© 2009 Marty Hall

The JSP Standard Tag

g
Library (JSTL)
Handling Variable-Length
Variable Length Data
in MVC-Based JSP Pages
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Servlets, JSP, JSF 1.x & JSF 2.0, Struts Classic & Struts 2, Ajax, GWT, Spring, Hibernate/JPA, Java 5 & 6.
4 Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.

© 2009 Marty Hall

For live Java EE training, please see training courses at

http://courses coreservlets com/
http://courses.coreservlets.com/.
Servlets, JSP, Struts Classic, Struts 2, JSF 1.x, JSF 2.0, Ajax (with
jQuery, Dojo, Prototype, Ext, etc.), GWT, Java 5, Java 6, Spring,
Hibernate/JPA and customized combinations of topics.
Hibernate/JPA, topics

Taught by the author of Core Servlets and JSP, More

Servlets and JSP, JSP and this tutorial. tutorial Available at public
venues,Customized
or customized versions
Java EE Training: can be held on-site at your
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Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.
 Agenda
• Obtaining JSTL documentation and code
• The JSTL Expression Language
• Looping Tags
– Looping a certain number of times
– Looping over data structures
– Improving Ajax MVC data
data-handling
handling examples
• Conditional Evaluation Tags
– Single choice
– Multiple choices
• Database Access Tags
g
• Other Tags
8

© 2009 Marty Hall

Overview and
Installation

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Servlets, JSP, JSF 1.x & JSF 2.0, Struts Classic & Struts 2, Ajax, GWT, Spring, Hibernate/JPA, Java 5 & 6.
9 Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.
 JSTL Overview
• Full JSTL
– Contains many common and useful JSP custom tags
– Particularly useful when you are using MVC, but the
data contains a varying number of entries
– Based on the Struts looping and logic tags
– Not part of the JSP 1.2, 2.0, or 2.1 specs
• It is a separate specification that requires a separate
download
• Expression language
– The JSP expression language came from JSTL, but is now
ppart of JSP 2.0,, JSP 2.1,, and JSF
• The JSTL Specification is available in PDF
10
– http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=52

Downloading JSTL
• JSTL 1.1
– Home
H page
• http://jakarta.apache.org/taglibs/doc/
standard-doc/intro.html
– Download
D l d
• http://jakarta.apache.org/site/downloads/
downloads_taglibs-standard.cgi
– Documentation
D t ti (Javadoc)
(J d )
• http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/jstl/1.1/docs/tlddocs/
– Note
• Many server packages (e.g., MyFaces) and IDEs (e.g.,
MyEclipse) already have JSTL 1.1 bundled
• JSTL 1.2
– As of 10/2008, only available as part of Java EE 5
• Not as a separate download for use in other servers
11
 Enabling JSTL with Eclipse or
MyEclipse
• Eclipse
– Download from
Apache site
– Drag jstl.jar
jstl jar and
standard.jar They also
onto WEB-INF/lib show up here.

• Th
They also
l gett listed
li t d iin You drop
them here.
“ Web App Libraries”
• I usually rename JAR
fil tto show
files h exactt version
i
• MyEclipse
– Follow Eclipse directions above,
above or
– File  New Web Project,
12
select JSTL 1.1 option

Enabling JSTL Manually

• Put in Web App
– Drop JAR files in the WEB-INF/lib folder
of your Web app
• Put in CLASSPATH
– Add the JAR files to the CLASSPATH used by your
development
p environment
– Do not add to the CLASSPATH used by the server

13
 The JSTL Expression Language
• Accessed via ${expression}
• Similar to JavaScript and XPath
• Provides shorthand notation to access:
– Attributes of standard servlet objects
– Bean properties
– Map,
Map List,
List and Array elements
• Is standard part of JSP 2.0 and 2.1
– In JSTL,
JSTL EL can be used only in attributes of JSTL tags
– In JSP 2.0, the EL can be used anywhere
• web.xml element and page directive attribute let you
disable the EL for backward compatibility
• EL covered in separate lecture
14

