErrors parameter
- Call with ActionMessages parameter instead
- E.g. saveErrors(... actionErrors ...) becomes saveErrors(... actionMessages...)
ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR
- Replace usages with ActionMessage.GLOBAL_MESSAGE
ActionErrors.add called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. add(... actionError …) becomes add(... actionMessage …)
ActionForward constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call without contextRelative parameter
- E.g. ActionForward(... contextRelative …) becomes ActionForward(...)
DynaActionFormClass.clear
- Remove usages
ExceptionHandler.storeException called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. storeException(... actionError …) becomes storeException(... actionMessage …)
RequestProcessor.log
- Remove or use Commons Logging class instead
FormBeanConfig.setDynamic
- Remove usages
ForwardConfig.contextRelative
- Replace usages with module
ForwardConfig constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call with module parameter instead
- E.g. ForwardConfig(... contextRelative …) becomes ForwardConfig(... module ...)
ModuleException.error
- Replace usages with message
ModuleException.getError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
MultipartRequestWrapper.getRequest
- Now returns ServletRequestWrapper instead of HttpServletRequest
- Note: Casting to HttpServletRequest is safe
validator.Resources.SERVLET_CONTEXT_KEY
- Replace usages with SERVLET_CONTEXT_PARAM
validator.Resources.HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_KEY
- Replace usages with HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_PARAM
validator.Resources.ACTION_ERRORS_KEY
- Replace usages with ACTION_MESSAGES_PARAM
validator.Resources.getLocale
- Replace usages with RequestUtils.getUserLocale
validator.Resources.getActionError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
RequestUtils.computeURL
- Replace usages with TagUtils.computeURL
RequestUtils.selectModule
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.selectModule
RequestUtils.getModuleName
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleName
RequestUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
- Replace with ModuleUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
RequestUtils.saveException
- Replace usages with TagUtils.saveException
RequestUtils.getModuleConfig
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleConfig
RequestUtils.getModulePrefixes
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModulePrefixes
MessageTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
BaseHandlerTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
JavascriptValidatorTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
OptionTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.lineEnd
- Remove usages
HtmlTag.getCurrentLocale
- Remove usages
ImgTag.isContextRelativeSet
- Remove usages
ImgTag.lowsrc
- Remove usages
TagUtils.getActionErrors
- Replace usages with getActionMessages
TagUtils.getProperty
- Replace usages with PropertyUtils.getProperty
ResponseUtils.write
- Replace usages with TagUtils.write
ResponseUtils.writePrevious
- Replace usages with TagUtils.writePrevious
RequestUtils and ResponseUtils usages not covered above
- Replace RequestUtils.* or ResponseUtils.* usages with TagUtils.getInstance().*

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.1 and later.

Last Reviewed: January 2018

Tags: how-to

DRAFT KB-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 20:18:58 GMT

Revision 16 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 1/7/2018 8:18:58 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java).
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
JSP Replacements
Cancellable Actions
Java API Changes
Notes

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>
Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Action.perform
- Replace usages with Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
- Replace usages with ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator)
- Replace usages with ValidatorUtils (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator.util)
org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator
- Replace usages with org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator
The org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles namespace
- Replace usages with org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib
DataSourceConfig
- Remove usages
Action.defaultLocale
- Replace usages with Locale.getDefault
Action.getDataSource
- Remove usages
Action.LOCALE_KEY
- Replace usages with Globals.LOCALE_KEY
Action.saveErrors called with ActionErrors parameter
- Call with ActionMessages parameter instead
- E.g. saveErrors(... actionErrors ...) becomes saveErrors(... actionMessages...)
ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR
- Replace usages with ActionMessage.GLOBAL_MESSAGE
ActionErrors.add called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. add(... actionError …) becomes add(... actionMessage …)
ActionForward constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call without contextRelative parameter
- E.g. ActionForward(... contextRelative …) becomes ActionForward(...)
DynaActionFormClass.clear
- Remove usages
ExceptionHandler.storeException called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. storeException(... actionError …) becomes storeException(... actionMessage …)
RequestProcessor.log
- Remove or use Commons Logging class instead
FormBeanConfig.setDynamic
- Remove usages
ForwardConfig.contextRelative
- Replace usages with module
ForwardConfig constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call with module parameter instead
- E.g. ForwardConfig(... contextRelative …) becomes ForwardConfig(... module ...)
ModuleException.error
- Replace usages with message
ModuleException.getError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
MultipartRequestWrapper.getRequest
- Now returns ServletRequestWrapper instead of HttpServletRequest
- Note: Casting to HttpServletRequest is safe
validator.Resources.SERVLET_CONTEXT_KEY
- Replace usages with SERVLET_CONTEXT_PARAM
validator.Resources.HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_KEY
- Replace usages with HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_PARAM
validator.Resources.ACTION_ERRORS_KEY
- Replace usages with ACTION_MESSAGES_PARAM
validator.Resources.getLocale
- Replace usages with RequestUtils.getUserLocale
validator.Resources.getActionError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
RequestUtils.computeURL
- Replace usages with TagUtils.computeURL
RequestUtils.selectModule
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.selectModule
RequestUtils.getModuleName
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleName
RequestUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
- Replace with ModuleUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
RequestUtils.saveException
- Replace usages with TagUtils.saveException
RequestUtils.getModuleConfig
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleConfig
RequestUtils.getModulePrefixes
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModulePrefixes
MessageTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
BaseHandlerTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
JavascriptValidatorTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
OptionTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.lineEnd
- Remove usages
HtmlTag.getCurrentLocale
- Remove usages
ImgTag.isContextRelativeSet
- Remove usages
ImgTag.lowsrc
- Remove usages
TagUtils.getActionErrors
- Replace usages with getActionMessages
TagUtils.getProperty
- Replace usages with PropertyUtils.getProperty
ResponseUtils.write
- Replace usages with TagUtils.write
ResponseUtils.writePrevious
- Replace usages with TagUtils.writePrevious
RequestUtils and ResponseUtils usages not covered above
- Replace RequestUtils.* or ResponseUtils.* usages with TagUtils.getInstance().*

