Struts actions and action mappings
A Struts action is an instance of a subclass of an Action class, which implements a portion of a Web application and whose perform or execute method returns a forward.
An action can perform tasks such as validating a user name and password (see /login in struts-config.xml in the struts-example sample application or performing a computation (see /computeDay in Creating a simple Struts application).
An action mapping is a configuration file entry that, in general, associates an action name with an action. An action mapping can contain a reference to a form bean that the action can use, and can additionally define a list of local forwards that is visible only to this action.
An action servlet is a servlet that is started by the servlet container of a Web server to process a request that invokes an action. The servlet receives a forward from the action and asks the servlet container to pass the request to the forward's URL. An action servlet must be an instance of an org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet class or of a subclass of that class. An action servlet is the primary component of the controller. To create a Struts application, configure an action servlet in the application's deployment descriptor.
Struts actions do not require a form.
Related concepts
Servlets
Struts development tools
Struts form beans and form-bean mappings
Struts forwards
Struts configuration files
Related tasks
Creating Web diagrams
Creating Struts actions
Creating Struts action mappings
Loading prebuilt Struts sample applications
Related reference
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