Dependency Injection in Struts2 Accessing Session Scoped Beans

Question

Recently I needed to use DI in Struts2. I know it uses it's own DI implementation like Guice but not Guice, as far as I couldn't find some annotations suitable to set the scope for injected beans. To be short, I created a bean

//@Repository
//@Scope("session")
public class Session {

    private Map<String, Object> map = new HashMap<>();

    public Map<String, Object> getMap() {
        return map;
    }

    public void setMap(Map<String, Object> map) {
        this.map = map;
    }
}

I have commented the annotations used with Spring beans. I was successfully created the same bean via spring DI and set the scope in which my objects were injected. Now, I want to do the same with Struts2 and DI. For this purpose I created the bean definition in struts.xml

<bean name="session" class="jspbean.struts.Session" scope="session"/>

and simple action to get that bean created and injected into my action

public class DefaultAction extends ActionSupport {

    private Session session;

    //  @Autowired
    @Inject("session")
    public void setSession(Session session) {
        this.session = session;
    }

    public Session getSession() {
        return session;
    }

    private Map<String, String> myMap = new HashMap<String, String>();

    public Map<String, String> getMyMap() {
        return myMap;
    }

    public void setMyMap(Map<String, String> myMap) {
        this.myMap = myMap;
    }

    @Override
    public String execute() throws Exception {
        //populate my bean with sample data
        myMap.put("q1", "Question1");
        myMap.put("q2", "Question2");
        session.getMap().put("myMap", myMap);
        return SUCCESS;
    }
}

in the JSP I use simple iterator over session bean

<s:iterator value="session.map['myMap']">
  <s:textfield name="myMap['%{key}']" value="%{value}" theme="simple" size="10" /><br>
</s:iterator>

Now, when I'm running this smple application I've got the exception

Stacktraces
Unable to instantiate Action, jspbean.struts.DefaultAction, defined for '' in namespace '/'java.lang.IllegalStateException: Scope strategy not set. Please call Container.setScopeStrategy().

    com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.createAction(DefaultActionInvocation.java:316)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.init(DefaultActionInvocation.java:397)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionProxy.prepare(DefaultActionProxy.java:194)
    org.apache.struts2.impl.StrutsActionProxy.prepare(StrutsActionProxy.java:63)
    org.apache.struts2.impl.StrutsActionProxyFactory.createActionProxy(StrutsActionProxyFactory.java:39)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionProxyFactory.createActionProxy(DefaultActionProxyFactory.java:58)
    org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.Dispatcher.serviceAction(Dispatcher.java:536)
    org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.ExecuteOperations.executeAction(ExecuteOperations.java:77)
    org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.filter.StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.doFilter(StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.java:91)
    org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
    org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:222)
    org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:123)
    org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:472)
    org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:171)
    org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:99)
    org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:936)
    org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
    org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:407)
    org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1004)
    org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:589)
    org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:312)
    java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
    java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
    java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)


java.lang.RuntimeException: java.lang.IllegalStateException: Scope strategy not set. Please call Container.setScopeStrategy().

    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl$MethodInjector.inject(ContainerImpl.java:301)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl.inject(ContainerImpl.java:492)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl$6.call(ContainerImpl.java:530)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl$6.call(ContainerImpl.java:528)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl.callInContext(ContainerImpl.java:584)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl.inject(ContainerImpl.java:528)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.ObjectFactory.injectInternalBeans(ObjectFactory.java:139)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.spring.SpringObjectFactory.autoWireBean(SpringObjectFactory.java:208)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.spring.SpringObjectFactory.buildBean(SpringObjectFactory.java:183)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.spring.SpringObjectFactory.buildBean(SpringObjectFactory.java:154)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.ObjectFactory.buildBean(ObjectFactory.java:151)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.ObjectFactory.buildAction(ObjectFactory.java:121)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.createAction(DefaultActionInvocation.java:297)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.init(DefaultActionInvocation.java:397)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionProxy.prepare(DefaultActionProxy.java:194)
    org.apache.struts2.impl.StrutsActionProxy.prepare(StrutsActionProxy.java:63)
    org.apache.struts2.impl.StrutsActionProxyFactory.createActionProxy(StrutsActionProxyFactory.java:39)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionProxyFactory.createActionProxy(DefaultActionProxyFactory.java:58)
    org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.Dispatcher.serviceAction(Dispatcher.java:536)
    org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.ExecuteOperations.executeAction(ExecuteOperations.java:77)
    org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.filter.StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.doFilter(StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.java:91)
    org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
    org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:222)
    org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:123)
    org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:472)
    org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:171)
    org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:99)
    org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:936)
    org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
    org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:407)
    org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1004)
    org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:589)
    org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:312)
    java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
    java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
    java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)


java.lang.IllegalStateException: Scope strategy not set. Please call Container.setScopeStrategy().