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Affected Versions

This article applies to Appian 18.1 and later.

Last Reviewed: January 2018

Tags: how-to

DRAFT KB-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 20:17:58 GMT

Revision 15 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 1/7/2018 8:17:58 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java).
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
JSP Replacements
Cancellable Actions
Java API Changes
Notes

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>
Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Action.perform
- Replace usages with Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
- Replace usages with ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator)
- Replace usages with ValidatorUtils (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator.util)
org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator
- Replace usages with org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator
The org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles namespace
- Replace usages with org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib
DataSourceConfig
- Remove usages
Action.defaultLocale
- Replace usages with Locale.getDefault
Action.getDataSource
- Remove usages
Action.LOCALE_KEY
- Replace usages with Globals.LOCALE_KEY
Action.saveErrors called with ActionErrors parameter
- Call with ActionMessages parameter instead
- E.g. saveErrors(... actionErrors ...) becomes saveErrors(... actionMessages...)
ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR
- Replace usages with ActionMessage.GLOBAL_MESSAGE
ActionErrors.add called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. add(... actionError …) becomes add(... actionMessage …)
ActionForward constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call without contextRelative parameter
- E.g. ActionForward(... contextRelative …) becomes ActionForward(...)
DynaActionFormClass.clear
- Remove usages
ExceptionHandler.storeException called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. storeException(... actionError …) becomes storeException(... actionMessage …)
RequestProcessor.log
- Remove or use Commons Logging class instead
FormBeanConfig.setDynamic
- Remove usages
ForwardConfig.contextRelative
- Replace usages with module
ForwardConfig constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call with module parameter instead
- E.g. ForwardConfig(... contextRelative …) becomes ForwardConfig(... module ...)
ModuleException.error
- Replace usages with message
ModuleException.getError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
MultipartRequestWrapper.getRequest
- Now returns ServletRequestWrapper instead of HttpServletRequest
- Note: Casting to HttpServletRequest is safe
validator.Resources.SERVLET_CONTEXT_KEY
- Replace usages with SERVLET_CONTEXT_PARAM
validator.Resources.HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_KEY
- Replace usages with HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_PARAM
validator.Resources.ACTION_ERRORS_KEY
- Replace usages with ACTION_MESSAGES_PARAM
validator.Resources.getLocale
- Replace usages with RequestUtils.getUserLocale
validator.Resources.getActionError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
RequestUtils.computeURL
- Replace usages with TagUtils.computeURL
RequestUtils.selectModule
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.selectModule
RequestUtils.getModuleName
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleName
RequestUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
- Replace with ModuleUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
RequestUtils.saveException
- Replace usages with TagUtils.saveException
RequestUtils.getModuleConfig
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleConfig
RequestUtils.getModulePrefixes
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModulePrefixes
MessageTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
BaseHandlerTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
JavascriptValidatorTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
OptionTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.lineEnd
- Remove usages
HtmlTag.getCurrentLocale
- Remove usages
ImgTag.isContextRelativeSet
- Remove usages
ImgTag.lowsrc
- Remove usages
TagUtils.getActionErrors
- Replace usages with getActionMessages
TagUtils.getProperty
- Replace usages with PropertyUtils.getProperty
ResponseUtils.write
- Replace usages with TagUtils.write
ResponseUtils.writePrevious
- Replace usages with TagUtils.writePrevious
RequestUtils and ResponseUtils usages not covered above
- Replace RequestUtils.* or ResponseUtils.* usages with TagUtils.getInstance().*

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Tags: how-to

DRAFT INT-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 20:14:01 GMT

Revision 14 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 1/7/2018 8:14:01 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java).
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
JSP Replacements
Cancellable Actions
Java API Changes
Notes

