Struts action performed by jQuery ajax() Method

Question

In my web-app, after a form validation, perform an Ajax request to my Struts action:

 $.ajax({
                url: "viewResult",
                type:"POST",
                data: "TEST",
                contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
                success: function(res, textStatus, jqXHR) {

.....

Ajax request is successfully performed as well as my execute method in action so I would expect to be redirected to the specified page but this doesn't happen. Below my struts.xml :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE struts PUBLIC
    "-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Struts Configuration 2.5//EN"
    "http://struts.apache.org/dtds/struts-2.5.dtd">
<struts>

    <constant name="struts.enable.DynamicMethodInvocation" value="true" />
    <constant name="struts.devMode" value="true" />
    
    <constant name="struts.custom.i18n.resources" value="package" />
    <constant name="struts.custom.i18n.resources" value="label" />
    
    <constant name="struts.action.extension" value="," />
    <constant name="struts.url.escapeAmp" value="false" />
    <constant name="struts.multipart.maxSize" value="50000000" />


    <package name="generic" extends="struts-default,json-default,tiles-default" namespace="/">
    <result-types>
    <result-type name="json" class="org.apache.struts2.json.JSONResult" />
    <result-type name="tiles" class="org.apache.struts2.views.tiles.TilesResult" />
    <result-type name="redirect" class="org.apache.struts2.result.ServletDispatcherResult" />
    </result-types>

    <interceptors>
       <interceptor name="exception" class="com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.ExceptionMappingInterceptor" />
       <interceptor name="modelDriven" class="com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.ModelDrivenInterceptor" />
      <interceptor name="annotationWorkflow" class="com.opensymphony.xwork2.interceptor.annotations.AnnotationWorkflowInterceptor"/>
            <interceptor name="httpHeaderInterceptor" class="comparatorProject.interceptor.HttpHeaderInterceptor"/>

            <interceptor-stack name="defaultInterceptor">
                <interceptor-ref name="defaultStack" />
                <interceptor-ref name="annotationWorkflow"/>
                <interceptor-ref name="httpHeaderInterceptor"/>
                <interceptor-ref name="exception" />
                <interceptor-ref name="json">
                    <param name="enableSMD">true</param>
                </interceptor-ref>
            </interceptor-stack>

            <interceptor-stack name="defaultInterceptorExecuteAndWait">
                <interceptor-ref name="defaultInterceptor" />
                 <interceptor-ref name="execAndWait">
                    <!--  override delay and delaySleepInterval parameters of execAndWait to 500ms -->
                    <param name="delay">500</param>
                    <param name="delaySleepInterval">500</param>
                </interceptor-ref> 
            </interceptor-stack>
    
        </interceptors>

    <default-interceptor-ref name="defaultInterceptor" /> 
        

    </package>

    
    <package name="default" extends="struts-default,json-default,tiles-default" namespace="/">
     <action name="welcome" class="comparatorProject.navigator.actions.WelcomeAction" method="execute">
            <result name="success">jsp/welcome.jsp</result>           
        </action> 
    </package>

    <package name="comparatorProject" extends="struts-default" namespace="/">        
        
        <action name="searchPage">
            <result name="success">jsp/searchPage.jsp</result>
        </action>
          
         <action name="viewResult" class="comparatorProject.navigator.actions.ViewResultAction" method="execute" >
            <result name="success" >jsp/viewResult.jsp</result>
        </action>    
                
    </package>

</struts>

ViewResultAction .java

package comparatorProject.navigator.actions;

import com.opensymphony.xwork2.ActionSupport;

public class ViewResultAction  extends ActionSupport{

    private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;
    
//  private String url;
    
    public String execute() {    
    
    
        
//      url = "/viewResult" ;
          return SUCCESS;
    }
    
    
//  public String getUrl()  {
//   
//      return url;
//   
//  }

}

and my web.xml file

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app id="WebApp_ID" version="2.4"
    xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee" 
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd">
    <display-name>Comparator Project</display-name>
    <filter>
        <filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
        <filter-class>org.apache.struts2.dispatcher.filter.StrutsPrepareAndExecuteFilter</filter-class>
    </filter>

    <filter-mapping>
        <filter-name>struts2</filter-name>
        <url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
    </filter-mapping>

    <welcome-file-list>
        <welcome-file>index.html</welcome-file>
    </welcome-file-list>
    
    <!-- Restricts access to pure JSP files - access available only via Struts action -->
<security-constraint>
    <display-name>No direct JSP access</display-name>
    <web-resource-collection>
        <web-resource-name>No-JSP</web-resource-name>
        <url-pattern>*.jsp</url-pattern>
    </web-resource-collection>
    <auth-constraint>
        <role-name>no-users</role-name>
    </auth-constraint>
</security-constraint>

<security-role>
    <description>Don't assign users to this role</description>
    <role-name>no-users</role-name>
</security-role>    
</web-app>

I've already tried to use:

 <action name="viewResult" class="comparatorProject.navigator.actions.ViewResultAction" method="execute" > <result name="success type="redirect" >${url}</result> </action> 

and

 <action name="viewResult" class="comparatorProject.navigator.actions.ViewResultAction" method="execute" >
 <result name="success" type="dispatcher"> 
<param name="location">jsp/viewResult.jsp</param>
 </result>
 </action> 

Answer 1

For googlers who have to do the same, Ajax jquery is not the right way, this is my solution: in your JSP file

'<form action='"'yourAction'"' method='"'post'"' name='"formname"' novalidate>

<button type='"submit" value='"submit"' class='"btn btn-primary"'>Cerca''

in yours js file, create an eventlistner on submit event like this:

document.addEventListener('submit', yourFunction, false);

and in yourFunction add

document.forms["formname"].submit(); //this send form to struts

if your validation form or any other conditions are satisfied

Answer 2

Ajax request is successfully performed as well as my execute method in action, so I would expect to be redirected to the specified page, but this doesn't happen.

Because Ajax requests behave differently than ordinary http requests. When request is performed, it doesn't change the current location in the browser. And response is returned to the callback function, so it can be handled there.

success: function(res, textStatus, jqXHR) {
  $("div1").html(res);
}

The response text is xhtml rendered by the Struts dispatcher result jsp/viewResult.jsp. You can place this result to the target <div> element on the same page.

<div id="div1">Div 1</div>
   

Also note, that there's struts2-jquery-plugin that makes the same using struts tags. For more details see JQuery Ajax not working in JSP with Struts.