    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.InternalContext.getScopeStrategy(InternalContext.java:53)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.Scope$5$1.create(Scope.java:130)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl$ParameterInjector.inject(ContainerImpl.java:469)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl.getParameters(ContainerImpl.java:484)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl.access$000(ContainerImpl.java:34)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl$MethodInjector.inject(ContainerImpl.java:299)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl.inject(ContainerImpl.java:492)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl$6.call(ContainerImpl.java:530)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl$6.call(ContainerImpl.java:528)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl.callInContext(ContainerImpl.java:584)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.ContainerImpl.inject(ContainerImpl.java:528)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.ObjectFactory.injectInternalBeans(ObjectFactory.java:139)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.spring.SpringObjectFactory.autoWireBean(SpringObjectFactory.java:208)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.spring.SpringObjectFactory.buildBean(SpringObjectFactory.java:183)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.spring.SpringObjectFactory.buildBean(SpringObjectFactory.java:154)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.ObjectFactory.buildBean(ObjectFactory.java:151)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.ObjectFactory.buildAction(ObjectFactory.java:121)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.createAction(DefaultActionInvocation.java:297)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionInvocation.init(DefaultActionInvocation.java:397)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionProxy.prepare(DefaultActionProxy.java:194)
    org.apache.struts2.impl.StrutsActionProxy.prepare(StrutsActionProxy.java:63)
    org.apache.struts2.impl.StrutsActionProxyFactory.createActionProxy(StrutsActionProxyFactory.java:39)
    com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionProxyFactory.createActionProxy(DefaultActionProxyFactory.java:58)
    org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.Dispatcher.serviceAction(Dispatcher.java:536)
    org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.ExecuteOperations.executeAction(ExecuteOperations.java:77)
    org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.filter.StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.doFilter(StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.java:91)
    org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:243)
    org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:210)
    org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:222)
    org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:123)
    org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:472)
    org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:171)
    org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:99)
    org.apache.catalina.valves.AccessLogValve.invoke(AccessLogValve.java:936)
    org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:118)
    org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:407)
    org.apache.coyote.http11.AbstractHttp11Processor.process(AbstractHttp11Processor.java:1004)
    org.apache.coyote.AbstractProtocol$AbstractConnectionHandler.process(AbstractProtocol.java:589)
    org.apache.tomcat.util.net.JIoEndpoint$SocketProcessor.run(JIoEndpoint.java:312)
    java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(Unknown Source)
    java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(Unknown Source)
    java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)

The exception says that I need to set the scope strategy. So, my question is what is this scope strategy and how it could be implemented in my simple application. Also, there is annotation @Scoped, how this annotations to apply in my case?

My example references:

bean configuration

Another question, do you want to use Guice as DI manager or Spring? — Luiggi Mendoza, Jun 21 '13 at 21:15
Ok. Try moving the `@Injection` annotation to the field, not to the setter as shown [here](http://mahendraunlimited.wordpress.com/2012/10/06/struts2-dependency-injection/). — Luiggi Mendoza, Jun 21 '13 at 21:20
Sorry, was a typo. Move it to the field instead. Did you at least see the link that shows an example of this? After that, did you tried before replying? — Luiggi Mendoza, Jun 21 '13 at 21:25
AFAIK Struts2 internal injection is for framework use only it provides to obvious scopes (obvious when looking at struts-default.xml) and those are "singleton" and "default" (probably created on demand). Out of interest there are efforts to move fully to guice as the internal injection mechanism. In the mean time you'll need to use a third party DI for injection if you require "session" scope. It isn't advised to use the S2 internal machinery in you action classes because this is subject to change and as mentioned there are efforts to change exactly that part. — Quaternion, Jun 21 '13 at 21:36
The old, hacked, internal version of Guice currently used in Struts 2 knows *nothing* about web apps or the servlet spec. As it stands what you want to do is not possible using only S2's DI. If you *must*, then inject a bean *factory* into an interceptor and set the bean into session there, or something similar. — Dave Newton, Jun 21 '13 at 22:07
I don't know of any; after cursory code walking I don't see anything that handles putting config-level session-scoped beans into instantiated actions, but I only spent maybe 15 minutes looking. The config class is in `org.apache.struts2.config.BeanSelectionProvider`; your best bet would be to step through some of that code during startup to see (a) what happens to session-scoped configuration beans during init, e.g., where are they kept, and (b) start looking at the request processing and action instantiation mechanisms to see ... — Dave Newton, Jun 22 '13 at 02:05
... (c) where the injection occurs, and (d) what specifically is happening on the failure to inject session-scoped config beans. Like I said, I'm not aware that scoping them in session actually *works*, but that doesn't mean it *doesn't*. — Dave Newton, Jun 22 '13 at 02:05
This doesn't answer your question, but for alternative session scoping solutions, you could look here https://code.google.com/p/struts2-conversation/wiki/SessionScope (disclaimer, I authored the linked wiki page) — rees, Jun 23 '13 at 15:43
are you using spring-plugin? if yes then set objectfactory to spring and define your actions and your session bean in *-context.xml and use spring DI. If not, try adding type="com.opensymphony.xwork2.ObjectFactory" in above bean entry into struts.xml — Pritesh Shah, Jun 25 '13 at 09:57

