RE: SSI With Tomcat? -- JAVA400-L

Brad,

We have been using ColdFusion here for a while. ColdFusion supports its 
own tags that can be embedded in your HTML.  The ColdFusion server 
interprets these tags and supplies the necessary logic/content.  I just got 
Tomcat last week and found out that it supports its own custom tags.  The 
way they are implemented is more logical than CF, but as far as I know, 
they are not as tightly integrated with any development environment.  That 
should not be a problem, maybe WebSphere Studio should take this as 
an opportunity.

Here is an excerpt from the Jakarta page at http://jakarta.apache.org/taglibs/:

"Tag libraries are composed of a set of custom tags. These custom tags 
help separate presentation from implementation. What this means is that 
web designers can change the layout without worrying about modifying 
the underlying logic. Custom tags also help developers avoid embedding 
scripting code within the JSP page as well as encourage reuse and ease 
maintainability.

Custom tags are not just bean tags. Custom tags can modify the content 
within the tag body and have access to the application context. Some of 
the ways they can be used include dynamically generating page content 
and implementing flow of control. They can interact with each other 
including being nested."

David Morris

>>> bvstone@taylorcorp.com 02/27/01 06:06AM >>>
I'm not familiar with what you mean by custom tag.  :)

SSIs are probably one of my favorite aspects of web programming.  it allows
you to actually build "modular" web page.  Using SSIs you can build a header
for your web site.  Then, for each page, you simply use SSI to "include" it.
When you change the header in the one place, it changes everywhere.

SSI can also be used with CGI programs.  So, you can insert neat little
things in your page.  For example, on my web page (www.bvstools.com) there
is a Top 5 Downloads table in the upper right corner of each page listing
the top 5 downloads.  Trust me, I don't update that myself.  :)  it'a an
e-RPG program that reads a file with the number of downloads that is simply
"included" with SSI.

rad

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Morris [mailto:dmorris@plumcreek.com] 
> Sent: Monday, February 26, 2001 5:18 PM
> To: JAVA400-L@midrange.com 
> Subject: Re: SSI With Tomcat?
> 
> 
> Brad,
> 
> What does this buy for you over a custom tag?  I never did 
> figure out how 
> to use SSIs, so maybe it is obvious.  Just curious.
> 
> David Morris
> 
> >>> bvstone@taylorcorp.com 02/16/01 07:00AM >>>
> Does anyone know if Tomcat allows SSI?  And if so, how?  I can't find
> anything in the docs about it.  I'm not talking about 
> embedding servlets, I
> want to use <!--#include virtual="/a.../file.html"-->
> 
> Brad


+---
| This is the JAVA/400 Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to JAVA400-L@midrange.com.
| To subscribe to this list send email to JAVA400-L-SUB@midrange.com.
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to JAVA400-L-UNSUB@midrange.com.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner: joe@zappie.net
+---