UDTT provides an extendable set of custom JSP tags that make it easier to create JSPs by limiting the amount of Java coding required to implement a JSP. The toolkit custom JSP tags are based on the JSP Custom Tags defined in the JSP 1.1 specification. The toolkit uses a tag library to describe the custom tags, their attributes, and their related Java classes (beans). A tag library (a TLD file) is an XML document that externalizes the tags. The toolkit uses the tags to instantiate JSPs based on the attributes of the tags and then render the HTML to display the JSPs.
You use the toolkit custom JSP tags in the same way you use any custom JSP tag that conforms to the JSP 1.1 specification. (If you are using Rational Application Developer to develop JSPs, you can see a representation of the tags at design time. See Visual custom tags.)
The JSP tags provided by the toolkit can be divided into the following categories:
▪ Simple components. These are a set of classes responsible for rendering the HTML contents based on the attributes of the tag and the dynamic information obtained from the context for the associated data name. These classes are stateless (no data from the session is needed). Following are the simple components:
▪ LabelTag
▪ TextFieldTag
▪ CheckBoxTag
▪ RadioButtonTag
▪ ComboBoxTag
▪ LabelListTag
▪ ListTag
▪ ButtonGroupTag
▪ TextAreaTag
▪ TableTag
▪ EditableTableTag
▪ SelectableTableTag
▪ FieldDescriptionTag
▪ FieldErrorTag
▪ ValidationErrorsTag
▪ AddBundleTag
▪ ResourceTag
Containers. The following tags are containers for the simple components listed above:
▪ FormTag
Control tags. These tags provide the functionality needed for submitting the required hidden fields to the client. This is done to get them back to the server side when the user performs a submit action in the rendered page. FormTag is also a container. Following are the control tags: