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Overview of Tag Libraries and Utilities

This manual documents tag libraries, JavaBeans, and other utilities supplied with Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE (OC4J) that are implemented according to JSP standards. There is also a discussion of support for the JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL), and a section summarizing tag libraries provided with Oracle components outside of OC4J.

Oracle-specific features, as well as an introduction to the OC4J JSP container, standard JSP technology, and standard JSP 1.2 tag library features, are covered in the Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE Support for JavaServer Pages Developer's Guide.

This chapter consists of the following sections:

• Overview of Tag Libraries and Utilities Provided with OC4J

• Summary of Oracle Caching Support for Web Applications

• Support for the JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library

• Overview of Tag Libraries from Other Oracle Components

Tags and JavaBeans introduced in the first section provide functionality in several different areas, including type extensions, integration with XML/XSL, database access, and programming convenience.

Note: The Sample Applications chapter available in previous releases has been removed. Applications that were listed there are available in the OC4J demos, available from the following location on the Oracle Technology Network (requiring an OTN membership, which is free of charge): http://otn.oracle.com/tech/java/oc4j/demos/

Overview of Tag Libraries and Utilities Provided with OC4J

The Oracle extensions that are introduced in the following sections are implemented through tag libraries or custom JavaBeans that comply with JSP and JavaBeans standards.

• Tag Syntax Symbology and Notes

• Overview of Extended Type JavaBeans

• Overview of JspScopeListener for Event-Handling

• Overview of Integration with XML and XSL

• Summary of Data-Access JavaBeans and Tag Library

• Summary of JSP Markup Language (JML) Custom Tag Library

• Summary of Oracle Application Server Personalization Tag Library

• Summary of Web Services Tags

• Summary of File Access and Mail Tags

• Summary of EJB Tags

• Summary of JSP Utility Tags

Be aware that some custom tag libraries provided with OC4J--XML, data-access, and JML--pre-date the JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL) and have areas of duplicate functionality. For standards compliance, it is now generally advisable to use JSTL instead of these custom libraries. See "Support for the JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library".

Oracle is not desupporting the existing libraries, however. For features in the custom library that are not yet available in JSTL, where there seems to be general usefulness, Oracle will try to have the features adopted into the JSTL standard as appropriate.

Notes: See "Summary of Oracle Caching Support for Web Applications" for information about tag libraries provided with OC4J to support caching features. See the OC4J demos for sample applications using the features introduced in this section. They can be downloaded from the following location on the Oracle Technology Network (requiring an OTN membership, which is free of charge): http://otn.oracle.com/tech/java/oc4j/demos/

Tag Syntax Symbology and Notes

For the syntax documentation in tag descriptions throughout this manual, note the following:

• Italic indicates that you must specify a value or string.

• Optional attributes are enclosed in square brackets: [...]

• Default values of optional attributes are indicated in bold.

• Choices in attribute values are separated by vertical bars: |

• Except where noted, you can use JSP runtime expressions to set tag attribute values: "<%= jspExpression %>"

• Tag descriptions in this manual use certain tag prefixes by convention; however, you can designate any desired prefix in your taglib directives.

Overview of Extended Type JavaBeans

JSP pages generally rely on core Java types in representing scalar values. However, neither of the following standard type categories is fully suitable for use in JSP pages:

• Primitive types such as int, float, and double

  Values of these types cannot have a specified scope. They cannot be stored in a JSP scope object (for page, request, session, or application scope), because only objects can be stored in a scope object.

• Wrapper classes in the standard java.lang package, such as Integer, Float, and Double

  Values of these types are objects, so they can theoretically be stored in a JSP scope object. However, they cannot be declared in a jsp:useBean action, because the wrapper classes do not follow the JavaBean model and do not provide zero-argument constructors.

  Additionally, instances of the wrapper classes are immutable. To change a value, you must create a new instance and assign it appropriately.

To work around these limitations, OC4J provides the JmlBoolean, JmlNumber, JmlFPNumber, and JmlString JavaBean classes in package oracle.jsp.jml to wrap the most common Java types.

