Struts2 dispatchaction example

The DispatchAction Functionality is a way of grouping the related actions into a single action class. In struts 1 DispatchAction class provides this functionality but in struts 2 every action class by default provide this functionality. To achieve this functionality in struts 2 we have to define the actions with the different names but having the same signature as execute method.

Example:

test.jsp

<%@ taglib uri="/struts-tags" prefix="s"%>
<html>
	<head>
	    <title>Struts 2 dispatch action functionality example</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<h3>This is a dispatch action functionality example.</h3>
 
		<s:form action="TestAction">
			<s:submit value="Submit"/>
			<s:submit value="Show" action="testShow"/>
		</s:form>
 
	</body>
</html>

web.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app version="2.5" 
	xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" 
	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" 
	xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee 
	http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd">
 
 
 	<filter>
		<filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
		<filter-class>
        	org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.
        	filter.StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter
        </filter-class>
	</filter>
 
	<filter-mapping>
		<filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
		<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
	</filter-mapping>
 
	<welcome-file-list>
	  <welcome-file>test.jsp</welcome-file>
	</welcome-file-list>
 
</web-app>

struts.xml

<!DOCTYPE struts PUBLIC
"-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 2.0//EN"
"http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-2.0.dtd">
 
<struts>
 
	<package name="default" extends="struts-default">
		<action name="TestAction" 
                           class="com.w3schools.action.TestAction">
			<result name="success">/welcome.jsp</result>
		</action>
 
		<action name="testShow" method="show" 
                           class="com.w3schools.action.TestAction">
		   <result name="success">/welcome.jsp</result>
		</action>
 
	</package>
 
</struts>

TestAction.java

import com.opensymphony.xwork2.ActionSupport;
 
/**
 * This class is used as an action class.
 * @author w3schools
 */
public class TestAction extends ActionSupport {
	private String message;
 
	public String execute(){
		setMessage("execute method is called.");
		return SUCCESS;
	}
 
	public String show(){
		setMessage("show method is called.");
		return SUCCESS;
	}
 
	public String getMessage() {
		return message;
	}
 
	public void setMessage(String message) {
		this.message = message;
	}	
}

welcome.jsp

<%@ taglib uri="/struts-tags" prefix="s"%>
<html>
	<head>
	    <title>Struts 2 dispatch action functionality example</title>
	</head>
	<body>
		<h3>This is a dispatch action functionality example.</h3>
 
		<s:property value="message" />
 
	</body>
</html>

Output:

struts 26 first

When click on Submit button.
struts 26 second

When click on Show button.
struts 26 third

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