Struts from Square One: Part 1, Text Complete

There's still the last mile to go, but at least the text for part one has reached its first full draft. Now, it's down to fussing with the figures. :)

From the GoogleCode site:

Apache Struts 2 from Square One is a training course designed for people who want to create Java web applications, not just quickly, but correctly. Training sessions include a technology primer and a coding exercise. This Project hosts materials used by the course including slide presentations, coding exercises, and a companion text book. The course can be used for independant study or in a classroom setting.

As mentioned, the course is something Ted Husted developed over the years for Struts 1, and then adapted for WebWork 2, and now for Struts 2. The course itself is the usual "slides and labs" affair.

Apache Struts 2 from Square One is a textbook adaptation of the course. We'd like to print the text through LuLu.com and include it as part of the course. If people want to use the textbook for individual homestudy, that's fine too. Eventually, what we started at the Struts University site will be migrated to the Square One GoogleCode site.

With Struts 2 in GA mode, we'll have a bit more time to work on this, but there's no telling how long it will take to finish the other three parts.

In the meantime, an early release of the manuscript is available as a PDF. Enjoy!

Apache Struts 2 from Square One

The Apache Struts 2 from Square One Google Code site hosts materials used by Ted Husted's training course including slide presentations, coding exercises, and a companion textbook. The text is new, but the slides and other materials have been available at the Struts University site for some time.

The course is something that Ted has been creating through successive refinement. When Struts first came out, people asked him to come in for "Train the Trainer" sessions, where consultants wanted to learn Struts so they could teach it to their clients and other consultants. Then, it was direct requests from development teams who wanted to jumpstart a new project using Struts. By the time Struts 1.2 came around, people were asking Ted to come in and review what they've been doing in Struts, to see if they were on the right track.

On each trip, he'd create a new session or improve an old session, and eventually it all evolved into a course based on the Struts MailReader application. The course has now made the jump to Struts 2, and we're working on a companion text to the original training materials, which might be offered through LuLu when it's "ready for primetime".

An early and incomplete draft of Part 1 of the book ('Carpe Diem') is available for download. The complete set of slides and other materials are available through the Struts University site. There's even a new Google Group for questions and feedback.

Of course, although the text is a work in progress, the live course is complete, and has been presented several times. Drop by Struts Mentor for more about the live course.

Many thanks to the Google Code ninjas who are making project hosting possible for grunts like me. There are rough edges still, but we can see where Google Code is going, and we're happy to tag along for the ride.