Recipe 22.2 Creating a JSP 1.2 TLD for a Classic Tag Handler

Problem

You want to create a JSP 1.2 TLD file for one or more custom tags.

Solution

Create the XML file using the proper DOCTYPE declaration for a JSP 1.2 TLD.

Discussion

A TLD is an XML file that describes your custom tags, the tag's attributes (if any), as well as the Java classes that provide the tag's functionality. The JSP container uses this configuration file when it interprets custom tags that appear in JSP pages. If you are using a JSP v1.2 container, your tag library's TLD has the DOCTYPE declaration shown in Example 22-2. This TLD describes the tag handler of the previous recipe.

Example 22-2. The TLD file for a classic JSP 1.2 tag handler

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>

<!DOCTYPE taglib
        PUBLIC "-//Sun Microsystems, Inc.//DTD JSP Tag Library 1.2//EN"
        "http://java.sun.com/dtd/web-jsptaglibrary_1_2.dtd">

<taglib>
    
    <tlib-version>1.0</tlib-version>
    <jsp-version>1.2</jsp-version>
    <short-name>cbck</short-name>

    <!-- Here is the URI you use with the 'taglib' directive in the JSP -->
    <uri>com.jspservletcookbook.tags</uri>

    <description>Cookbook custom tags</description>
    
    <tag>

        <name>logo</name>
        
        <!-- make sure to use the fully qualifed class name -->
        <tag-class>com.jspservletcookbook.LogoTag</tag-class>

        <body-content>JSP</body-content>

        <description>This tag writes a logo inside the JSP.</description>

        <attribute>
            <name>heading</name>
            <!-- The logo tag requires this attribute -->
            <required>true</required>
            <!-- The attribute can take a JSP expression as a value -->
            <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
            <description>The heading level for the logo; 1 through 6.
            </description>
        </attribute>
        
        <attribute>
            <name>image</name>
            <required>true</required>
            <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
            <description>The image name for the logo.</description>
        </attribute>
                
           <attribute>
            <name>width</name>
            <required>true</required>
            <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
            <description>The image width for the logo.</description>
        </attribute>
                
            <attribute>
            <name>height</name>
            <required>true</required>
            <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
            <description>The image height for the logo.</description>
        </attribute>

    </tag>

</taglib>

In JSP 1.2 and 2.0, a JSP container automatically searches WEB-INF, as well as the META-INF directory of your application's JAR files, for any file that ends with the extension .tld.

Because .tld is a fixed extension, it is mandatory to give your tag library descriptor filenames that end in .tld.

The container then uses the information it finds in the TLD to interpret custom tags that the web application may use. For example, the container maps the uri elements it finds in the TLD to the URIs specified by any taglib directives in JSP files. Example 22-2 specifies a uri of com.jspservletcookbook.tags for the tag library that contains the logo tag. A taglib directive that uses this tag library in a JSP looks like this:

<%@ taglib uri="com.jspservletcookbook.tags" prefix="cbck" %>

When the logo tag appears later on in the JSP, the JSP container knows that the tag belongs in the tag library with the com.jspservletcookbook.tags uri value, and the container can evaluate the JSP's tag use based on the TLD's specification of the tag class and the tag's various attributes. Based on the TLD, the JSP container knows that the logo tag's attributes are all required, so a JSP that uses the logo tag and omits an attribute fails to compile.

Recipe 22.2 Creating a JSP 1.2 TLD for a Classic Tag Handler

Problem

Solution

Discussion

Example 22-2. The TLD file for a classic JSP 1.2 tag handler

See Also