First JSP page

Hi all,

I'm trying to get a simple "hello world" style jsp page from this book running on my Mac Mini (OSX 10.6.8). Here's the code:

I've got two problems that won't let me run it. First I can't get a Tomcat server running locally through Eclipse. When I try to make one I get "The Tomcat installation directory is not valid. It is missing expected file or folder lib/jasper-el.jar."

Also, and I'm guessing this is related, Eclipse underlines this bit "http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" and says "Can not find the tag library descriptor for 'http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core'".

After googling a bit I see mentions that I need to include the jstl.jar in my library, but have not yet found out a way to do this or, frankly, what this library is, what it does, and what adding this jar file is supposed to do.

Any help is appreciated.

Your JSP is looking good.

As your issues seem to be with the eclipse setup, I've moved this post over to the IDEs forum where the eclipse-savvy are more likely to see it an respond.

The JSTL jar is necessary to enable the JSTL tags such as <c:out> in your pages.

Welcome to the Ranch.

Thanks Bear.

I was able to add the JSTL jar, which I got from this site, and install it using the instructions on this site.

Now I just have to figure out how to get a Tomcat server running on my local instance.

If you get tired of waiting or of dealing with Tomcat in eclipse, you might try your hand at running a stand-alone instance. That's what I do on my MacBook Pro(s) and it's really easy.

Let us know if that's a route you want to pursue.

Bear Bibeault wrote:If you get tired of waiting or of dealing with Tomcat in eclipse, you might try your hand at running a stand-alone instance. That's what I do on my MacBook Pro(s) and it's really easy.

Let us know if that's a route you want to pursue.

Sure, I'm game. The whole reason I wanted to do it from eclipse is that it had been easy on my windows machine at work. If something else will be easier, I'd rather do that.