© 2009 Marty Hall

Iteration Tags

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15 Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.
 Constructs for Handling
Variable-Length
Variable Length Data
Simplest
f Page
for P
Author • Bean
– ${cust.withdrawals}
• Custom tag (non-looping)
– <mytags:withDrawalTable
customer ${cust}
customer="${cust}"
border="..." headerStyles="..." .../>
• Custom tag (looping)
–S
See examples
l ini Advanced
Ad dCCustom Tags
T
lecture
Most
Control • JSTL loop
p
for Page • JSP scripting loop
17
Author

Looping Tags: Summary

• Looping with explicit numeric values
<c:forEach var="name" begin="x" end="y" step="z">
Blah, blah ${name}
</c:forEach>
/

• Looping over data structures

– Can loop down arrays,
arrays strings,
strings collections,
collections maps
<c:forEach var="name"
items="array-or-collection">
Blah, blah ${name}
</c:forEach>

• Looping down delimited strings

– forTokens
18
 Looping Tags: Motivation
• JSP without JSTL
<UL>
<%
for(int i=0; i<messages.length; i++) {
String message = messages[i];
%>
<LI><%= message %>
<% } %>
</UL>
• JSP with JSTL
<UL>
<c:forEach var="message" items="${messages}">
<LI>${
<LI>${message}
}
</c:forEach>
19
</UL>

Looping with Simple Numeric

Values
<%@ taglib prefix="c"
uri="http://java
uri= http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core
sun com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
%>
<UL>
<c:forEach var="i" begin="1" end="10">
<LI>${i}
</c:forEach>
</UL>

20
 Looping with a Designated Step
Size
<%@ taglib prefix="c"
uri http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core %>
uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
<UL>
<c:forEach
var="seconds"
begin="0"
end="${pageContext.session.maxInactiveInterval}"
step="100">
<LI>${seconds} seconds
seconds.
</c:forEach>
<LI>Timeout exceeded.
</UL>

21

Looping Down Arrays (Servlet)

public class ArrayServlet extends HttpServlet {
public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request
request,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {
String[] words = { "foo"
foo , "bar"
bar , "baz"};
baz };
request.setAttribute("words", words);
String address = "/WEB-INF/results/array-loop.jsp";
RequestDispatcher dispatcher =
request.getRequestDispatcher(address);
dispatcher.forward(request, response);
}
}

• Note
– url-pattern in web.xml is /test-array

22
 Looping Down Arrays
<%@ taglib prefix="c"
uri="http://java
uri= http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core
sun com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
%>
<H2>Key Words:</H2>
<UL>
<c:forEach var="word"
var= word
items="${words}">
<LI>${word}
</c:forEach>
</UL>

<H2>Values
a ues o
of t
the
e test Parameter:</H2>
a a ete : /
<UL>
<c:forEach var="val"
${p }
items="${paramValues.test}">
<LI>${val}
</c:forEach>
23 </UL>

Note for Older Servers

• Examples in this lecture assume JSP 2.0+
– JSTL also
l runs iin older
ld servers, bbut you hhave to replace
l
direct output of ${foo} with <c:out value="$foo"/>
• Previous example
p (JSP
( 2.0+))
<UL>
<c:forEach var="word" items="${words}">
<LI>${word}
</c:forEach>
</UL>
• Previous example
p (JSP
( 1.2))
<UL>
<c:forEach var="word" items="${words}">
<LI><c:out value="${word}"/>
</c:forEach>
</UL>
24
 ${foo} vs. <c:out value="${foo}"/>

• c:out runs on older servers

– Oracle 9i, BEA WebLogic 8.x, IBM WebSphere 5.x
• c:out escapes HTML (XML) characters
– <c:out value="<h1>"/> outputs &lt;h1&gt;
• Very important if value being output comes from end user.
• Disable with <c:out value="
value= …" escapeXml=
escapeXml="false"/>
false />
• c:out lets you supply a default value
– <c:out
c:out value
value="${foo}"
${foo} default
default="explicit
explicit value
value"/>
/ or
<c:out value="${foo}" default="${calculatedValue}"/>
– The default is output when ${foo} evaluates to null

