20.6 Hello JSP2

The JSP 2.0 specification is a major step forward from the 1.x series. It includes support for a simple Java-like expression language (known as "EL"), which replaces awkward <%=...%> tags, and supports the Java Standard Tag Libraries (JSTL), which obviate the need for most <%...%> scriptlets. Example 20-5 is a version of Example 20-4, rewritten using these features. Note that <c:choose> and <c:when> tags serve as an if/else statement and replace the awkwardly intermingled HTML tags and Java scriptlets of Example 20-4. Also, notice that EL expressions are enclosed in ${...}, which is quite a bit friendlier than <%...%>. In this example, the @page directive is joined by an @taglib directive specifying that the page uses the standard "core" tag library and declares its XML namespace to be "c".

Example 20-5. hello2.jsp
<%@page contentType='text/html'%> <%-- The taglib directive specifies that we're using the JSTL 1.1 core taglib.   -- If you're using 1.0, change to "http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt" --%> <%@taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" %> <c:choose>   <c:when test='${param.name == null}'>     <form>     <i>Please enter your name: </i>     <input name="name"/>     <input type="Submit"/>     </form>   </c:when>   <c:otherwise>     Hello ${param.name}!   </c:otherwise> </c:choose>

20.6.1 Expression Language Syntax

A full tutorial on the Expression Language used in JSP 2 pages is beyond the scope of this chapter; you can find complete details in the JSP 2.0 specification. For now, however, we'll simply note that the language supports expressions and operators much like Java and JavaScript do. The . and [ ] operators can be used to dereference objects. Objects that follow JavaBeans naming conventions behave as if they have properties (rather than accessor methods). Map objects with String keys can also be dereferenced with the . and [ ] operators.

JSP 2.0 defines the predefined objects listed in Table 20-2; these objects can be used in EL expressions.

Table 20-2. JSP 2.0 predefined objects

Object name

Represents

applicationScope

Maps application-scoped attribute names to values. See ServletContext.setAttribute( ) and the JSTL <c:set> tag.

cookie

Maps cookie names to Cookie objects.

header

Maps header names to header values as single strings. See ServletRequest.getHeader( ).

headerValues

Maps header names to header values as a String[ ]. See ServletRequest.getHeaders( ).

initParam

Maps initialization parameter names to their String values. See ServletContext.getInitParameter( ).

pageContext

The javax.servlet.jsp.PageContext object for the page.

pageScope

Maps page-scoped attribute names to values. See PageContext.setAttribute( ) and the JSTL <c:set> tag.

requestScope

Maps request-scoped attribute names to values. See ServletRequest.setAttribute( ) and the JSTL <c:set> tag.

sessionScope

Maps session-scoped attribute names to values. See HttpSession.setAttribute( ) and the JSTL <c:set> tag.

param

Maps request parameters to single String values. See ServletRequest.getParameter( ).

paramValues

Maps request parameters to String[ ] arrays. See ServletRequest.getParameterValues( ).

JSP 2.0 also includes support for predefined functions in EL expressions. JSTL 1.1 defines commonly used functions in a module that you can use just a like a tag library. To use these functions, include the following @taglib directive in your page:

<%@taglib prefix="fn" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/functions" %>

This declaration makes the following functions available to EL expressions. For the most part, these functions behave just like a well-known function of the same name in the core Java API:

boolean fn:contains(String, String) boolean fn:containsIgnoreCase(String, String) boolean fn:endsWith(String, String) boolean fn:startsWith(String, String) int fn:indexOf(String, String) int fn:length(Object) String fn:escapeXml(String) String fn:join(String[  ], String) String fn:replace(String, String, String) String fn:substring(String, int, int) String fn:substringAfter(String, String) String fn:substringBefore(String, String) String fn:toLowerCase(String) String fn:toUpperCase(String) String fn:trim(String) String[  ] fn:split(String, String)

20.6.2 Displaying JSP Pages that Use Tag Libraries

If you use the je3.war file, the URL to display this example is almost identical to the last one:

http://localhost:8080/je3/hello2.jsp

Note, however, that in order to make it work, the servlet container must be able to find the tag library implementation classes, as described at the beginning of this chapter. If you are using Tomcat, make sure that you've put the jstl.jar and standard.jar files (or more current replacements for these files) in the common/lib/ directory. Note that the standard.jar file contains the necessary tag library descriptor (TLD) files and that the file META-INF/c.tld defines the URI used in the @taglib directive in Example 20-5.

Example 20-5 uses Version 1.1 of the JSTL. If you cannot find 1.1 implementation classes, you should be able to make the 1.1 classes work in a 1.0 implementation. To do this, though, you must change your @tablib directive to use the slightly different URL that identifies Version 1.0:

<%@taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core_rt" %>

Finally, note that this example uses only the core module of the JSTL. In addition to the functions module mentioned previously, the JSTL also includes modules of tags for database access ("sql"), XML manipulation ("x"), and internationalized text formatting ("fmt").



Java Examples in a Nutshell
Java Examples in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition
ISBN: 0596006209
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 285

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