Add documentation to Spring MVC/JSP/JSTL integration regarding webapp versions [SPR-3695]

[spring-projects-issues]

Peter Mularien opened SPR-3695 and commented

A very common issue with new adopters of Spring MVC is confusion over how to get JSTL working in their application server. Although the Spring docs can't possibly cover every application server, since I try to help out newbies on the forums, I've noticed a few common problems/pitfalls that might be worthwhile to document in section 14.2 of the documentation.

The basis for some of this is that for a lot of people, when using Spring MVC, they are also attempting to use JSTL for the first time. So although some of the blame for these common issues falls on Sun, I think it would be worthwhile to cover some of them in the Spring docs, because people ultimately come to the Spring Web forums to get them solved (thinking that they are Spring problems).

Here's a few suggestions, feel free to document some or all of them.

The most common problem is people trying to use JSTL without declaring their web application as a servlet 2.4 (or higher) web app. In compliant application servers (most commonly reported is Tomcat), this will disable JSTL 2.0 evaluation. The documentation should provide an example web.xml snippet illustrating where the webapp version is set, and indicate the minimum required version to get JSTL 2.0 evaluation (a list of app servers supporting this would be nice, too ;) ).

There are many, many threads in the Spring Web forum regarding this confusion. Do a search with the terms "+jstl +version". Examples:
http://forum.springframework.org/showthread.php?t=35085&highlight=jstl+version
http://forum.springframework.org/showthread.php?t=38850&highlight=jstl+version
http://forum.springframework.org/showthread.php?t=27858&highlight=jstl+version
... etc.

Another common problem is people being confused over which JSTL taglib declaration to use, and how to reference JSTL within the page.

More documentation on how to set up JSTL with MessageSourceAccessors, along with an example.

I can't think of anything else at the moment, but I'd suggest reviewing some of the recent forum postings for ideas on additional topics. I always found it kind of odd that the documentation for how to use Spring with FreeMarker is more dense than the docs for Spring + JSP/JSTL :)

Part of the problem (I think) is that the only MVC tutorial that's on the web site (step-by-step) is extremely outdated. It would be great if we could put together an example that is as simple, while being updated for Spring 2.x (but that's the topic of another JIRA).

Let me know if I can help at all with this effort.

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Affects: 2.0.6

Referenced from: commits 89d997a

4 votes, 5 watchers

[spring-projects-issues]

Bryan Shannon commented

Wow, if you've never done any JSTL before, it'd be worth mentioning some common issues about the web.xml (and versions, etc.). I had a problem interpolating ${somevar} into a jsp page, (even when I copied and pasted from the sample applications) for HOURS, until I ran upon Peter Mularien's site at http://www.mularien.com/blog/2008/02/26/5-minute-guide-to-spring-and-simpler-jdbc/. (thanks, Peter!)

As a new web developer (having used Spring for years for a IoC for my FAT client), even though I have a ton of books on the subject... Just TRY searching for "jstl" or "jsp" or any combination thereof on google.... You'll feel like you've just been introduced to the toilet for the first time.

Thanks! Just voting for this to bring some attention to it.

-Regards, and...
Almost willing to switch to a new Spring-supported view technology,
-Bryan Shannon

BTW, I know this is not Spring's fault. I don't leave it to SpringSource to fix it. I'm just putting this out there so that some other schmucks won't have the same trouble I did.

[spring-projects-issues]

Bryan Shannon commented

The previous link should have pointed to a more-direct page:
http://www.mularien.com/blog/2007/11/14/spring-25-rc2-out-includes-new-spring-mvc-tutorial/

[spring-projects-issues]

Peter Mularien commented

I'd just like to add that Sam or whoever is responsible for documentation these days is definitely allowed to use any of the content from my research into this issue to improve the Spring documentation. And thanks to Bryan for the links to my blog articles - I think the one that's pertinent to this particular issue is the one on how to configure JSTL in various scenarios:

http://www.mularien.com/blog/2008/04/24/how-to-reference-and-use-jstl-in-your-web-application/

Any/all feedback is appreciated.

[spring-projects-issues]

Luke Taylor commented

Spring 3.0 is requires 2.4+ as a minimum, which should help a bit on this issue. Peter's article seems quite comprehensive, so rather than adding yet more material to the manual and effectively duplicating the content, we'll probably add a reference to the article with some appropriate pointers on why you should read it.

[spring-projects-issues]

Luke Taylor commented

I've added a note to the "View technologies" chapter where JSP and JSTL is discussed, with a link to Peter's article.