For information, see Chapter 2, "JavaBeans for Extended Types".

Overview of JspScopeListener for Event-Handling

OC4J provides the JspScopeListener interface for lifecycle management of Java objects of various scopes within a JSP application.

Standard servlet and JSP event-handling is provided through the javax.servlet.http.HttpSessionBindingListener interface, but this is for session-based events only. The Oracle JspScopeListener can be integrated with HttpSessionBindingListener to manage session-based events, and can handle page-based, request-based, and application-based events as well.

For information, see "JSP Event-Handling with JspScopeListener".

Overview of Integration with XML and XSL

You can use JSP syntax to generate any text-based MIME type, not just HTML code. In particular, you can dynamically create XML output. When you use JSP pages to generate an XML document, however, you often want a stylesheet applied to the XML data before it is sent to the client. This is difficult in JavaServer Pages technology, because the standard output stream used for a JSP page is written directly back through the server.

OC4J provides special tags to specify that all or part of a JSP page should be transformed through an XSL stylesheet before it is output. Input can be from the tag body or from an XML DOM object, and output can be to an XML DOM object to the browser.

You can use these tags multiple times in a single JSP page if you want to specify different style sheets for different portions of the page.

There is additional XML support as well:

• A utility tag converts data from an input stream to an XML DOM object.

• Several tags, for such features as caching and SQL operations, now can take XML objects as input or send them as output.

XML utility tags are summarized in Table 1-1. Note that there is also XML functionality in the dbOpen SQL tag and the cacheXMLObj Web Object Cache tag. For more information, see Chapter 5, "XML and XSL Tag Support".

You can find information about standard JSP 1.2 XML support in the Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE Support for JavaServer Pages Developer's Guide.

Table 1-1 Summary of XML Utility Tags  

Tag	Description	Attributes
transform	Output XML data with an XSL transformation, either to an HTTP client or a specified XML DOM object.	href fromXMLObjName toXMLObjName toWriter
styleSheet	Same as transform tag.	href fromXMLObjName toXMLObjName toWriter
parsexml	Convert from an input stream to an XML DOM object.	resource toXMLObjName validateResource root

Summary of Data-Access JavaBeans and Tag Library

OC4J supplies a set of custom JavaBeans for use in accessing Oracle Database. The following beans are provided in the oracle.jsp.dbutil package:

• ConnBean opens a database connection. This bean also supports data sources and connection pooling.

• ConnCacheBean uses the Oracle connection caching implementation for database connections. (This requires JDBC 2.0.)

• DBBean executes a database query.

• CursorBean provides general DML support for queries; UPDATE, INSERT, and DELETE statements; and stored procedure calls.

For information, see "JavaBeans for Data Access".

For JSP programmers, OC4J also provides a custom tag library for SQL functionality, wrapping the functionality of the JavaBeans. These tags are summarized in Table 1-2. For further information, see "SQL Tags for Data Access".

Table 1-2 Summary of Data-Access Tag Library  

Tag	Description	Attributes
dbOpen	Open a database connection. This tag also supports data sources and connection pooling.	connId scope dataSource user password URL commitOnClose
dbClose	Close a database connection.	connId scope
dbQuery	Execute a query.	queryId connId scope output maxRows skipRows bindParams toXMLObjName
dbCloseQuery	Close the cursor for a query.	queryId
dbNextRow	Process the rows of a result set.	queryId
dbExecute	Execute any SQL statement (DML or DDL).	connId scope output bindParams
dbSetParam	Set a parameter to bind into a dbQuery or dbExecute tag.	name value scope
dbSetCookie	Set a cookie.	name value domain comment maxAge version secure path

Summary of JSP Markup Language (JML) Custom Tag Library

Although the JSP specification supports scripting languages other than Java, Java is the primary language used. Even though JavaServer Pages technology is designed to separate the dynamic/Java development effort from the static/HTML development effort, it is a hindrance if the Web developer does not know any Java, especially in small development groups where no Java experts are available.