25

Looping Down Collections: Notes

• Can loop down collections other than arrays

– “items” can refer to an array, collection (List, Map, Set,
etc.), comma-separated String, Iterator, or Enumeration
• Can access sub
sub-elements
elements of local variable
– <c:forEach var="bean" items="${collectionOfBeans}">
${bean.property}
{ p p y}
</c:forEach>
– <c:forEach var="collection"
items= ${collectionOfCollections} >
items="${collectionOfCollections}">
${collection[part]}
</c:forEach>
– For details on accessing collections and sub-elements, see
separate lecture on the JSP expression language
26
 Looping Down Arrays:
Accessing SubElements (Servlet)
public class ArrayServlet2 extends HttpServlet {
public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request,
HttpServletResponse
l response) )
throws ServletException, IOException {
Name[] names =
{ new Name("Bill", "Gates"),
new Name("Larry",
Name("Larry" "Ellison")
"Ellison"),
new Name("Sam", "Palmisano"),
new Name("Scott", "McNealy"),
new Name("Eric", "Schmidt"),
new Name("Jeff"
Name( Jeff , "Bezos")
Bezos ) };
request.setAttribute("names", names);
String[][] sales =
{ {"2005", "12,459", "15,622"},
{"2006",
{ 2006 , "18,123",
18,123 , "17,789"},
17,789 },
{"2007", "21,444", "23,555"} };
request.setAttribute("sales", sales);
String address = "/WEB-INF/results/array-loop2.jsp";
RequestDispatcher
q p dispatcher
p =
request.getRequestDispatcher(address);
dispatcher.forward(request, response);
} Note: url-pattern is /test-array2
27 }

Looping Down Arrays:

Accessing SubElements (Bean)
public class Name {
private String firstName;
private String lastName;

public Name(String firstName, String lastName) {

setFirstName(firstName);
setLastName(lastName);
}

public String getFirstName() { return(firstName); }

public void setFirstName(String firstName) {

this.firstName = firstName;
}

public String getLastName() { return(lastName); }

public void setLastName(String

p g lastName) {
this.lastName = lastName;
}
}
28
 Looping Down Arrays:
Accessing SubElements (JSP)
<H2>Attendees at the coreservlets.com Party</H2>
<UL>
<c:forEach var="name" items="${names}">
<LI>${name.firstName} ${name.lastName}
</c:forEach>
</UL>
<H2>Comparing Apples and Oranges</H2>
<TABLE BORDER="1">
<TR><TH>Year</TH>
<TH>Apples Sold</TH>
<TH>Oranges Sold</TH></TR>
< f E h var="row"
<c:forEach " " it
items="${sales}">
"${ l }">
<TR><c:forEach var="col" items="${row}">
<TD>${col}</TD>
</c:forEach>
</c:forEach>
</TABLE>
29

Looping Down Arrays:

Accessing SubElements (Result)

30
 Loop Status
• You can assign varStatus
– <c:forEach var="name" items="${names}"
varStatus="status">
• You can check status.subProperty
status subProperty
– Usually using c:if (covered later in this lecture)
• Status subproperties
– index (int: the current index)
– first (boolean: is this the first entry?)
– last (boolean: is this the first entry?)
– begin (Integer: value of 'begin' attribute)
– endd (Integer:
(I t value
l off end'd' attribute)
tt ib t )
– step (Integer: value of 'step' attribute)
31

Loop Status: Example

<%@ taglib prefix="c"
uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"
uri http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core %>
<% String[] names = {"Joe", "Jane", "Juan", "Juana"};
request.setAttribute("names", names); %>
<h2>Names:
<c:forEach var="name" items="${names}" varStatus="status">
${name}<c:if test="${!status.last}">,</c:if>
</c:forEach>
</h2>

