Deploying Struts2 application to Weblogic 12c

Question

I have a Web Application that uses Struts2, Spring and JPA. In the app, we're using annotations. When we deploy the application in eclipse, if we deploy it as a virtual application (right click server, select properties, select WebLogic, select Publishing Mode) the application runs fine. This option generates an _auto_generated_ear file and runs the application fine. When I deploy it as an exploded archive or manually deploy the application as a .war file through the Admin Console, I get the following error message:

[[ACTIVE] ExecuteThread: '8' for queue: 'weblogic.kernel.Default (self-tuning)'] WARN org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.Dispatcher - Could not find action or result: /eServices/login.action There is no Action mapped for namespace [/] and action name [login] associated with context path [/eServices]. - [unknown location] at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionProxy.prepare(DefaultActionProxy.java:185) at org.apache.struts2.impl.StrutsActionProxy.prepare(StrutsActionProxy.java:63) at org.apache.struts2.impl.StrutsActionProxyFactory.createActionProxy(StrutsActionProxyFactory.java:37) at com.opensymphony.xwork2.DefaultActionProxyFactory.createActionProxy(DefaultActionProxyFactory.java:58) at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.Dispatcher.serviceAction(Dispatcher.java:552) at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.ExecuteOperations.executeAction(ExecuteOperations.java:77) at org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.filter.StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.doFilter(StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter.java:99) at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:56) at oracle.security.jps.ee.http.JpsAbsFilter$1.run(JpsAbsFilter.java:111) at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method) at oracle.security.jps.util.JpsSubject.doAsPrivileged(JpsSubject.java:313) at oracle.security.jps.ee.util.JpsPlatformUtil.runJaasMode(JpsPlatformUtil.java:413) at oracle.security.jps.ee.http.JpsAbsFilter.runJaasMode(JpsAbsFilter.java:94) at oracle.security.jps.ee.http.JpsAbsFilter.doFilter(JpsAbsFilter.java:161) at oracle.security.jps.ee.http.JpsFilter.doFilter(JpsFilter.java:71) at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:56) at oracle.dms.servlet.DMSServletFilter.doFilter(DMSServletFilter.java:136) at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:56) at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext$ServletInvocationAction.wrapRun(WebAppServletContext.java:3715) at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext$ServletInvocationAction.run(WebAppServletContext.java:3681) at weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(AuthenticatedSubject.java:321) at weblogic.security.service.SecurityManager.runAs(SecurityManager.java:120) at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.securedExecute(WebAppServletContext.java:2277) at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.execute(WebAppServletContext.java:2183) at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletRequestImpl.run(ServletRequestImpl.java:1454) at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:209) at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:178)

Can any WebLogic gurus point me in the right direction on this? Is there a problem with the Convention-plugin for Struts2 running in WebLogic? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Updated:

web.xml

<?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"
    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>eServices</display-name>
    <welcome-file-list>
        <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
    </welcome-file-list>

    <listener>
        <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
    </listener>

    <!-- Needed to manage the Java based @Configuration classes for Spring -->
    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextClass</param-name>
        <param-value>
         org.springframework.web.context.support.AnnotationConfigWebApplicationContext
        </param-value>
    </context-param>
    <context-param>
        <param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
        <param-value>com.ceiwc.es.config</param-value>
    </context-param>

    <!-- Handles Strut2 URL requests -->
    <filter>
        <filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
        <filter-class>org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.ng.filter.StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter</filter-class>
    </filter>
    <filter-mapping>
        <filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </filter-mapping>

    <session-config>
        <session-timeout>20</session-timeout>
    </session-config>
</web-app>

struts.xml

<?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>

    <!-- Struts Constants that override the struts.properties file -->
    <constant name="struts.devMode" value="false" />
    <constant name="struts.custom.i18n.resources" value="global" />
    <constant name="struts.ui.theme" value="simple" />

</struts>

Whicker

Answer 1

Here is the solution that finally worked! I added the following Struts2 properties:

<constant name="struts.convention.action.includeJars" value=".*?\.jar(!/|/)?" />
<constant name="struts.convention.action.fileProtocols" value="jar,zip" />

This was based on what I found in this post.

Also, what also may help is adding this property to weblogic.xml:

<wls:container-descriptor>
    <wls:prefer-web-inf-classes>true</wls:prefer-web-inf-classes>
</wls:container-descriptor>

I did not have to do this with my project.

I hope this helps someone in the future!

Whicker

I missed the end of the story. +1 Then :) – Suprasegmental

The first block in the struts.xml made the trick. Still wonder why I need so many adaptations to migrate from Tomcat to Weblogic. In Tomcat everything worked like a charm. +1 – Dunning

Answer 2

Ensure that the struts.xml (no matter if you are using Convention) is placed in the WEB-INF\classes\ folder of your WAR

Suprasegmental

it is in the WEB-INF\classes folder. – Whicker

Can you post your Web.xml and struts.Xml? – Suprasegmental

This problem has been posted several times, never finding a solution... I suspect is something related to the order of filters declaration, but just in case, can you post your annotations of the login action? – Suprasegmental

@NuAlphaMan: Order does matter. Does weblogic change web.xml on project deploy? – Dagmar

@AleksandrM Are you suggesting that I have the web.xml in the wrong order? If so, what should the suggested order be? I don't believe that Weblogic alters the file. Is there a way I can verify that? – Whicker

@AndreaLigios: I'm using Spring Java configuration. That's the package where the configuration class for Spring can be found. – Whicker

Please try putting the <listener> <listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class> </listener> after the context-param part – Suprasegmental

That didn't work either. I tried moving it before and after the Struts filter. – Whicker