OC4J provides custom tags as an alternative: the JSP Markup Language (JML). The Oracle JML tag library provides an additional set of JSP tags so that you can script your JSP pages without using Java statements. JML provides tags for variable declarations, control flow, conditional branches, iterative loops, parameter settings, and calls to objects. The JML tag library also supports XML functionality, as noted previously.

The following example shows use of the JML for tag, repeatedly printing "Hello World" in progressively smaller headings (H1, H2, H3, H4, H5):

<jml:for id="i" from="<%= 1 %>" to="<%= 5 %>" >
     <H<%=i%>>
            Hello World!
     </H<%=i%>>
</jml:for>

The JML tag library is summarized in Table 1-3. For more information, see Chapter 3, "JSP Markup Language Tags".

Table 1-3 Summary of JSP Markup Language Tag Library  

Tag	Description	Attributes
useVariable	This tag offers a convenient alternative to the jsp:useBean tag for declaring simple variables.	id scope type value
useForm	This tag provides a convenient syntax for declaring variables and setting them to values passed in from the request.	id scope type param
useCookie	This tag offers a convenient syntax for declaring variables and setting them to values contained in cookies.	id scope type cookie
remove	This tag removes an object from its scope.	id scope
if	This tag evaluates a single conditional statement. If the condition is true, then the body of the if tag is executed.	condition
choose	The choose tag, with associated when and otherwise tags, provides a multiple conditional statement.	(None)
when	This is used with the choose tag.	condition
otherwise	This is optionally used with the choose and when tags.	(None)
for	This tag provides the ability to iterate through a loop, as with a Java for loop.	id from to
foreach	This tag provides the ability to iterate over a homogeneous set of values in a Java array, Enumeration instance, or Vector instance.	id in limit type
return	When this tag is reached, execution returns from the page without further processing.	(None)
flush	This tag writes the current contents of the page buffer back to the client. This applies only if the page is buffered; otherwise, there is no effect.	(None)

Note: Oracle JSP container versions preceding the JSP 1.1 specification use an Oracle-specific compile-time implementation of the JML tag library. Oracle still supports this implementation as an alternative to the standard runtime implementation, as documented in Appendix A, "JML Compile-Time Syntax and Tags".

Summary of Oracle Application Server Personalization Tag Library

Web site personalization is a mechanism to tailor recommendations to users of a site, based on behavioral and demographic data. Recommendations are made in real-time, during a user's Web session. User behavior is saved to a database repository for use in building models for predictions of future user behavior.

OracleAS Personalization uses data mining algorithms in Oracle Database to choose the most relevant content available for a user. Recommendations are calculated by an OracleAS Personalization recommendation engine, using typically large amounts of data regarding past and current user behavior. This is superior to other approaches that rely on common-sense heuristics and require manual definition of rules in the system.

The OracleAS Personalization tag library brings this functionality to a wide audience of JSP developers for use in HTML, XML, or JavaScript pages. The tag interface is layered on top of the Java API of the recommendation engine.

Table 1-4 summarizes the OracleAS Personalization tag library. See Chapter 10, "Personalization Tags" for information.