32
 Looping Down Comma-
Delimited Strings
<%@ taglib prefix="c"
uri="http://java
uri http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core
sun com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
%>
<UL>
<c:forEach
y
var="country"
items="Australia,Canada,Japan,Philippines,Mexico,USA">
<LI>${country}
</c:forEach>
</UL>

33

Looping Down Arbitrarily-

Delimited Strings
<%@ taglib prefix="c"
uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"
uri http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core %>
<UL>
<c:forTokens var="color"
items="(red (orange) yellow)(green)((blue) violet)"
delims="()">
<LI>${color}
</c:forTokens>
</UL>
• Point:
forTokens
built on forEach:
you can build your
own custom tags
based on JSTL tags
34
 © 2009 Marty Hall

Looping Tags in Action:

Ajax Data Handling

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35 Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.

Original Version
• In “Ajax Data Handling” lecture, showed example
that displayed lists of cities
– JavaScript
• Sent out request to server
• Took data back in XML,
XML JSON,
JSON or string format
• Extracted information and produced HTML table
• Inserted table into page
– HTML
• Loaded JavaScript files
• Had button that trigged the action
– Servlet
• Produced
P d d Li
Listt off Cit
City objects
bj t
– JSP
• Put city info into XML, JSON, or string format
– Repeated entries for each city in List
– Notes and source code for original example
• http://courses.coreservlets.com/Course-Materials/ajax.html
36
 HTML Code
...
<fieldset>
<legend>Getting XML Data from Server...</legend>
<form action="#">
<label for="city-type-1">City Type:</label>
<select id="city-type-1">
id "city type 1">
<option value="top-5-cities">
Largest Five US Cities</option>
<option value="second-5-cities">
Second Five US Cities</option>
...
</select>
<br/>
<input type="button" value="Show Cities"
onclick='xmlCityTable("city-type-1",
"xml-city-table")'/>
</form>
<p/>
<div id="xml-city-table"></div>
37
</fieldset>...

Servlet Code
public class ShowCities extends HttpServlet {
public void doGet(HttpServletRequest
p ( p q request,
q ,
HttpServletResponse response)
throws ServletException, IOException {
response.setHeader("Cache-Control", "no-cache");
response setHeader("Pragma" "no
response.setHeader("Pragma", "no-cache");
cache");
String cityType = request.getParameter("cityType");
List<City> cities = findCities(cityType);
request.setAttribute("cities", cities);
String format = request.getParameter("format");
String outputPage;
if ("xml".equals(format)) {
response setContentType("text/xml");
response.setContentType( text/xml );
outputPage = "/WEB-INF/results/cities-xml.jsp";
} ...
RequestDispatcher dispatcher =
request.getRequestDispatcher(outputPage);
dispatcher.include(request, response);
}
38
 Original JSP Code
(before-jstl/cities-xml
(before jstl/cities xml.jsp)
jsp)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cities>
<headings>
<heading>City</heading>
<heading>Time</heading>
<heading>Population</heading>
</headings>
<city>
<name>${cities[0].name}</name>
{ [ ] }
<time>${cities[0].shortTime}</time>
<population>${cities[0].population}</population>
</city>
... <! Repeated for cities 1
<!– 1, 2
2, and 3 -->
>
<city>
<name>${cities[4].name}</name>
<time>${cities[4].shortTime}</time>
<population>${cities[4].population}</population>
</city>
</cities>
39

Problems with JSP Code

• Repetitive
– Almost-identical city entries repeated five times
– If the city format changes, all five entries need to change
• Presumes exactly five cities
– Will not work with a different number of cities
• Even though both the servlet code and the client-side
client side
JavaScript code can handle any number of cities
• Solution
– Use
U JSTL

40
 Updated JSP Code
(cities-xml
(cities xml.jsp)
jsp)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cities>
<headings>
<heading>City</heading>
<heading>Time</heading>
<heading>Population</heading>
</headings>
<%@ taglib prefix="c"
prefix c
uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" %>
<c:forEach var="city" items="${cities}">
<city>
c ty
<name>${city.name}</name>
<time>${city.shortTime}</time>
<population>${city.population}</population>
p p ${ y p p } /p p
</city>
</c:forEach>
41 </cities>

