Chapter 3. General-Purpose and Conditional Actions

Topics in This Chapter

• General-Purpose Actions

• Conditional Actions

• Using Conditional and General-Purpose Actions Together

• Conditional Custom Actions

Some of the most basic tasks that JSP developers perform involve producing output, setting and accessing scoped variables and JavaBean properties, implementing conditional code, and handling exceptions. All of those tasks are discussed in this chapter, which explores the JSTL general-purpose and conditional actions. The general-purpose actions are discussed in "General-Purpose Actions" on page 102, and the conditional actions are discussed in "Conditional Actions" on page 127.

Besides showing you how to use the JSTL general-purpose and conditional actions, this chapter also illustrates how to perform a number of common tasks for JSP-based applications, including:

• "Setting Attributes for HTML Elements" on page 104

• "Retaining Values for HTML Text Elements" on page 106

• "Accessing Bean Properties" on page 108

• "Setting Bean Properties and Map Entries" on page 112

• "Retaining Values for HTML Option Elements" on page 129

• "Implementing If/Else Constructs" on page 133

• "Implementing Switch Statement Constructs" on page 136

This chapter concludes with a section on implementing conditional custom actions and a section that shows you how to use the general-purpose and conditional actions together in a simple case study.