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>
Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Action.perform
- Replace usages with Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
- Replace usages with ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator)
- Replace usages with ValidatorUtils (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator.util)
org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator
- Replace usages with org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator
The org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles namespace
- Replace usages with org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib
DataSourceConfig
- Remove usages
Action.defaultLocale
- Replace usages with Locale.getDefault
Action.getDataSource
- Remove usages
Action.LOCALE_KEY
- Replace usages with Globals.LOCALE_KEY
Action.saveErrors called with ActionErrors parameter
- Call with ActionMessages parameter instead
- E.g. saveErrors(... actionErrors ...) becomes saveErrors(... actionMessages...)
ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR
- Replace usages with ActionMessage.GLOBAL_MESSAGE
ActionErrors.add called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. add(... actionError …) becomes add(... actionMessage …)
ActionForward constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call without contextRelative parameter
- E.g. ActionForward(... contextRelative …) becomes ActionForward(...)
DynaActionFormClass.clear
- Remove usages
ExceptionHandler.storeException called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. storeException(... actionError …) becomes storeException(... actionMessage …)
RequestProcessor.log
- Remove or use Commons Logging class instead
FormBeanConfig.setDynamic
- Remove usages
ForwardConfig.contextRelative
- Replace usages with module
ForwardConfig constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call with module parameter instead
- E.g. ForwardConfig(... contextRelative …) becomes ForwardConfig(... module ...)
ModuleException.error
- Replace usages with message
ModuleException.getError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
MultipartRequestWrapper.getRequest
- Now returns ServletRequestWrapper instead of HttpServletRequest
- Note: Casting to HttpServletRequest is safe
validator.Resources.SERVLET_CONTEXT_KEY
- Replace usages with SERVLET_CONTEXT_PARAM
validator.Resources.HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_KEY
- Replace usages with HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_PARAM
validator.Resources.ACTION_ERRORS_KEY
- Replace usages with ACTION_MESSAGES_PARAM
validator.Resources.getLocale
- Replace usages with RequestUtils.getUserLocale
validator.Resources.getActionError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
RequestUtils.computeURL
- Replace usages with TagUtils.computeURL
RequestUtils.selectModule
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.selectModule
RequestUtils.getModuleName
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleName
RequestUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
- Replace with ModuleUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
RequestUtils.saveException
- Replace usages with TagUtils.saveException
RequestUtils.getModuleConfig
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleConfig
RequestUtils.getModulePrefixes
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModulePrefixes
MessageTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
BaseHandlerTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
JavascriptValidatorTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
OptionTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.lineEnd
- Remove usages
HtmlTag.getCurrentLocale
- Remove usages
ImgTag.isContextRelativeSet
- Remove usages
ImgTag.lowsrc
- Remove usages
TagUtils.getActionErrors
- Replace usages with getActionMessages
TagUtils.getProperty
- Replace usages with PropertyUtils.getProperty
ResponseUtils.write
- Replace usages with TagUtils.write
ResponseUtils.writePrevious
- Replace usages with TagUtils.writePrevious
RequestUtils and ResponseUtils usages not covered above
- Replace RequestUtils.* or ResponseUtils.* usages with TagUtils.getInstance().*

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Tags: how-to

DRAFT INT-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 20:13:25 GMT

Revision 13 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 1/7/2018 8:13:25 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java).
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
JSP Replacements
Cancellable Actions
Java API Changes
Notes

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>
Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Action.perform
- Replace usages with Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
- Replace usages with ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator)
- Replace usages with ValidatorUtils (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator.util)
org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator
- Replace usages with org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator
The org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles namespace
- Replace usages with org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib
DataSourceConfig
- Remove usages
Action.defaultLocale
- Replace usages with Locale.getDefault
Action.getDataSource
- Remove usages
Action.LOCALE_KEY
- Replace usages with Globals.LOCALE_KEY
Action.saveErrors called with ActionErrors parameter
- Call with ActionMessages parameter instead
- E.g. saveErrors(... actionErrors ...) becomes saveErrors(... actionMessages...)
ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR
- Replace usages with ActionMessage.GLOBAL_MESSAGE
ActionErrors.add called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. add(... actionError …) becomes add(... actionMessage …)
ActionForward constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call without contextRelative parameter
- E.g. ActionForward(... contextRelative …) becomes ActionForward(...)
DynaActionFormClass.clear
- Remove usages
ExceptionHandler.storeException called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. storeException(... actionError …) becomes storeException(... actionMessage …)
RequestProcessor.log
- Remove or use Commons Logging class instead
FormBeanConfig.setDynamic
- Remove usages
ForwardConfig.contextRelative
- Replace usages with module
ForwardConfig constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call with module parameter instead
- E.g. ForwardConfig(... contextRelative …) becomes ForwardConfig(... module ...)
ModuleException.error
- Replace usages with message
ModuleException.getError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
MultipartRequestWrapper.getRequest
- Now returns ServletRequestWrapper instead of HttpServletRequest
- Note: Casting to HttpServletRequest is safe
validator.Resources.SERVLET_CONTEXT_KEY
- Replace usages with SERVLET_CONTEXT_PARAM
validator.Resources.HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_KEY
- Replace usages with HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_PARAM
validator.Resources.ACTION_ERRORS_KEY
- Replace usages with ACTION_MESSAGES_PARAM
validator.Resources.getLocale
- Replace usages with RequestUtils.getUserLocale
validator.Resources.getActionError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
RequestUtils.computeURL
- Replace usages with TagUtils.computeURL
RequestUtils.selectModule
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.selectModule
RequestUtils.getModuleName
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleName
RequestUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
- Replace with ModuleUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
RequestUtils.saveException
- Replace usages with TagUtils.saveException
RequestUtils.getModuleConfig
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleConfig
RequestUtils.getModulePrefixes
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModulePrefixes
MessageTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
BaseHandlerTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
JavascriptValidatorTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
OptionTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.lineEnd
- Remove usages
HtmlTag.getCurrentLocale
- Remove usages
ImgTag.isContextRelativeSet
- Remove usages
ImgTag.lowsrc
- Remove usages
TagUtils.getActionErrors
- Replace usages with getActionMessages
TagUtils.getProperty
- Replace usages with PropertyUtils.getProperty
ResponseUtils.write
- Replace usages with TagUtils.write
ResponseUtils.writePrevious
- Replace usages with TagUtils.writePrevious
RequestUtils and ResponseUtils usages not covered above
- Replace RequestUtils.* or ResponseUtils.* usages with TagUtils.getInstance().*