Alternative Version
(Using XML Syntax: cities
cities-xml
xml.jspx)
jspx)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<cities xmlns:c=
xmlns:c="http://java
http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core
sun com/jsp/jstl/core">
>
<headings>
<heading>City</heading>
<heading>Time</heading>
<heading>Population</heading>
</headings>
<c:forEach var="city"
var city items
items="${cities}">
${cities} >
<city>
<name>${city.name}</name>
<time>${city.shortTime}</time>
t e ${c ty.s o t e} /t e
<population>${city.population}</population>
</city>
</c:forEach>
/
</cities>

42
 XML Data: Results

43

JSON Version: Original

(before-jstl/cities-json
(before jstl/cities json.jsp)
jsp)
{ headings: ["City", "Time", "Population"],
cities: [["${cities[0].name}",
[["${cities[0] name}" "${cities[0]
"${cities[0].shortTime}",
shortTime}"
"${cities[0].population}"],
["${cities[1].name}", "${cities[1].shortTime}",
"${cities[1] population}"]
"${cities[1].population}"],
["${cities[2].name}", "${cities[2].shortTime}",
"${cities[2].population}"],
["${ iti [3]
["${cities[3].name}",
}" "${cities[3].shortTime}",
"${ iti [3] h tTi }"
"${cities[3].population}"],
["${cities[4].name}", "${cities[4].shortTime}",
"${ iti [4]
"${cities[4].population}"]]
l ti }"]]
}

44
 JSON Version: Updated
(cities-json
(cities json.jsp)
jsp)
<%@ taglib prefix="c"
uri="http://java
uri= http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core
sun com/jsp/jstl/core" %>
{ headings: ["City", "Time", "Population"],
cities: [
<c:forEach var="city"
var city items
items="${cities}"
${cities} varStatus
varStatus="status">
status >
["${city.name}","${city.shortTime}","${city.population}"]
<c:if test="${!status.last}">,</c:if>
</c:forEach>
/
]
}
This is important because Internet Explorer
crashes for arrays and JSON objects with
trailing commas. E.g., these crash in IE:
var nums = [1, 2, 3, ];
var obj = { a: 1, b: 2, c: 3, };

45

JSON Version: Results

46
 Delimited String Version: Original
(before-jstl/cities-string
(before jstl/cities string.jsp)
jsp)
City#Time#Population
${cities[0] name}#${cities[0] shortTime}#${cities[0] population}
${cities[0].name}#${cities[0].shortTime}#${cities[0].population}
${cities[1].name}#${cities[1].shortTime}#${cities[1].population}
${cities[2].name}#${cities[2].shortTime}#${cities[2].population}
${cities[3] name}#${cities[3] shortTime}#${cities[3] population}
${cities[3].name}#${cities[3].shortTime}#${cities[3].population}
${cities[4].name}#${cities[4].shortTime}#${cities[4].population}

47

Delimited String Version: Updated

(cities-string
(cities string.jsp)
jsp)
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"
prefix="c"
prefix= c %>City#Time#Population
<c:forEach var="city" items="${cities}">
${city.name}#${city.shortTime}#${city.population}</c:forEach>

48
 String Version: Results

49

© 2009 Marty Hall

Logic Tags

Customized Java EE Training: http://courses.coreservlets.com/

Servlets, JSP, JSF 1.x & JSF 2.0, Struts Classic & Struts 2, Ajax, GWT, Spring, Hibernate/JPA, Java 5 & 6.
50 Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.
 Conditional Evaluation Tags
• One choice: if
<c:if test="${someTest}">
Content
</c:if>
• Lots of choices: choose
<c:choose>
<c:when test="test1">Content1</c:when>
<c:when test="test2">Content2</c:when>
...
<c:when test="testN">ContentN</c:when>
<c:otherwise>Default Content</c:otherwise>
</c:choose>

• Caution: resist use of business logic!

