Struts 2 - The Text Tag

The text tag is a generic tag that is used to render a I18n text message. Follow one of the three steps −

The message must be in a resource bundle with the same name as the action that it is associated with. In practice this means that you should create a properties file in the same package as your Java class with the same name as your class, but with .properties extension.
If the named message is not found, then the body of the tag will be used as default message.
If no body is used, then the name of the message will be used.

Let us check the following example to understand the usage of text tag −

Create Action Classes

package com.tutorialspoint.struts2;

public class HelloWorldAction {
   private String name;

   public String execute() throws Exception {
      return "success";
   }
   
   public String getName() {
      return name;
   }

   public void setName(String name) {
      this.name = name;
   }
}

Create Views

Let us have HelloWorld.jsp with the following content −

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

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" 
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

<html>
   <head>
      <title>Text Tag Example</title>
   </head>
   
   <body>      
      <s:i18n name = "HelloWorldAction">
         <s:text name = "name.success"/><br>
         <s:text name = "name.xyz">Message doesn't exists</s:text><br>
         <s:text name = "name.msg.param">
            <s:param >ZARA</s:param>
         </s:text>
      </s:i18n>
   </body>
</html>

Configuration Files

Let us create a property file with the same name as of your action class package name. So in this case we will create HelloWorldAction.properties file and keep in the class path −

name.success = This is success message
name.msg.param = The param example - param : {0}

Your struts.xml should look like −

<?xml version = "1.0" Encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE struts PUBLIC
   "-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 2.0//EN"
   "http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-2.0.dtd">

<struts>
   <constant name = "struts.devMode" value = "true" />
   <constant name = "struts.custom.i18n.resources" value = "ApplicationResources"/>
   
   <package name = "helloaction" extends = "struts-default">
      <action name = "hello" 
         class = "com.tutorialspoint.struts2.HelloWorldAction" 
         method = "execute">
         <result name = "success">/HelloWorld.jsp</result>
      </action>
   </package>
</struts>

Your web.xml should look like −

<?xml version = "1.0" Encoding = "UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi = "http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
   xmlns = "http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" 
   xmlns:web = "http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"
   xsi:schemaLocation = "http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee 
   http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_0.xsd"
   id = "WebApp_ID" version = "3.0">
   
   <display-name>Struts 2</display-name>
   
   <welcome-file-list>
      <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
   </welcome-file-list>
   
   <filter>
      <filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
      <filter-class>
         org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.FilterDispatcher
      </filter-class>
   </filter>

   <filter-mapping>
      <filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
      <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
   </filter-mapping>
</web-app>

Right click on the project name and click Export > WAR File to create a War file. Then deploy this WAR in the Tomcat's webapps directory. Finally, start Tomcat server and try to access URL http://localhost:8080/HelloWorldStruts2/hello.action. This will produce the following screen −

struts_data_tags.htm