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Tags: how-to

DRAFT INT-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 20:03:47 GMT

Revision 12 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 1/7/2018 8:03:47 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java).
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
JSP Replacements
Cancellable Actions
Java API Changes
Notes

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>
Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Action.perform
- Replace usages with Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
- Replace usages with ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator)
- Replace usages with ValidatorUtils (namespace: org.apache.commons.validator.util)
org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator
- Replace usages with org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator
The org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles namespace
- Replace usages with org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib
DataSourceConfig
- Remove usages
Action.defaultLocale
- Replace usages with Locale.getDefault
Action.getDataSource
- Remove usages
Action.LOCALE_KEY
- Replace usages with Globals.LOCALE_KEY
Action.saveErrors called with ActionErrors parameter
- Call with ActionMessages parameter instead
- E.g. saveErrors(... actionErrors ...) becomes saveErrors(... actionMessages...)
ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR
- Replace usages with ActionMessage.GLOBAL_MESSAGE
ActionErrors.add called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. add(... actionError …) becomes add(... actionMessage …)
ActionForward constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call without contextRelative parameter
- E.g. ActionForward(... contextRelative …) becomes ActionForward(...)
DynaActionFormClass.clear
- Remove usages
ExceptionHandler.storeException called with ActionError parameter
- Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
- E.g. storeException(... actionError …) becomes storeException(... actionMessage …)
RequestProcessor.log
- Remove or use Commons Logging class instead
FormBeanConfig.setDynamic
- Remove usages
ForwardConfig.contextRelative
- Replace usages with module
ForwardConfig constructor called with contextRelative parameter
- Call with module parameter instead
- E.g. ForwardConfig(... contextRelative …) becomes ForwardConfig(... module ...)
ModuleException.error
- Replace usages with message
ModuleException.getError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
MultipartRequestWrapper.getRequest
- Now returns ServletRequestWrapper instead of HttpServletRequest
- Note: Casting to HttpServletRequest is safe
validator.Resources.SERVLET_CONTEXT_KEY
- Replace usages with SERVLET_CONTEXT_PARAM
validator.Resources.HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_KEY
- Replace usages with HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_PARAM
validator.Resources.ACTION_ERRORS_KEY
- Replace usages with ACTION_MESSAGES_PARAM
validator.Resources.getLocale
- Replace usages with RequestUtils.getUserLocale
validator.Resources.getActionError
- Replace usages with getActionMessage
RequestUtils.computeURL
- Replace usages with TagUtils.computeURL
RequestUtils.selectModule
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.selectModule
RequestUtils.getModuleName
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleName
RequestUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
- Replace with ModuleUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
RequestUtils.saveException
- Replace usages with TagUtils.saveException
RequestUtils.getModuleConfig
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleConfig
RequestUtils.getModulePrefixes
- Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModulePrefixes
MessageTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
BaseHandlerTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
JavascriptValidatorTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
OptionTag.defaultLocale
- Remove usages
ErrorsTag.lineEnd
- Remove usages
HtmlTag.getCurrentLocale
- Remove usages
ImgTag.isContextRelativeSet
- Remove usages
ImgTag.lowsrc
- Remove usages
TagUtils.getActionErrors
- Replace usages with getActionMessages
TagUtils.getProperty
- Replace usages with PropertyUtils.getProperty
ResponseUtils.write
- Replace usages with TagUtils.write
ResponseUtils.writePrevious
- Replace usages with TagUtils.writePrevious
RequestUtils and ResponseUtils usages not covered above

Replace RequestUtils.* or ResponseUtils.* usages with TagUtils.getInstance().*

Replace	With
`Action.perform`	`Action.execute`
`ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)`	`ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)`
`ValidatorUtil (namespace org.apache.commons.validator)`	`ValidatorUtils (namespace org.apache.commons.validator.util)`
`org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator`	`org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator`
`org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles`	`org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib`
`DataSourceConfig`
`Action.defaultLocale`	`Locale.getDefault`
`Action.getDataSource`
`Action.LOCALE_KEY`	`Globals.LOCALE_KEY`
`Action.saveErrors` called with `ActionErrors` parameter	Call with `ActionMessages` parameter instead
`ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR`	`ActionMessage.GLOBAL_MESSAGE`
`ActionErrors.add` called with `ActionError` parameter	Call with `ActionMessage` parameter instead
ActionForward constructor called with contextRelative parameter	Call without contextRelative parameter

