Top 3 Free Struts Books for Java EE developers - Learn Online, PDF download

Jakarta Struts is one of the most popular MVC frameworks to create a Java web application. Struts 1.0 had ruled the world in the early 2000 era before Spring MVC took over. Still, there are lots of projects written in Struts that need active maintenance, and that's why Struts developers are still in demand. It has not become anything like COBOL, but the latest version of Struts 2.0 is a capable web MVC framework with dependency injection and has a sizable community behind it. It has close competition with Spring MVC, but given the demand for Struts developers, it's still a good technology to learn if you are looking for a job in a Java web development position.

What is the best way to learn Struts? Well, you can start with books and those who doesn't like free eBooks, and I am going to share some of the good free eBooks to learn Struts, useful for both Java and J2EE developers.

Good knowledge of Web fundamentals like frontend technologies of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and backend technologies like JSP and Servlet goes a long way in developing Java web applications. 

If you need a refresher, I suggest you go through with Java Web Fundamentals By Kevin Jones course on Pluralsight.  It's a great course to revise Java web fundamentals concepts in quick time for both beginners and experienced developers.

3 Free Struts Book for Java Developers

Here are three Struts book which is freely available to read online or download as PDF. First, two books are really good for any Java EE developer looking to learn Struts 1 or Struts 2 by himself. Remember, Struts 2 is completely different from Struts 1, you should check these differences for quick comparison.

1) Struts Survival Guide: Basics to Best Practices

Authors: Srikanth Shenoy
Download: http://www.cbre.eu/portal/pls/portal/res_rep.show_report?report_id=264
Description: Download this free Struts book: “Struts Survival Guide: Basics to Best Practices” in pdf format. This book teaches you how to build dynamic websites in Java using Java Server Faces, using a hands-on, practical approach.

You will learn how the Struts framework works, learn how to build your first struts application, all about actions, form validations, error handling, struts tag libraries, tiles, internationalization, and the right way to use the struts framework.

A very useful book for both Struts beginners and experienced alike. You can also buy a hard copy of this book from Amazon, and if you want you can also combine this book with an online Struts course like Struts 2 Framework for Beginners to get a better understanding of Struts. I have found that learning from a book and course is really helpful and you learn better and quicker.

2) Starting Struts 2

Authors: Ian Roughley
Download: http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/starting-struts2
Description: Download this free eBook “Starting Struts 2″ in pdf format. Struts2 is the latest manifestation of the popular Struts Java web application framework. It is as capable as the Spring MVC framework because it also supports dependency injection and several other features only supported by Spring MVC.

You will learn the difference between Struts 1 and Struts 2 framework, how to use Struts 2 to build a Java MVC web application, along with some productivity tips to effectively use Struts 2.0.

This book is also available for free pdf download from the infoq.com website, and you can also buy a hard copy of this book from Amazon.

3) More Servlets and JavaServer Pages

Author: Marty Hall
Download: http://pdf.moreservlets.com/
Description: More Servlets and JavaServer Pages are now available in pdf format free of charge. A practical guide to the use of the Java 2 Platform for Web-enabled applications and dynamic Web sites. Focuses on new capabilities: the standard JSP tag library, filters, life-cycle event listeners, declarative and programmatic security, Web applications, and much more.

This is not a pure struts book, but because you never develop an application with just struts, instead you use both Servlet and JSP, this is a good book to learn holistic web application development in Java J2EE. These books provide good coverage of Struts, though.

You will find both beginner's introduction of Struts and advanced Struts concepts for experienced developers. If you need a course, you can also join JSP, Servlets, and JDBC for Beginners: Build a Database App course on Udemy to get some hands-on experience with Servlet, JSP, and JDBC by developing a real-world application.

That's all about free Struts framework books for Java and J2EE developers. Some of the books are only free for reading online, but others you can download as free PDF. If you come across any other struts books which are free, please feel free to share them with us.

Further Learning
Java Web Fundamentals By Kevin Jones
Struts 2 Framework for Beginners
Spring Framework Master Class - Beginner to Expert


You may also like to view my other article about the Struts and Spring framework.

• The Java Developer RoadMap (roadmap)
• Top 10 Struts Interview Question for Java Web Developer (answers)
• Top 10 Spring Framework Interview Questions with answers (see here)
• The difference between the Struts 1.0 and Struts 2.0 framework? (answer)
• 5 Good books to learn Spring Framework in Java? (list)
• What is the Action class in the Struts framework, and How to use it? (answer)
• The difference between Factory pattern and Dependency injection in Java? (answer)
• 5 Courses to Learn Spring Framework in-depth (courses)
• Difference between @Autowired and @Injection annotations in Spring? (answer)
• 10 Spring MVC Annotations Every Java developer should know (annotations)
• 5 Courses to Learn Spring Boot for Beginners (courses)
• 5 Spring and Hibernate online courses for Java developers (list)

P. S. - If you want to learn how to develop RESTful Web Service using Spring MVC in-depth, I suggest you join the REST with Spring master class by Eugen Paraschiv. One of the best courses to learn REST with Spring MVC for Java developers.