NetBeans IDE (from 5.0 onwards, such as the current release, 6.1) supports Struts out of the box. That's right. There are no additional steps you need to take after installing (either via an installer or just by unzipping an archive file) the IDE. Tomcat is also bundled out of the box with the IDE, therefore creating and deploying web application with Struts requires NO ADDITIONAL PLUGINS.
The following features are supported in the IDE, specifically for Struts:
- Project template that adds latest Struts libraries to application's classpath, modifies web.xml, and add struts-config.xml to application sources.
- Panel in Project Properties dialog box for adding Struts libraries, web.xml, and struts-config.xml to applications that were created without Struts support.
- File templates for common artifacts, such as Struts Action class.
- Right-clicking in the NetBeans editor when struts-config.xml is open exposes wizards for generating code snippets for common tags used in struts-config.xml.
- Holding down the Ctrl key while moving the mouse over identifiers in struts-config.xml produces hyperlinks that let you jump to referenced Struts artifacts, such as Struts Action class.
- Code completion and Javadoc display for Struts tags in JSP files.
After you have installed NetBeans IDE, here are some specific Struts-related resources you can use with NetBeans IDE: