The Java EE 5 Tutorial

Declaring Tags

The tag directive is similar to the JSP page’s page directive but applies to tag files. Some of the elements in the tag directive appear in the tag element of a TLD (see Declaring Tag Handlers). Table 8–2 lists the tag directive attributes.

Table 8–2 tag Directive Attributes

Attribute 

Description 

display-name

(optional) A short name that is intended to be displayed by tools. Defaults to the name of the tag file without the extension .tag.

body-content

(optional) Provides information on the content of the body of the tag. Can be either empty, tagdependent, or scriptless. A translation error will result if JSP or any other value is used. Defaults to scriptless. See body-content Attribute.

dynamic-attributes

(optional) Indicates whether this tag supports additional attributes with dynamic names. The value identifies a scoped attribute in which to place a Map containing the names and values of the dynamic attributes passed during invocation of the tag.

A translation error results if the value of the dynamic-attributes of a tag directive is equal to the value of a name-given of a variable directive or the value of a name attribute of an attribute directive.

small-icon

(optional) Relative path, from the tag source file, of an image file containing a small icon that can be used by tools. Defaults to no small icon. 

large-icon

(optional) Relative path, from the tag source file, of an image file containing a large icon that can be used by tools. Defaults to no large icon. 

description

(optional) Defines an arbitrary string that describes this tag. Defaults to no description. 

example

(optional) Defines an arbitrary string that presents an informal description of an example of a use of this action. Defaults to no example. 

language

(optional) Carries the same syntax and semantics of the language attribute of the page directive.

import

(optional) Carries the same syntax and semantics of the import attribute of the page directive.

pageEncoding

(optional) Carries the same syntax and semantics of the page-Encoding attribute in the page directive.

isELIgnored

(optional) Carries the same syntax and semantics of the isEL-Ignored attribute of the page directive.