Table 1-4 Summary of OracleAS Personalization Tag Library  

Tag	Description	Attributes
startRESession	Start an OracleAS Personalization recommendation engine session.	REName REURL RESchema REPassword RECacheSize REFlushInterval applicationSession createSession userType userID storeUserIDIn disableRecording
endRESession	Explicitly end a recommendation engine session.	(None)
setVisitorToCustomer	Use this tag for situations where an anonymous visitor creates a registered customer account.	customerID
getRecommendations	Request a set of recommendations for purchasing, navigation, or ratings.	from fromHotPicksGroups storeResultsIn storeInterestDimensionIn maxQuantity tuningName tuningDataSource tuningInterestDimension tuningPersonalizationIndex tuningProfileDataBalance tuningProfileUsage filteringName filteringTaxonomyID filteringMethod filteringCategories sortOrder
getCrossSellRecommendations	Request a set of recommendations for purchasing, navigation, or ratings, based on input of a set of past items (such as past purchases) that are used as a basis for the recommendations.	storeResultsIn storeInterestDimensionIn fromHotPicksGroups inputItemList maxQuantity tuningName tuningDataSource tuningInterestDimension tuningPersonalizationIndex tuningProfileDataBalance tuningProfileUsage filteringName filteringTaxonomyID filteringMethod filteringCategories sortOrder
selectFromHotPicks	Request recommendations from a set of "hot picks" groups only.	hotPicksGroups storeResultsIn storeInterestDimensionIn maxQuantity tuningName tuningDataSource tuningInterestDimension tuningPersonalizationIndex tuningProfileDataBalance tuningProfileUsage filteringName filteringTaxonomyID filteringMethod filteringCategories sortOrder
evaluateItems	Evaluate only the set of items that are input to the tag.	storeResultsIn taxonomyID inputItemList tuningName tuningDataSource tuningInterestDimension tuningPersonalizationIndex tuningProfileDataBalance tuningProfileUsage sortOrder
forItem	Select individual items input to a tag that requires an input list.	index itemList type ID
getNextItem	Optionally use this tag within some recommendation tags to access and process returned items.	storeTypeIn storeIDIn storeItemIn
recordNavigation	Record a navigation item into the recommendation engine session cache.	type ID index itemList
recordPurchase	Record a purchasing item into the recommendation engine session cache.	type ID index itemList
recordRating	Record a rating item into the recommendation engine session cache.	value type ID index itemList
recordDemographic	Record a demographic item into the recommendation engine session cache.	type value
removeNavigationRecord	Remove a navigation item that had been recorded into the recommendation engine session cache earlier in the session.	type ID index itemList
removePurchaseRecord	Remove a purchasing item that had been recorded into the recommendation engine session cache earlier in the session.	type ID index itemList
removeRatingRecord	Remove a rating item that had been recorded into the recommendation engine session cache earlier in the session.	value type ID index itemList
removeDemographicRecord	Remove a demographic item that had been recorded into the recommendation engine session cache earlier in the session.	type value

Summary of Web Services Tags

The Web services tag library provided with OC4J enables developers to conveniently create JSP pages for Web service client applications. The implementation uses a SOAP-based mechanism, supporting RPC-style or document-style services. A client application would access a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) document, then use the WSDL information to access the operations of a Web service.

The tag library also uses the Oracle implementation of the dynamic invocation API, described in the Oracle Application Server Web Services Developer's Guide. When a client application acquires a WSDL document at runtime, the dynamic invocation API is the vehicle for invoking any SOAP operation described in the WSDL document.

The Web services tag library is summarized in Table 1-5. For more information, see Chapter 11, "Web Services Tags".

Table 1-5 Summary of Web Services Tag Library  

Tag	Description	Attributes
webservice	Create a Web service proxy. The tag requires the URL of a WSDL document and uses either a binding and SOAP location or a service name and port in creating the proxy.	wsdlUrl id scope binding soapLocation service port
map	Use map tags nested within a webservice tag to have the Web service proxy add entries to the SOAP mapping registry for type mapping between SOAP/XML and Java. Use one map tag for each desired type mapping.	localName namespaceUri javaType encodingStyle java2xmlClassName xml2javaClassName
property	Optionally use this tag to specify a name/value pair that defines any of several supported custom properties for use by the Web service client application.	name value
invoke	Invoke an operation of a Web service. The invoke tag gains access to a Web service proxy either by being nested within a webservice tag or by accessing a Web service proxy scripting variable created in a webservice tag.	id operation webservice inputMsgName outputMsgName xmlToWriter toXMLObjName
part	Use this tag if the operation being performed requires input message part values, using one part tag for each input part.	name value

Summary of File Access and Mail Tags

OC4J provides tag libraries for file access (uploading and downloading) and for sending e-mail messages from an application.

For uploading files, you can use the httpUpload tag or the oracle.jsp.webutil.fileaccess.HttpUploadBean JavaBean. For downloading, there is the httpDownload tag or the HttpDownloadBean JavaBean. Table 1-6 summarizes the file access tags. For more information, see "File-Access JavaBeans and Tags".

Table 1-6 Summary of File Access Tag Library  

Tag	Description	Attributes
httpUploadForm	For convenience, you can use this tag to create a form in your application, using multipart encoded form data, that allows users to specify the files to upload.	formsAction maxFiles fileNameSize maxFileNameSize includeNumbers submitButtonText
httpUpload	Upload files from the client to a server. You can upload into either a file system or a database.	destination destinationType connId scope overwrite fileType table prefixColumn fileNameColumn dataColumn
httpDownload	Download files from a server to the client. You can download from either a file system or a database.	servletPath source sourceType connId scope recurse fileType table prefixColumn fileNameColumn dataColumn

For sending e-mail messages, optionally with server-side or client-side attachments, you can use the oracle.jsp.webutil.email.SendMailBean JavaBean or the sendMail tag. Table 1-7 summarizes the sendMail tag. See "Mail JavaBean and Tag" for more information.

Table 1-7 Summary of sendMail Tag  

Tag	Description	Attributes
sendMail	Send an e-mail message from a JSP page. Tag functionality includes globalization support.	host sender recipient cc bcc subject contentType contentEncoding serverAttachment clientAttachment

Summary of EJB Tags

OC4J provides a custom tag library to simplify the use of Enterprise JavaBeans in JSP pages. The functionality of the OC4J EJB tags follows the J2EE specification. The tags allow you to instantiate EJBs by name, using configuration information in the web.xml file.

There are tags to create a home instance, create an EJB instance, and iterate through a collection of EJBs. Table 1-8 summarizes the EJB tag library. See "EJB Tags" for more information.

Table 1-8 Summary of EJB Tag Library  

Tag	Description	Attributes
useHome	Look up the home interface for the EJB and create an instance of it.	id type location local
useBean	Instantiate and use the EJB. The functionality is similar to that of the standard jsp:useBean tag for a JavaBean.	id type value scope local
createBean	For first instantiating an EJB, if you do not use the value attribute of the EJB useBean tag, you must nest an EJB createBean tag within the useBean tag to do the work of creating the EJB instance.	instance
iterate	Iterate through a collection of EJB instances (more typical for entity beans).	id type collection max

Summary of JSP Utility Tags

OC4J has utility tags for displaying a date, displaying an amount of money in the appropriate currency, displaying a number, iterating through a collection, evaluating and including the tag body (depending on whether the user belongs to a specified role), and displaying the last modification date of the current file. Table 1-9 summarizes these tags. See "General Utility Tags" for more information.

Table 1-9 Summary of General Utility Tag Library  

Tag	Description	Attributes
displayCurrency	Display a specified amount of money, formatted as currency for the locale.	amount locale
displayDate	Display a specified date, formatted appropriately for the locale.	date locale
displayNumber	Display the specified number, for the locale and optionally in the specified format.	number locale format
iterate	Iterate through a collection.	id type collection max
ifInRole	Evaluate the tag body and include it in the body of the JSP page, depending on whether the user is in the specified application role.	role include
lastModified	Display the date of the last modification of the current file, in appropriate format for the locale.	locale

Summary of Oracle Caching Support for Web Applications

This section provides the following information:

• An introduction to caching features supported by the Oracle Application Server in general and the OC4J JSP container in particular

• A discussion of the role of the OC4J Web Object Cache in relation to other Oracle Application Server caching components

• A summary of tag libraries relating to caching features

The Oracle tag libraries introduced in this section comply with JSP standards.

Note: See the OC4J demos for sample applications using the features introduced in this section. The can be downloaded from the following location on the Oracle Technology Network: http://otn.oracle.com/tech/java/oc4j/demos/

Oracle Application Server and JSP Caching Features

The Oracle Application Server and OC4J provide the following caching features:

• Oracle Application Server Web Cache

  This is an HTTP-level cache, maintained outside the application, providing very fast cache operations. It is a content-based cache, capable of caching static data (such as HTML, GIF, or JPEG files) or dynamic data (such as servlet or JSP results). Given that it exists as a content-based cache outside the application, it cannot cache objects (such as Java objects or XML DOM objects) in a Java object format. In addition, post-processing operations applicable to cached data cannot be coded in Java and are predefined by the cache itself.

  The OracleAS Web Cache provides an ESI processor to support Edge Side Includes, an XML-style markup language that allows dynamic content assembly away from the Web server. This technology enables you to separate cacheable pages into distinct cached objects, as desired. OC4J supports this technology through its JESI tag library.

  For an overview of Edge Side Includes and the OracleAS Web Cache, as well as detailed documentation of the JESI tag library, see Chapter 6, "JESI Tags for Edge Side Includes".

  For additional information about the OracleAS Web Cache, see the Oracle Application Server Web Cache Administrator's Guide.

• OC4J Web Object Cache

  This is an application-level cache that is embedded and maintained within a Java Web application. It is a hybrid cache, both Web-based and object-based. A custom tag library or API enables you to define page fragment boundaries and to capture, store, reuse, process, and manage the intermediate and partial execution results of JSP pages and servlets as cached objects. Each page fragment can produce a separate cache object. The produced objects can be HTML or XML text fragments, XML DOM objects, or Java serializable objects. These objects can be cached conveniently in association with HTTP request and session semantics. Alternatively, they can be reused outside HTTP, such as when an application outputs cached XML objects through Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Java Messaging Service (JMS), Advanced Queueing (AQ), or Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP).

  For more information, see Chapter 7, "Web Object Cache Tags and API".

• Oracle Application Server Java Object Cache

  The Oracle Application Server Java Object Cache is a general-use Java cache to manage Java objects within a process, across processes, and on local disk. By managing local copies of objects that are difficult or expensive to retrieve or create, the Java Object Cache can significantly improve application performance. By default, the OC4J Web Object Cache uses the Oracle Application Server Java Object Cache as its underlying cache repository.

  For details about the Java Object Cache, see the Oracle Application Server Containers for J2EE Services Guide.

Role of the JSP Web Object Cache

It is important to understand the role of the OC4J Web Object Cache in the overall setup of a Web application. It works at the Java level and is closely integrated with the HTTP environment of servlet and JSP applications. By contrast, the Oracle Application Server Java Object Cache works at the Java object level, but is not integrated with HTTP. As for the OracleAS Web Cache, it is well integrated with HTTP and is orders of magnitude faster than the Web Object Cache, but it does not operate at the Java level and cannot be directly invoked by Web application code. For example, it cannot apply a style sheet to a cached DOM object within the J2EE container, reuse the cached result in other protocols, or allow direct DOM operations. OracleAS Web Cache can, however, apply a style sheet to text-based XML documents, as opposed to DOM objects, that were cached from the original Web server through HTTP.

The Web Object Cache is not intended for use as the main Web cache for an application. It is an auxiliary cache embedded within the same Java virtual machine that is running your servlets and JSP pages. Because the retrieval path for cached results in the Web Object Cache includes the JVM and the JSP and servlet engines, it generally takes much longer to serve a page from the Web Object Cache compared to the OracleAS Web Cache.

The Web Object Cache does not replace or eliminate the need for either the OracleAS Web Cache or the Oracle Application Server Java Object Cache. It is a complementary caching component in the overall framework of a Web application and should be used together with the other caching products, as appropriate. In fact, the Web Object Cache uses the Java Object Cache as its default repository. And through combined use of the OC4J JESI tags and Web Object Cache tags, you can use the Web Object Cache and OracleAS Web Cache together in the same page.