51

The "if" Tag

<%@ taglib prefix="c"
uri="http://java
uri= http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core
sun com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
%>
<UL>
<c:forEach var="i" begin="1" end="10">
<LI>${i}
<c:if test="${i > 7}">
(greater than 7)
</c:if>
</c:forEach>
</UL>

52
 The "choose" Tag
<%@ taglib prefix="c"
p //j /j p/j /
uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
<UL>
<c:forEach var="i" begin="1" end="10">
<LI>${i}
<c:choose>
<c:when test="${i < 4}">
(small)
</c:when>
<c:when test="${i < 8}">
(medium)
</c:when>
<c:otherwise>
(large)
</c:otherwise>
</c:choose>
</c:forEach>
/
</UL>
53

© 2009 Marty Hall

Using JSTL in JSF

g
Pages

Customized Java EE Training: http://courses.coreservlets.com/

Servlets, JSP, JSF 1.x & JSF 2.0, Struts Classic & Struts 2, Ajax, GWT, Spring, Hibernate/JPA, Java 5 & 6.
54 Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.
 Output Pages vs. Direct-Access
Pages
• Output pages
– IIn pages that
h are the
h result
l off a navigation
i i rulel (i.e.,
(i listed
li d
under to-view-id), you can use JSTL as shown on
previous slides
• Since
Si b
bean iis already
l d in i request,
t session,
i or application
li ti
• Direct access pages
– JSTL does not know about faces-config.xml,
faces config.xml, so you
cannot refer to beans that are listed there but not yet
instantiated
• Using
g direct-access ppages
g is rare in real life,, but is very
y
useful for testing when learning JSTL
• Solution: use h:outputText to refer to bean once first
– Declare bean containing array of numbers in faces-config.xml
– First num: <h:outputText value="#{myBean.numbers[0]}/>
– <c:forEach var="num" items="${myBean.numbers}>...
55

JSF Does Not Know About JSTL

Variables
• JSTL puts data in page scope
• This
Thi works
k
– <c:forEach var="name" items="${names}">
<LI>${name}
{ }
</c:forEach>
– Example assumes this is an output page and "names" set
earlier by JSF
• This fails
– <c:forEach var="name" items="names">
<LI><h:o tp tTe t value="#{name}"/>
<LI><h:outputText al e "#{name}"/>
</c:forEach>
• Supposedly fixed in JSTL 1.2
– But there are no standalone releases of JSTL 1.2
– Use facelets instead
56
 © 2009 Marty Hall

Database Access Tags

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Database Access Tags

• <sql:setDataSource>
– Specifies
S ifi ddata
t source (can
( also
l beb sett by
b config
fi settings)
tti )
• <sql:query>
– Queries
Q database and stores ResultSet in variable
– Warning: this usage violates rule of keeping business
logic out of presentation layer. Instead, do database
access in servlet and pass results to JSP via MVC.
• <sql:update>
• <sql:param>
• <sql:dateParam>
ld t P
• <sql:transaction>
– Performs the enclosed <sql:query> and <sql:update>
actions as a single transaction
58
 Aside: The Microsoft Access
Northwind Database
• Database that comes preinstalled with
Mi
Microsoft
f Office
Offi

59

Using Microsoft Access via

ODBC
• Click Start, Settings, Control Panel,
Ad i i
Administrative
i Tools,
T l Data
D Sources,
S System
S
DSN, and select Add

60
 Using Microsoft Access via
ODBC (Continued)
• Select Microsoft Access Driver, Finish, type
a name under
d Data
D S
Source N
Name, and d hit
hi
Select

61

Using Microsoft Access via

ODBC (Continued)
• Navigate to the Samples directory of MS
Offi
Office, select
l Northwind.mdb,
N h i d db hit hi OK,
OK then
h
hit OK in following two windows

62
 Using Microsoft Access via
ODBC (Continued)
• Driver
– sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver
• Comes bundled with JDK
• URL
– jdbc:odbc:Northwind
• Local access only;
y for testing.
g Not for serious applications.
• Username
– Empty string
• Password
– Empty string

