Overview
SiteMesh is a web-page layout and decoration framework and web- application integration framework to aid in creating large sites consisting of many pages for which a consistent look/feel, navigation and layout scheme is required.
Integrating WebWork with SiteMesh is amazingly simple: you don't have to do anything in fact. WebWork stores all its value stack information in the request attributes, meaning that if you wish to display data that is in the stack (or even the ActionContext) you can do so by using the normal tag libraries that come with WebWork. That's it!
ActionContextCleanUp
Velocity and FreeMarker Decorators
In WebWork's Architecture, the standard filter-chain optionally starts with the ActionContextCleanUp filter, followed by other desired filters. Lastly, the FilterDispatcher handles the request, usually passing it on to the ActionMapper. The primary purpose of the ActionContextCleanUp is for SiteMesh integration. This tells the FilterDispatcher when exactly, to clean-up the request. Otherwise, the ActionContext may be removed before the decorator attempts to access it.
Warning
If ActionContext access is required within the decorators, the ActionContextCleanUp filter must be placed at the beginning of the filter-chain.
Velocity
If you are using Velocity for your SiteMesh decorators, we recommend using the VelocityPageFilter. This is an extension of the SiteMesh PageFilter, which should be placed in the web.xml in between the ActionContextCleanUp and the FilterDispatcher. Now the Velocity decorators will have access to WebWork variables such as $stack and $request.
FreeMarker
If you are using FreeMarker for your SiteMesh decorators, we recommend using the FreeMarkerPageFilter. This is an extension of the SiteMesh PageFilter, which should be placed in the web.xml in between the ActionContextCleanUp and the FilterDispatcher. Now the FreeMarker decorators will have access to WebWork variables such as ${stack} and ${request}.