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Introducing Web page authors and programmers to the JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL), this guide covers all features of the JSTL 1.0 standard. Whether users need to add dynamic content to a static Web page or are in need of providing back-end code, nonprogrammers are shown how to manipulate XML, access relational databases, format text, internationalize Web applications, and introduce general-flow logic into JSP—all with HTML-like tags that are accessible to authors of Web pages. Also addressed are techniques for utilizing and extending JSTL’s functionality.
I originally got involved in creating the JSTL in Action ( JSTL) when Eduardo Pelegri-Llopart at Sun noticed my emails on an Apache Jakarta mailing list and thought I needed something to keep me busy. This wasn’t strictly true—I already had quite enough on my plate—but I soon found myself growing more and more interested in JSP tag libraries and the JSTL effort. Soon, I was spending a good portion of my waking hours on it (and some nonwaking hours, too).
If you like to design things, then helping to create a new standard and managing its reference implementation are thrilling tasks. Working with the Java Community Process means you meet bright, engaging people from all over the world, and then spend hundreds of hours arguing with them about technical details. Like most of my idiosyncratic pastimes (such as purchasing high-efficiency air filters or watching the British Parliament on television), it might be hard to explain why I’ve had so much fun with the Java Community Process—but it’s been a blast.
However, I don’t think my enjoyment of the process alone explains my enthusiasm for JSTL. Rather, JSTL has a special appeal because its goal is to make JSP, and web development in general, more accessible. Just as important, JSTL’s design reminds me why I like Java in the first place. It’s maintainable, based on thoughtful, careful principles, and easy to use. JSTL takes Java’s and JSP’s advantages, packages them, and places them in your reach even if you don’t know how to program yet. |
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