Summary

Today you covered an advanced concept in JavaServer Pages, JSP custom tag libraries. The session started by looking at what custom tags are and how developers can benefit from using custom tags in JSPs. Then you looked at the different steps involved in building custom tags using the TLD file, tag handler, and tag library directive. After this, you learned the two main types of custom tags, tags without a body and tags with a body. The latter includes variations of these tags passing attributes and values to the custom tag handlers.

The next topic you covered was the custom tag libraries provided in WebLogic Server. You looked at the <wl:cache>, <wl:process>, and <wl:repeat> custom tags, and also identified the use of the support provided by the WebLogic custom tag library to build validator classes for JSPs.

After this, you built your own custom tag library to format book price data and incorporated this into the book shopping cart application. As an added bonus, you also incorporated the <wl:cache> custom tag provided in the WebLogic Server's custom tag library. This hands-on experience helps you gain a good understanding of the JSP custom tag library technology.