• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
programming forums Java Mobile Certification Databases Caching Books Engineering Micro Controllers OS Languages Paradigms IDEs Build Tools Frameworks Application Servers Open Source This Site Careers Other Pie Elite all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
Marshals:
  • Campbell Ritchie
  • Jeanne Boyarsky
  • Ron McLeod
  • Paul Clapham
  • Liutauras Vilda
Sheriffs:
  • paul wheaton
  • Rob Spoor
  • Devaka Cooray
Saloon Keepers:
  • Stephan van Hulst
  • Tim Holloway
  • Carey Brown
  • Frits Walraven
  • Tim Moores
Bartenders:
  • Mikalai Zaikin

How to know what tags are available in taglib and whats their behaviour ?

 
Greenhorn
Posts: 24
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have tomcat installed on my laptop. Now I am trying to understand taglib. So I checked almost all the folders under tomcat and found "jstl" in the following path
"C:\Program Files\apache-tomcat-5.5.27\webapps\jsp-examples\WEB-INF\lib"

jstl is jar file, I opened it with winzip and I found few classes organized in different folders placed in a hierarchy e.g. one class is "ConditionalTagSupport.class". Do these classes represent tags ? If yes then How to use these tags ? How do I know what does this tag do ?

If its not tags, then where can I find some sample tags ? Are there readymade tags library available or all the libraries are custom made by organizations ? Is it proprietory information ? Is there any sample tag library available to work with ?

thanks
 
Sheriff
Posts: 67746
173
Mac Mac OS X IntelliJ IDE jQuery TypeScript Java iOS
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Perhaps you could check the JSTL Specification.
 
author and cow tipper
Posts: 5009
1
Hibernate Spring Tomcat Server
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Definitely Google and check the JavaDocs for the JSTL taglibs.

But basically, here's how it works. A tag library provides a set of custom tags that perform some type of function. I just finished a blog about using some basic JSF tags in a simple web page.(My JSF Blog) Tags in a JSF page look like this:



Here you have an outputLink tag, an outputText tag and view tag. Now, those look like HTML/XML type elements, but they provide some logic and functionality, and that functionality is written in Java. So, while the developer who uses the tag is shielded from the implementation, the fact is, there is definitely a Java class somewhere that provides the implementation of those tags. So, yes, the code you saw in the JSTL library was probably the implementation of a particular tag. However, that's not where you want to go to find out about how to use the tag. As a web developer, you just want to focus on the tag.

-Cameron McKenzie

 
nirali shah
Greenhorn
Posts: 24
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
thanks. Thats the logic I was applying.

Question is, how do I know which tag does what ? If I want to use an API, I can refer to the documentation on java.sun.com and find the details of API. These APIs are available to anyone who wants to use it.

Where can I find documentation for the taglib ? Are they available to everyone ?
The tags you used in the example you gave, if I want to use those tags what do I need to do ?

I have no idea where to start from for the use of taglib. Can you please explain where to start ?

thanks
 
Bear Bibeault
Sheriff
Posts: 67746
173
Mac Mac OS X IntelliJ IDE jQuery TypeScript Java iOS
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator

nirali shah wrote:Where can I find documentation for the taglib ? Are they available to everyone ?


If you are asking specifically about the JSTL tags, then I've already told where to look for their documentation. For anybody else's tags, it's the responsibility of the author of the tag library to make documentation available.

A properly documented tag library (rare) can be passed through the tlddoc tool to produce Javadoc-like documentation from the documentation markup in the TLD file.

To learn how to write your own tags and libraries, start with the JSP Specification.
 
nirali shah
Greenhorn
Posts: 24
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
how to find what taglibs are made public by the author ? How to find them ? Is there any centralised store there to store the taglibs like APIs are available online through java.sun.com ?

You replied earlier to check JSTL sprcification. Can you please tell where and how ? Is there any command line tool to check jstl specification like javadoc ?

thanks
 
Greenhorn
Posts: 12
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-02-2003/jw-0228-jstl.html?page=1
 
nirali shah
Greenhorn
Posts: 24
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I did visit the link provided by you, but I am still unable to figure out. That link directed to other link.

I visited java.sun.com. In that I looked for taglib and I found that java WSDP is having a taglib as a part of the package. Now this java WSDP and jdk are one and same or different ?

To download taglib alone, I visited brothersoft.com and downloaded a package from there. There were few tags like NextPageButtonTag, NewPaneTag etc. But I could not figure out how to use these tags. I could not find and specification document mentioning how to use these tags.

Can someone please provide detailed answer to my problem rather than being brief and directing to other sites please.

I visited http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-02-2003/jw-0228-jstl.html?page=1 , from there I clicked on the link "Download the JSTL archive", that directed me to "http://apache.towardex.com/jakarta/taglibs/standard/"
this page is not being displayed and gives error message "Internet Explorer can not display the webpage."

thanks
 
Bear Bibeault
Sheriff
Posts: 67746
173
Mac Mac OS X IntelliJ IDE jQuery TypeScript Java iOS
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
You need to be more specific in your request. Are you looking for a JSTL implementation (I recommend Jakarta's), or other proprietary taglibs created by just about anyone?

If the latter, there's no central repository and there could literally be thousands upon thousands of custom taglibs.
 
nirali shah
Greenhorn
Posts: 24
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I just need one to start work with. I did visit jakarta's page and downloaded from there. But there was no documentation of anykind. I have provided details below of my download.

this is what I see on jakarta's page

"Download a binary distribution of the Standard release:

Download the Standard Tag Library Release from an Apache Jakarta Project Mirror
Download the most recent, nightly snapshot:

Standard Taglib nightly snapshot
Nightly build distributions of the development version for all the Jakarta-Taglibs are available for download:

Download Jakarta-Taglibs Source
Download entire Jakarta-Taglibs Distribution "

which one do I download ? I tried one under that Apache Jakarta Project Mirror. Is that right one ?
Or shall I download Jakarta-Taglibs Source or Jakarta-Taglibs Distribution ?

Can you please provide exact path on jakarta's site, about from where to download and once downloaded what will be the path for specification.


thanks
 
Bear Bibeault
Sheriff
Posts: 67746
173
Mac Mac OS X IntelliJ IDE jQuery TypeScript Java iOS
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
The Standard Taglib is the JSTL implementation.

And for about the third time, the JSTL Specification is the documentation. You don't need to download any documentation from the Jakarta site.
 
Consider Paul's rocket mass heater.
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic