The SquizLog

Combining Struts, Velocity and SiteMesh

Design choices in J2EE inevitably involve making choices between tools. When considering tools that a development team hasn't used before, caution is warranted due to the learning curve and the lure of learning new tools at the expense of the project's goals.

As Robert Glass asserts in his Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering:

Hype (about tools and techniques) is the plague on the house of software (Fact 5); and
New tools and techniques cause an initial loss of productivity/quality (Fact 6)

Nevertheless, I have read good reports of Velocity and SiteMesh, both candidates to be combined with Struts, which the team already knows very well. Additionally, Sing Li has written about how easy it is to integrate Velocity with Struts. And SiteMesh supports Velocity decorators.

I need to explore this more. Meanwhile, I would appreciate feedback from anyone who has tried this combination.

Posted to Software Development by Keith Pitty