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Tags: how-to

DRAFT INT-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 19:48:01 GMT

Revision 11 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 1/7/2018 7:48:01 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java).
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
JSP Replacements
Cancellable Actions
Java API Changes
Notes

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>
Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Replace	With
`Action.perform`	`Action.execute`
`ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)`	`ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)`
`ValidatorUtil (namespace org.apache.commons.validator)`	`ValidatorUtils (namespace org.apache.commons.validator.util)`
`org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator`	`org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator`
`org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles`	`org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib`
`DataSourceConfig`
`Action.defaultLocale`	`Locale.getDefault`
`Action.getDataSource`
`Action.LOCALE_KEY`	`Globals.LOCALE_KEY`

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Tags: how-to

DRAFT INT-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 19:43:04 GMT

Revision 10 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 1/7/2018 7:43:04 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java).
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
Web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
JSP Replacements
Cancellable Actions
Java API Changes
Notes

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>

Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Replace	With
`Action.perform`	`Action.execute`
`ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)`	`ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)`
`ValidatorUtil (namespace org.apache.commons.validator)`	`ValidatorUtils (namespace org.apache.commons.validator.util)`
`org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator`	`org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator`
`org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles`	`org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib`
`DataSourceConfig`
`Action.defaultLocale`	`Locale.getDefault`
`Action.getDataSource`
`Action.LOCALE_KEY`	`Globals.LOCALE_KEY`

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Tags: how-to

DRAFT INT-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 19:34:24 GMT

Revision 9 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 1/7/2018 7:34:24 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java).
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
Web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
1. Search for all Struts Configuration Files
2. Add message-resources tag
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
1. [Uncommon] XML Structure Changes
2. Validating Your Struts Configuration Files
JSP Replacements
Notes

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>

Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Replace	With
`Action.perform`	`Action.execute`
`ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)`	`ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)`
`ValidatorUtil (namespace org.apache.commons.validator)`	`ValidatorUtils (namespace org.apache.commons.validator.util)`
`org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator`	`org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator`
`org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles`	`org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib`
`DataSourceConfig`
`Action.defaultLocale`	`Locale.getDefault`
`Action.getDataSource`
`Action.LOCALE_KEY`	`Globals.LOCALE_KEY`

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Tags: how-to

DRAFT INT-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Sun, 07 Jan 2018 19:32:17 GMT

Revision 8 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 1/7/2018 7:32:17 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java).
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
Web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
1. Search for all Struts Configuration Files
2. Add message-resources tag
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
1. [Uncommon] XML Structure Changes
2. Validating Your Struts Configuration Files
JSP Replacements
Notes

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>

Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Replace	With
`Action.perform`	`Action.execute`
`ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)`	`ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)`
`ValidatorUtil (namespace org.apache.commons.validator)`	`ValidatorUtils (namespace org.apache.commons.validator.util)`
`org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator`	`org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator`
`org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles`	`org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib`
`DataSourceConfig`
`Action.defaultLocale`	`Locale.getDefault`
`Action.getDataSource`
`Action.LOCALE_KEY`	`Globals.LOCALE_KEY`

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian Technical Support for additional questions.

Tags: how-to

DRAFT INT-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 01:33:00 GMT

Revision 1 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 12/22/2017 1:33:00 AM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide is intended to provide a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are as follows:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customer customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java).
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs

If your customizations require copying Core Struts JARs to other folders (an uncommon scenario), please note that Struts now consists of multiple jars, including core, el, tiles, taglib, and extras.

Web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. For example, look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>

<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>

Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: if you have a github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this: <init-param> <param-name>application</param-name> <param-value>resources.application</param-value></init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>chainConfig</param-name>
  <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value>
  </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize. This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content. This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale. This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize. This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache. This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass. This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir. This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory. This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null. This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
  If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files. Example:
  You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
  <param-value>1G</param-value>
  </init-param>
  You would remove this parameter, and then add an equivalent set-property element the inside the <controller> element in your customized version of struts-config-framework.xml, like so:
  <controller>
  ...
  <set-property property="maxFileSize" value="1G" />
  </controller>

DRAFT INT-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 21:57:35 GMT

Revision 7 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 12/21/2017 9:57:35 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java).
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
Web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
1. Search for all Struts Configuration Files
2. Add message-resources tag
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
1. [Uncommon] XML Structure Changes
2. Validating Your Struts Configuration Files
JSP Replacements

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>

Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-html`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic`
`http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles`	`http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles`
`/WEB-INF/c.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core`
`/WEB-INF/fmt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt`
`/WEB-INF/sql.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql`
`/WEB-INF/x.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml`
`/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt`
`/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt`
`/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt`
`/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld`	`http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt`

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Replace	With
`Action.perform`	`Action.execute`
`ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)`	`ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)`
`ValidatorUtil (namespace org.apache.commons.validator)`	`ValidatorUtils (namespace org.apache.commons.validator.util)`
`org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator`	`org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator`
`org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles`	`org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib`
`DataSourceConfig`
`Action.defaultLocale`	`Locale.getDefault`
`Action.getDataSource`
`Action.LOCALE_KEY`	`Globals.LOCALE_KEY`

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian support for additional questions.

