A Brief Introduction to JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL)

Introduction

This article explains the JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL) in Java. The NetBeans IDE is used to create the sample example.

JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL)

The JSTL represents a set of tags to simplify the JSP development.

The JSTL tags can be classified by their functions, in other words the JSTL mainly provides the following 5 types of tags:

Core tags
SQL tags
XML tags
Formatting tags
Functions tags

1. Core Tags

The core group of tags are the most frequently used tags. The syntax is:

<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>

Note:

A "URI" is a Uniform Resource Identifier. It is a string of characters that identify the name of a web source. It contains a string of addresses to identify a resource or a name on the internet over a browser. It identifies either by name, or location, or both.

Examples:

url: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/MyAccount
uri: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/MyAccount
urn: MyAccount

Some commonly used tags of Core Tags are:

<c:out>

Used to print the expression or result.

<c:url>

Used to create a URL with optional parameters.

<c:set>

Used to set the result of an expression in a scope.

<c:catch>

Used to catch the exception that is generated during program execution.

<c:remove>

Used to remove the scoped variable.

<c:choose>

It's a conditional tag that establishes a context for mutually-exclusive conditional operations, marked by <when> and <otherwise>.

<c:if>

Used to test a condition if it matches, then the result is displayed else not displayed.

<c:import>

Used to import the URL of other sites.

<c:when>

It is a sub-tag of <choose> that includes its body when the condition is "true".

etcetera.

2. SQL Tags

<sql:query>

Used to execute the query written in the body part.

<sql:update>

Used to execute the update query defined in the body part.

<sql:param>

Used to set a parameter in an SQL statement.

<sql:dateParam>

Used to set a date parameter in an SQL statement.

<sql:transaction>

Provides nested database action elements with a shared connection.

3. XML Tags

The JSTL XML tags provide a JSP-centric way of creating and manipulating XML documents. The following is the syntax to include the XML tags.

Syntax:

<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/xml" prefix="x" %>

<x:out>

Used in an expression tag, just like <c:out> but written for XML.

<x:param>

Used alond with the transform tag to set parameters.

<x:set>

Used to set a path variable.

<x:parse>

Used to parse XML data specified, either via an attribute or in the tag or in the tag body.

<x:if>
<x:choose>
<x:when>
<x:otherwise>
<x:forEach>

They are all conditional tags by name; their functionality is defined.

etcetera

4. Function Tags

fn:contains()

Test for the substring.

fn:trim()

Used to remove white spaces from both ends of strings.

fn:containsIgnoreCase()

Tests if an input string contains the specified sub-string.

fn:substring()

Used to return a subset of a string.

fn:substringAfter()

Returns a subset of a string following a specific procedure.

fn:join()

Used to join all elements of an array to the string.

etcetera.

5. Formatting Tags

Used to format and display text, values, date, numbers, and time.

Syntax

<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/fmt" prefix="fmt" %>

Some formatting tags are:

<fmt:requestEncoding>

Used to sets the request character encoding.

<fmt:timeZone>

Used to specify the time zone for any time formatting or parsing actions.

<fmt:message>

Used to display a message.

etcetera.

Let's use a simple example

In this example we print the current date and time using JSTL Tags.

For this example use the following procedure in the NetBeans IDE.

Step 1

Open the NetBeans IDE.

Step 2

Choose "Java web" -> "Web application" as shown below.

Step 3

Type your project name as "JSTLDemoApp" as in the following.

Step 4

Now choose your Java version and server wizard as shown below.

Step 5

Now replace the body part of your default "index.jsp" page with the following.

index.jsp

<%@page contentType="text/html" pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<title>Index Page</title>

</head>

<body>

<table>

<tr><td>First Name:</td><td> <input type="text" name="fname"></td></tr>

</table>

</form>

</body>

</html>

Step 6

Create a new JSP file named "process.jsp" and write the following code there.

process.jsp

<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" %>

<%@page contentType="text/html" pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

</head>

<body>

<table>

<tr><td>First Name:</td>

</table>

</body>

</html>

Note:

Add a jstl.jar file to the project library. You can directly download this jar file from Oracle Website.

Step 7

Now your application is ready to run.

Right-click on the project menu, then select "Run"; the following output is generated.

Step 8

Now provide your name as in the following.

Step 9

After clicking on "Submit" we get the following output.