Struts2 jQuery Plugin

A Plugin for the popular java web framework struts2 to provide ajax functionality and UI Widgets based on the jQuery javascript framework.

[Download] (https://oss.sonatype.org/content/groups/staging/com/jgeppert/struts2/jquery/)

[News and Developer Blog] (https://www.jgeppert.com)

[Showcase] (https://struts.jgeppert.com/struts2-jquery-showcase/)

[Showcase Grid Plugin] (https://struts.jgeppert.com/struts2-jquery-grid-showcase/)

[Sample TODO app based on Bootstrap, jQuery and jQuery Mobile] (https://github.com/jogep/struts2-todo-examples/)

[Wiki - Documentation] (https://github.com/struts-community-plugins/struts2-jquery/wiki)

Installation

How can I use the Plugin?

• Download the struts2-jquery-plugin-x.x.x.jar
• Put it into your Classpath (WEB-INF/lib)
• Add the Tag-Lib to your JSP <%@ taglib prefix="sj" uri="/struts-jquery-tags"%>
• Place the [HeadTag Head Tag] inside your html head tags

versions and compatibility

struts2-jquery version	struts2 version	Java version
6.1.0	version >= 7.2.1	version >= 17
6.0.0	version >= 7.0.0	version >= 17
5.0.7	version >= 6.7.0	version >= 1.8
5.0.6	version >= 6.6.0	version >= 1.8
5.0.2	version >= 6.1	version >= 1.8
5.0.0	version >= 6.0	version >= 1.8
4.0.3	version >= 2.5	version >= 1.7
3.7.1	2.3.16 <= version <= 2.3.31	version >= 1.5

As a general rule of thumb, it's advised to upgrade to the latest version within the same major version range. This should avoid bugs and vulnerabilities that already got fixed in more recent versions.

See Changelog for more information

How can I use the Plugin from Maven?

Since version 1.8.3 the plugin is found in the central Maven repository. Just add to your dependencies section:

<dependencies>
    ...
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.jgeppert.struts2.jquery</groupId>
        <artifactId>struts2-jquery-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>6.0.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.jgeppert.struts2.jquery</groupId>
        <artifactId>struts2-jquery-grid-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>6.0.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.jgeppert.struts2.jquery</groupId>
        <artifactId>struts2-jquery-datatables-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>6.0.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.jgeppert.struts2.jquery</groupId>
        <artifactId>struts2-jquery-richtext-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>6.0.2</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>com.jgeppert.struts2.jquery</groupId>
        <artifactId>struts2-jquery-tree-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>6.0.2</version>
    </dependency>
    ...
</dependencies>

To access SNAPSHOT builds, you need to declare the snapshot repository lookup in your pom.xml:

...
<repositories>
    ...
  <repository>
    <name>Central Portal Snapshots</name>
    <id>central-portal-snapshots</id>
    <url>https://central.sonatype.com/repository/maven-snapshots/</url>
    <releases>
      <enabled>false</enabled>
    </releases>
    <snapshots>
      <enabled>true</enabled>
    </snapshots>
  </repository>
</repositories>
...

WebJars

Since Struts 7.3.0 WebJars are supported by struts2-core itself, so any application built on struts2-jquery 6.x can serve client-side libraries straight from a WebJar without extra plumbing. org.webjars:webjars-locator-lite is a transitive dependency of struts2-core — nothing else needs to be added to the classpath.

Declare the WebJar you want:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.webjars</groupId>
    <artifactId>jquery</artifactId>
    <version>3.7.1</version>
</dependency>

Its assets are then served below the Struts static content path, under /webjars/**. Both the version-less and the versioned form resolve to the same resource:

/<context>/static/webjars/jquery/jquery.min.js
/<context>/static/webjars/jquery/3.7.1/jquery.min.js

Rather than hardcoding the URL, use the <s:webjar> tag from the Struts tag library. It takes a version-less path and renders the full, versioned URL including the context path:

<%@ taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags" %>

<script src="<s:webjar path='jquery/jquery.min.js'/>"></script>

renders

<script src="/myapp/static/webjars/jquery/3.7.1/jquery.min.js"></script>

The tag also accepts var, to put the URL on the value stack instead of writing it out:

<s:webjar path="jquery/jquery.min.js" var="jqueryUrl"/>

Two settings control the feature:

Setting	Default	Description
struts.webjars.enabled	true	Master switch for resolving and serving WebJar assets
struts.webjars.allowlist	empty	Comma-separated list of WebJar names to expose; empty means all

In a hardened setup it is worth restricting the allowlist to the WebJars you actually use:

struts.webjars.allowlist=jquery,jquery-ui

Note that the <sj:head> tag continues to serve the jQuery and jQuery UI copies bundled inside struts2-jquery-plugin, and is not affected by these settings. WebJars are the recommended way to add further client-side libraries to your application.