DRAFT INT-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 21:37:15 GMT

Revision 6 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 12/21/2017 9:37:15 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java).
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
Web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
1. Search for all Struts Configuration Files
2. Add message-resources tag
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
1. [Uncommon] XML Structure Changes
2. Validating Your Struts Configuration Files
JSP Replacements

Core Struts JARs

web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. E.g., look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>

Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: If you have a Github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  - This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  - This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files.

For example:

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

After updating the XML file to point to the new DTD, open the XML file in a editor that verifies the XML against its DTD (e.g. IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, Visual Studio) and confirm that there are no errors. If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:

ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace	With
http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean	http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean
http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested	http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested
http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html	http://struts.apache.org/tags-html
http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic	http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic
http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles	http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles
/WEB-INF/c.tld	http://java.sun.com/jstl/core
/WEB-INF/fmt.tld	http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt
/WEB-INF/sql.tld	http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql
/WEB-INF/x.tld	http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml
/WEB-INF/c-rt.tld	http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt
/WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld	http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt
/WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld	http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt
/WEB-INF/x-rt.tld	http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt

Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean with http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean
Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested with http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested
Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html with http://struts.apache.org/tags-html
Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic with http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic
Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles with http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles
Replace /WEB-INF/c.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/core
Replace /WEB-INF/fmt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt
Replace /WEB-INF/sql.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql
Replace /WEB-INF/x.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml
Replace /WEB-INF/c-rt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt
Replace /WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt
Replace /WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt
Replace /WEB-INF/x-rt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

If you find these attributes, check the struts-config-*.xml file containing the action configuration corresponding to this JSP file. If the corresponding action already has these parameters defined with the same values, no further action is necessary. Otherwise, add these parameters to the action mapping.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You find the corresponding Struts Configuration file that contains the action mapping for the referenced action:
<action path="/admin/data/updateDashboard" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" name="dashboardForm" scope="request">
...
</action>

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Unfortunately, we haven't found a good way to statically determine if an action is cancellable. It is recommended that you manually verify that performing (and cancelling if possible) every custom action in the GUI does not result in errors. However, if a less intensive approach is needed, setting cancellable="true" on every custom action may be acceptable.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Replace	With
Action.perform	Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)	ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace org.apache.commons.validator)	ValidatorUtils (namespace org.apache.commons.validator.util)

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian support for additional questions.

DRAFT INT-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 21:03:51 GMT

Revision 5 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 12/21/2017 9:03:51 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java).
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
Web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
1. [Uncommon] XML Structure Changes
2. Validating Your Struts Configuration Files
JSP Replacements

Core Struts JARs

If your customizations require copying Core Struts JARs to other folders (an uncommon scenario), please note that Struts now consists of multiple jars, including core, el, tiles, taglib, and extras.

Web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. For example, look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>

<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>

Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: if you have a github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files. For example,

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

You would remove this parameter, and then add an equivalent set-property element the inside the <controller> element in your customized version of struts-config-framework.xml, like so:
<controller>
...
<set-property property="maxFileSize" value="1G" />
</controller>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Document Type Definition (*.DTD) files are used to verify that Struts Configuration Files (struts-config-*.xml) are correct. Struts configuration files declare what DTD verification file to use at the top of the XML file. These declarations need to be updated to point to the latest DTD.

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

Example Error: If you fail to construct the XML appropriately, you may get an app server error like this:
ERROR org.apache.commons.digester.Digester - Parse Error at line X column Y: The content of element type "struts-config" must match "(display-name?,description?,form-beans?,global-exceptions?,global-forwards?,action-mappings?,controller?,message-resources*,plug-in*)".

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean with http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean
Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested with http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested
Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html with http://struts.apache.org/tags-html
Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic with http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic
Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles with http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles
Replace /WEB-INF/c.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/core
Replace /WEB-INF/fmt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt
Replace /WEB-INF/sql.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql
Replace /WEB-INF/x.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml
Replace /WEB-INF/c-rt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt
Replace /WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt
Replace /WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt
Replace /WEB-INF/x-rt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Unfortunately, we haven't found a good way to statically determine if an action is cancellable. It is recommended that you manually verify that performing (and cancelling if possible) every custom action in the GUI does not result in errors. However, if a less intensive approach is needed, setting cancellable="true" on every custom action may be acceptable.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Replace	With
Action.perform	Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)	ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace org.apache.commons.validator)	ValidatorUtils (namespace org.apache.commons.validator.util)

Notes

Any URIs seen in this document are internal to the Appian product. E.g. Usages of jakarta.apache.org or struts.apache.org do not point to an external resource from the web.
The instructions in this document were put together by upgrading a common set of customizations and may not cover your particular situation. For additional information on how to upgrade struts customizations, see https://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsUpgrade and contact Appian support for additional questions.

