Chapter 7
JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library
The JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL) encapsulates core functionality common to many JSPapplications. Instead of mixing tags from numerous vendors in your JSP applications, JSTLallows you to employ a single, standard set of tags. This standardization allowsyou to deploy your applications on any JSP container supporting JSTL and makesit more likely that the implementation of the tags is optimized.
JSTL has tags such as iterators and conditionals for handling flow control, tagsfor manipulating XML documents, internationalization tags, tags for accessing databases using SQL, andcommonly used functions.
This chapter demonstrates JSTL through excerpts from the JSP version of the Duke’sBookstore application discussed in the earlier chapters. It assumes that you are familiarwith the material in theUsing Custom Tags section ofChapter 5, JavaServer Pages Technology.
This chapter does not cover every JSTL tag, only the most commonlyused ones. Please refer to the reference pages athttp://download.oracle.com/javaee/5/jstl/1.1/docs/tlddocs/ for a complete listof the JSTL tags and their attributes.