Roman C · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-03T13:05:27.337

Let's start from looking what is a Scope.Strategy by looking at the docs. It says

Pluggable scoping strategy. Enables users to provide custom implementations of request, session, and wizard scopes. Implement and pass to Container.setScopeStrategy(com.opensymphony.xwork2.inject.Scope.Strategy)

Ok, assume I want to implement session scope. Then I need to know the place where I could implement it. The framework has it's extension points where where you could plug your extensions or simply extend the default implementation and provide your own custom implementations. This is easy done via looking at the BeanSelectionProvider. Then analyzing the stacktraces I decided the best point would be to extend the DefaultActionProxyFactory. Extending it requires to extend the DefaultActionProxy also.

public class MyActionProxyFactory extends DefaultActionProxyFactory {

    public MyActionProxyFactory() {
        super();
    }

    @Override
    public ActionProxy createActionProxy(ActionInvocation inv, String namespace, String actionName, String methodName, boolean executeResult, boolean cleanupContext) {

        MyActionProxy proxy = new MyActionProxy(inv, namespace, actionName, methodName, executeResult, cleanupContext);
        container.inject(proxy);
        container.setScopeStrategy(new MyScopeStrategy());
        proxy.prepare();
        return proxy;
    }
}

public class MyActionProxy extends DefaultActionProxy {

    protected MyActionProxy(ActionInvocation inv, String namespace, String actionName, String methodName, boolean executeResult, boolean cleanupContext) {
        super(inv, namespace, actionName, methodName, executeResult, cleanupContext);
    }

    @Override
    protected void prepare() {
        super.prepare();
    }
}

public class MyScopeStrategy implements Scope.Strategy {

    @Override
    public <T> T findInRequest(Class<T> type, String name, Callable<? extends T> factory) throws Exception {
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public <T> T findInSession(Class<T> type, String name, Callable<? extends T> factory) throws Exception {

        ActionContext context = ActionContext.getContext();
        SessionMap<String, T> sessionMap = (SessionMap<String, T>) context.getSession();

        if (sessionMap == null) {
            sessionMap = new SessionMap<String, T>(ServletActionContext.getRequest());
            context.setSession((Map<String, Object>) sessionMap);
        }

        T obj = sessionMap.get(name);

        if (obj == null) {
            obj = factory.call();
            sessionMap.put(name, obj);
        }
        return obj;
    }

    @Override
    public <T> T findInWizard(Class<T> type, String name, Callable<? extends T> factory) throws Exception {
        return null;
    }
}

In the configuration file struts.xml you should set the property

<constant name="struts.actionProxyFactory" value="jspbean.struts.factory.MyActionProxyFactory"/>

That's all you need to inject a bean Session with the session scope. Similar implementations could be done for other scopes. Notice, that other scopes like singlton (used by default), thread, and default seems don't require such pluggable extension. And the last word is about @Scoped annotation. It's not used if you provide the beans via xml configuration. But if you supply the ContainerBuilder with the bean in any other way it's able to find annotation on it and set the corresponding scope.

Hello Roman, although I am not sure many people nowadays still use Struts, I reused the idea you posted here in a Struts2 demo project on GitHub: https://github.com/nineninesevenfour/struts2-demo. I hope you are fine with that. — nineninesevenfour, Jun 10 '21 at 18:49
Hope, it will help someone who has interest in digging the framework internals. Also I have a [project](https://github.com/gromanc/jspbean) on GitHub where I tested this solution.Just remember, If you find this answer helpful you should upvote the question as well. — Roman C, Jun 10 '21 at 21:19

Durandal · Answer 2 · 2013-12-10T19:42:40.810

2

I believe Luiggi's comment is correct. The "@Inject" needs to be on the field value itself, not on the setter.

 @Inject("session")
 private Session session;

As long as you've got the "session" bean defined in struts.xml or registered it with the Struts container it should be able to find it and inject it. From your explanation that seems to be the case.

For some more specific information check this Discussion on the Struts User list: Struts user question on built-in DI

edited Dec 10 '13 at 19:42

answered Jun 26 '13 at 16:48

Durandal

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I don't believe so, if you it's not something I'm familiar with. – Durandal Jun 27 '13 at 19:40
Sorry, meant to say if it's possible it's not something I'm familiar with. I've only used the Struts container for a few fairly basic things before. I generally just went to Spring or Guice if I needed much more than very basic DI functionality. You might be able to use an interceptor to set up when you need for the session, but it would be pretty rough. – Durandal Jun 27 '13 at 19:53
Yes, everything we did was just default behaviors but what we were doing didn't require changing scope of the beans. – Durandal Jun 27 '13 at 21:12

Dependency Injection in Struts2 Accessing Session Scoped Beans

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