DRAFT INT-XXXX How to update legacy customizations

Parmida Borhani — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 21:01:42 GMT

Revision 4 posted to Appian Knowledge Base by Parmida Borhani on 12/21/2017 9:01:42 PM

Purpose

The Struts library and its dependencies have been upgraded in Appian 18.1. This guide provides a set of instructions that users can follow to update existing legacy customizations.

The library version changes are:

Struts: 1.1 to 1.3.10-20.fc27 (provided by Fedora)
Taglibs: 1.0.6 to 1.2.3
Commons-chain: 1.1 to 1.2
Commons-beanutils: 1.8.0 to 1.9.3
Commons-digester: 1.5 to 1.8
Oro: 2.0.6 to 2.0.8

This legacy library upgrade affects customizations in the following types of files:

Struts configuration files (struts-config-*.xml)
Tag Library Descriptors (*.tld)
Java Server Pages (*.jsp)
Struts Actions (*.java).
web.xml

Instructions

Core Struts JARs
Web.xml Changes
Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File
Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File
1. [Uncommon] XML Structure Changes
2. Validating Your Struts Configuration Files
JSP Replacements

Core Struts JARs

If your customizations require copying Core Struts JARs to other folders (an uncommon scenario), please note that Struts now consists of multiple jars, including core, el, tiles, taglib, and extras.

Web.xml Changes

If you are using a custom web.xml file that overwrites the web.xml provided by Appian (an uncommon scenario), you will need to make the following changes.

Find the Struts Action Servlet in the web.xml file. For example, look for:

<servlet-name>action</servlet-name>

<servlet-class>com.appiancorp.common.struts.AppianActionServlet</servlet-class>

Make the same changes as found in the Appian-provided web.xml. Note: if you have a github branch that you merge with Appian to get Appian's changes, this step will happen when you merge the branches.
1. Remove the debug parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>debug</param-name>
  <param-value>2</param-value>
  </init-param>
2. Remove the application parameter from the action servlet. It looks like this:
  <init-param>
  <param-name>application</param-name>
  <param-value>resources.application</param-value>
  </init-param>
3. Add the following chainConfig parameter to the action servlet:<init-param> <param-name>chainConfig</param-name> <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value> </init-param>
[Uncommon] Address any additional customizations you have made to the Struts Action Servlet. The following <init-param> entries are no longer supported and should be removed:
- mapping
- bufferSize
  This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- content
  This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file, under the name contentType.
- locale
  This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- maxFileSize
  This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- nocache
  This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- multipartClass
  This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- tempDir
  This is now supported by the <controller> element in the Framework Struts Configuration file.
- factory
  This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.
- null
  This is now supported by the <message-resources> element in Struts Configuration files.

If you need to preserve the same functionality that these unsupported parameters were providing, they must be added to the appropriate Struts Configuration Files. For example,

You find this parameter inside your action servlet:
<init-param>
<param-name>maxFileSize</param-name>
<param-value>1G</param-value>
</init-param>

Add a Default Message Resource to Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Due to the removal of the application init-param from the Struts Action Servlet as described in the previous section, a message-resources tag must be added to every Struts Configuration File.

Search for all Struts Configuration Files. All Struts Configuration Files must start with struts-config-, so searching your customization directories for file names that match the form struts-config-*.xml should provide a list of files to update.
Add message-resources tag. Add the following line to every Struts Configuration File that you have:

<message-resources parameter="resources.application"/>

This line must be added after the <action-mappings> tag, but before any <plug-in> tag and before the closing </struts-config> tag. Be sure to validate that your XML is still valid, as described in the next section.

Use the Latest DTD Validators in Every Custom Struts Configuration File

Note the change in two numbers as well as the path to the DTD.

[Uncommon] XML Structure Changes

The debug parameter of the <controller> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The dynamic parameter of the <form-bean> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The contextRelative parameter of the <forward> element is no longer supported and should be removed.
The <data-sources> and <data-source> elements are no longer supported and should be removed.

Validating Your Struts Configuration Files

JSP Replacements

URI Replacements

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check for the following:

Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-bean with http://struts.apache.org/tags-bean
Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-nested with http://struts.apache.org/tags-nested
Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-html with http://struts.apache.org/tags-html
Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-logic with http://struts.apache.org/tags-logic
Replace http://jakarta.apache.org/struts/tags-tiles with http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles
Replace /WEB-INF/c.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/core
Replace /WEB-INF/fmt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt
Replace /WEB-INF/sql.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql
Replace /WEB-INF/x.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml
Replace /WEB-INF/c-rt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt
Replace /WEB-INF/fmt-rt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt_rt
Replace /WEB-INF/sql-rt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql_rt
Replace /WEB-INF/x-rt.tld with http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml_rt

Example 1: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/c.tld" prefix="c" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Example 2: replace
<%@ taglib uri="/WEB-INF/fmt.tld" prefix="fmt" %>
with
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>
in every JSP where it is found.

Replace Attributes of Form Tag

Search all JSP files in your customization directories and check usages of the <form> tag. The name, scope, and type attributes are no longer supported and should be removed.

