Struts is an open source project. The goal of this project is to provide an open source framework for building Java web applications.

The core of the Struts framework is a flexible control layer based on standard technologies like Java Servlets, JavaBeans, ResourceBundles, and XML, as well as various Jakarta Commons packages. Struts encourages application architectures based on the Model 2 approach, a variation of the classic Model-View-Controller (MVC) design paradigm. And provides services common to most Web applications. Struts helps developers deploy products that are reliable, scaleable, and easier to maintain.

Why Struts?

Centralized File-Based Configuration
Rather then hard-coding information into Java programs, many Struts values are represented in XML or property files. This loose coupling means that many changes can be made without modifying or recompiling Java code, and that wholesale changes can be made by editing a single file. This approach also lets Java and Web developers focus on their specific tasks (implementing business logic, presenting certain values to clients, etc.) without needing to know about the overall system layout.

HTML Tags
Apache Struts provides a set of custom JSP tags to create HTML forms that are associated with JavaBeans components. This bean/form association serves two useful purposes:

• It lets you get initial form-field values from Java objects.
• Complex application gets a lot less complicated with Struts

Consistent Approach
Struts encourages consistent use of MVC throughout application.

Integration
Struts provides its own Controller component and integrates with other technologies to provide the Model and the View. For the Model, Struts can interact with standard data access technologies, like JDBC and EJB. For the View, Struts works well with JavaServer Pages, including JSTL and JSF, as well as Velocity Templates, XSLT, and other presentation systems.

Above features and advantages provides following business benefits

• Cuts way down on web application development time,
• Reduced time to market and overall cost of development application.
• Complex application gets a lot less complicated with Struts

The Struts framework provides the invisible underpinnings every professional web application needs to survive. Struts helps you create an extensible development environment for your application, based on published standards and proven design patterns.