My situation is as follows:

I have a new application that needs to use struts (and hibernate).
I have a legacy database.

I know you can generate hibernate mapping files from the DDL
using middlegen.

I also know that you can generate the beans (pojo's) from the
same ddl or the hibernate mapping files.

My question is now:
is it wise to generate struts ActionForm extending pojo's or
is it better to have an ActionForm that copies the pojo's
properties?

If something alters to the db model, will the generator be
smart enough to just make an update to the (at that stage
probably) altered ActionForm-bean or will it simply overwrite
everything?

-> validate() function, reset() function.

Or should the actionform fetch the data and post the data
manually?

Is there a way to reset changes to such a persistent object
(refetch, undo?) without a transaction's rollback? Or would
you need to use nested transactions?

How would one set up such an architecture where one:
- presents an add/edit form
- validates the posted input (and resends the input with
indicators of the error(s) or saves and forwards to the
next screen)

I know these are more of a struts related questions, but I do
not know where the persisting/'saving' is done in this scenario.

Anybody knows a good tutorial on struts/hibernate binding
that covers these?

thnx in advance,
Dimitri Smits
aka Gongo

I always separate my domain model from ActionsForms, even the are almost the same. You must think about struts ActionForms as a kind of data transfer objects rather than domain objects (as struts documentation states). ActionForms have few limitations that regular POJOs don't have, since they "maps" properties to HTML fields (which are just strings). My advice is to separate your domain model from ActionForms and use some clever frameworks like apache common's BeanUtils to copy properties from domain to ActionForms and back. Take look at latest StrutsResume release for examples. I strongly recommend you use of spring-framework, it eases struts and hibernate integration alot, and gives you unbeliveable power of IoC.

regards,
Artur

This might be a good link to help you figure out how to use Hibernate with Struts and Spring.

http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2004/04/07/wiringwebapps.html