Example:
You find this form in one of your JSPs:
<form name="dashboardForm" type="com.appiancorp.record.admin.UpdateDashboard" action="/admin/data/updateDashboard.do" scope="request">

You confirm that the name, type, and scope parameters match the values specified on the form. Then, you remove those parameters from the form.

Other Attribute Replacements

Replace the name attribute of the bean:include tag with page
Replace the locale attribute of the html tag with lang
Replace the contextRelative attribute of the img tag with module

Cancellable Actions

Struts actions which are cancellable now need to be specified as such in their corresponding Struts Configuration File.

Where necessary, add the property and value cancellable="true" to the action:
<action path="..."
type="..."
name="..."
scope="..." >
cancellable="true">

Attempting to cancel an action which is not cancellable will result in an InvalidCancelException.

Unfortunately, we haven't found a good way to statically determine if an action is cancellable. It is recommended that you manually verify that performing (and cancelling if possible) every custom action in the GUI does not result in errors. However, if a less intensive approach is needed, setting cancellable="true" on every custom action may be acceptable.

Java API Changes

Search all Java and JSP files in your customization directories for the following replacements:

Action.perform
- Replace usages with Action.execute
ActionError (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
- Replace usages with ActionMessage (namespace: org.apache.struts.action)
ValidatorUtil (namespace org.apache.commons.validator)
Replace usages with ValidatorUtils (namespace org.apache.commons.validator.util)
org.apache.commons.validator.EmailValidator
Replace usages with org.apache.commons.validator.routines.EmailValidator
The org.apache.struts.taglib.tiles namespace
Replace usages with org.apache.struts.tiles.taglib
DataSourceConfig
Remove usages
Action.defaultLocale
Replace usages with Locale.getDefault
Action.getDataSource
Remove usages
Action.LOCALE_KEY
Replace usages with Globals.LOCALE_KEY
Action.saveErrors called with ActionErrors parameter
Call with ActionMessages parameter instead
E.g. saveErrors(... actionErrors ...) becomes saveErrors(... actionMessages...)
ActionErrors.GLOBAL_ERROR
Replace usages with ActionMessage.GLOBAL_MESSAGE
ActionErrors.add called with ActionError parameter
Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
E.g. add(... actionError …) becomes add(... actionMessage …)
ActionForward constructor called with contextRelative parameter
Call without contextRelative parameter
E.g. ActionForward(... contextRelative …) becomes ActionForward(...)
DynaActionFormClass.clear
Remove usages
ExceptionHandler.storeException called with ActionError parameter
Call with ActionMessage parameter instead
E.g. storeException(... actionError …) becomes storeException(... actionMessage …)
RequestProcessor.log
Remove or use Commons Logging class instead
FormBeanConfig.setDynamic
Remove usages
ForwardConfig.contextRelative
Replace usages with module
ForwardConfig constructor called with contextRelative parameter
Call with module parameter instead
E.g. ForwardConfig(... contextRelative …) becomes ForwardConfig(... module ...)
ModuleException.error
Replace usages with message
ModuleException.getError
Replace usages with getActionMessage
MultipartRequestWrapper.getRequest
Now returns ServletRequestWrapper instead of HttpServletRequest
Note: Casting to HttpServletRequest is safe
validator.Resources.SERVLET_CONTEXT_KEY
Replace usages with SERVLET_CONTEXT_PARAM
validator.Resources.HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_KEY
Replace usages with HTTP_SERVLET_REQUEST_PARAM
validator.Resources.ACTION_ERRORS_KEY
Replace usages with ACTION_MESSAGES_PARAM
validator.Resources.getLocale
Replace usages with RequestUtils.getUserLocale
validator.Resources.getActionError
Replace usages with getActionMessage
RequestUtils.computeURL
Replace usages with TagUtils.computeURL
RequestUtils.selectModule
Replace usages with ModuleUtils.selectModule
RequestUtils.getModuleName
Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleName
RequestUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
Replace with ModuleUtils.getRequestModuleConfig
RequestUtils.saveException
Replace usages with TagUtils.saveException
RequestUtils.getModuleConfig
Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModuleConfig
RequestUtils.getModulePrefixes
Replace usages with ModuleUtils.getModulePrefixes
MessageTag.defaultLocale
Remove usages
BaseHandlerTag.defaultLocale
Remove usages
ErrorsTag.defaultLocale
Remove usages
JavascriptValidatorTag.defaultLocale
Remove usages
OptionTag.defaultLocale
Remove usages
ErrorsTag.lineEnd
Remove usages
HtmlTag.getCurrentLocale
Remove usages
ImgTag.isContextRelativeSet
Remove usages
ImgTag.lowsrc
Remove usages
TagUtils.getActionErrors
Replace usages with getActionMessages
TagUtils.getProperty
Replace usages with PropertyUtils.getProperty
ResponseUtils.write
Replace usages with TagUtils.write
ResponseUtils.writePrevious
Replace usages with TagUtils.writePrevious
RequestUtils and ResponseUtils usages not covered above
Replace RequestUtils.* or ResponseUtils.* usages with TagUtils.getInstance().*