63

sql:setDataSource
• You can set a data source globally via
configuration
fi i settings
i or application-scoped
li i d
variables.
– Preferred approach in real applications
• Or, you can set it on a specific page
<%@ taglib
g p
prefix="sql"
q
uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql" %>
<sql:setDataSource
driver="sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver"
j
url="jdbc:odbc:Northwind"
user=""
password
password=""/>
/>

64
 sql:query
• Form 1: use the sql attribute
<sql:query var="results" sql="SELECT * FROM …"/>
• Form 2: put the query in the body of the tag
<sql:query var="results">
var "results">
SELECT * FROM …
</sql:query>
• Options
– dataSource
– maxRows
– startRow
• Caution
– Embedding SQL directly in JSP may be hard to maintain.
65

Simple Example
<%@ taglib prefix="c"
uri="http://java
uri= http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core
sun com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
%>
<%@ taglib prefix="sql"
uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql" %>
<sql:setDataSource
driver="sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver"
url="jdbc:odbc:Northwind"
user=""
""
password=""/>

66
 Simple Example (Continued)
<sql:query var="employees">
SELECT * FROM employees
</sql:query>

<UL>
<c:forEach var="row" items="${employees.rows}">
<LI>${row.firstname}
${row.lastname}
</c:forEach>
/
</UL>

67

Simple Example: Results

68
 © 2009 Marty Hall

Other Tags

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69 Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.

URL-Handling Tags
• <c:import>
– Read content from arbitrary URLs
• Insert into page
• Store in variable
• Or make accessible via a reader
– Unlike <jsp:include>, not restricted to own system
• <c:redirect>
di
– Redirects response to specified URL
• <c:param>
– Encodes a request parameter and adds it to a URL
– May be used within body of <c:import> or <c:redirect>

70
 Formatting Tags
• <fmt:formatNumber>
– Formats a numeric value as a number, currency value, or
percent, in a locale-specific manner
• <fmt:parseNumber>
– Reads string representations of number, currency value,
or percent
p
• <fmt:formatDate>
• <fmt:parseDate>
• <fmt:timeZone>
• <fmt:setTimeZone>

71

Internationalization (I18N) Tags

• <fmt:setLocale>
– Sets Locale
• <fmt:setBundle>
• <fmt:bundle>
f t b dl
• <fmt:message>
– Retrieves
R ti localized
l li d message from
f a resource bundle
b dl
• <fmt:param>

72
 XML Manipulation Tags
• Core
– <x:parse>
• XPath
– <x:if>
if
– <x:choose>
– <x:when>
– <x:otherwise>
– <x:forEach>
• XSLT
– <x:transform>
– <x:param>

73

Summary
• JSTL overview
– JSTL is
i similar
i il to the
h oldld Struts
S looping
l i andd logic
l i tags, but
b better
b
– JSTL is standardized, but not a standard part of JSP
• You have to add JAR files to WEB-INF/lib
• It is
i supposed
d tto b
be iincluded
l d d with
ith allll JSF iimplementations
l t ti
• Supports a concise expression language
– Lets you access bean properties and implicit objects
– EL is standard part of JSP 2.0, JSP 2.1, and JSF
• Looping tags
– Explicit numeric values
– Arrays, collections, maps, strings, etc.
• Conditional evaluation tags
– Single options
– Multiple options
74
 Summary (Continued)
• Database Access Tags
– Always a bad idea when using MVC approach
• With or without a framework like JSF or Struts
– sql:setDataSource to specify a database
– sql:query to perform query
– Loop down results using iteration tags
• Other tags
– Handling URLS
– Internationalizing pages
– Formatting strings
– Manipulating XML
• Bad idea when using MVC
75

© 2009 Marty Hall

Questions?

Customized Java EE Training: http://courses.coreservlets.com/

Servlets, JSP, JSF 1.x & JSF 2.0, Struts Classic & Struts 2, Ajax, GWT, Spring, Hibernate/JPA, Java 5 & 6.
76 Developed and taught by well-known author and developer. At public venues or onsite at your location.