Struts framework & J2EE deploytool problem

Question

When creating a new application in the J2EE deploytool with the example WAR file "struts-example.war" from the struts framework i can view this at "http://localhost:8000/example/" with no problem. However, when creating my own WAR file of the build struts framework example i get after deployment and calling "http://localhost:8000/example/" the following:
"javax.servlet.ServletException: Cannot find message resources under key org.apache.struts.action.MESSAGE"
The WAR and EAR configs look exactly alike in the J2EE deploytool.
What bugging me is i can not find the problem.
Please inform
Thanbks

Answer 1

Thank you very much for the response.
As you mentioned I put the "ApplicationResources.properties" file in the classes directory, this gives me the same error.
However, i am using struts 1.1 if it matters and in web.xml the following is defined:
<init-param>
<param-name>config</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/struts-config.xml</param-value>
</init-param>
and in struts-config.xml :
<message-resources
parameter="org.apache.struts.webapp.example.ApplicationResources"/>
This is the directory where the "ApplicationResources.properties" also excists.
As mentioned the example war coming with the framework works fine, so i assume it is not related to any envioronment vars.
It is probably clear that i am new to all this. My objective is to determine whether my exising framework with a servlet session controlling usecase can be integrated with the strutsframework.
I thank you for your time
regards, Erwin