Web Object Cache Versus OracleAS Web Cache

Think of the OracleAS Web Cache as the primary caching component. It serves cached pages directly to HTTP clients and handles large volumes of HTTP traffic quickly, fitting the requirements of most Web sites. You can use the OracleAS Web Cache to store complete Web pages or partial pages (through use of the JESI tags). Cached pages can be customized, to a certain extent, before being sent to a client, including cookie-replacement and page-fragment concatenation, for example.

It is advisable to use the OracleAS Web Cache as much as possible to speed up response and reduce the load on the Web application server and back-end database. The caching needs of a large percentage of Web pages can be addressed by the OracleAS Web Cache alone.

As a complement to the OracleAS Web Cache, you can use the Web Object Cache to capture intermediate results of JSP and servlet execution and subsequently reuse these cached results in other parts of the Java application logic. It is not beneficial to use the Web Object Cache in your Web application unless you can repeatedly reuse objects after they are cached and you require post-processing on cached objects before they are served to a client.

Web Object Cache Versus Oracle Application Server Java Object Cache

In comparison to the Oracle Application Server Java Object Cache, the Web Object Cache makes it much easier to store and maintain partial execution results in dynamic Web pages. The Java Object Cache, being a pure object-based framework for any general Java application, is not aware of any HTTP environment in which it might be embedded. For example, its cache keys do not automatically depend on HTTP cookies or sessions. When you directly use the Java Object Cache within a Web application, you are responsible for creating any necessary interfacing with resulting Web pages. The Java Object Cache provides only a programmatic way to specify cache maintenance policies, whereas the Web Object Cache allows the alternative of specifying policies through configuration files.

Summary of Tag Libraries for Caching

OC4J supplies two tag libraries for use with Oracle Application Server caching features:

• JESI tag library

• Web Object Cache tag library

This section summarizes those libraries.

Summary of JESI Tag Library

OC4J provides the JESI tag library as a convenient interface to ESI tags and Edge Side Includes functionality for Web caching. Developers have the option of using ESI tags directly in any Web application, but JESI tags provide additional convenience in a JSP environment.

Table 1-10 summarizes the JESI tag library. See "Oracle JESI Tag Descriptions" for more information.

Table 1-10 Summary of JESI Tag LIbrary  

Tag	Description	Attributes
control	Control caching characteristics for JSP pages in the control/include usage model. You can use a JESI control tag in the top-level page or any included page.	expiration maxRemovalDelay cache control
include	This tag, like a standard jsp:include tag, enables you to dynamically insert output from the included page into output from the including page. However, it results in the included page being processed and assembled by the ESI processor, typically inside OracleAS Web Cache.	page alt ignoreError copyParam flush
param	This is a subtag of the JESI include tag. You can use one or more JESI param tags to pass additional query parameters to the included page.	name value
template	Use this tag (together with JESI fragment tags) when you are splitting a JSP page into separate cache fragments. The JESI template tag specifies caching behavior for the aggregate page, outside any fragments.	expiration maxRemovalDelay cache control
fragment	Use one or more JESI fragment tags within a JESI template tag, between the JESI template start-tag and end-tag, to denote separately cacheable fragments.	expiration maxRemovalDelay cache control
codeblock	This is a subtag of the JESI template tag. You can use JESI codeblock tags to specify conditional execution of code blocks within the template code.	execute
invalidate	Use this tag, with its JESI object subtag, to explicitly invalidate one or more objects cached by OracleAS Web Cache.	url username password config output
object	Use this required subtag of the JESI invalidate tag to specify cached objects to invalidate, according to either the complete URI or a URI prefix.	uri prefix maxRemovalDelay
cookie	Optionally use this subtag of the JESI object tag to use cookie information as a further criterion for invalidation.	name value
header	Optionally use this subtag of the JESI object tag to use HTTP/1.1 header information as a further criterion for invalidation.	name value
personalize	Use this tag to allow page customization, by directing the ESI processor to perform cookie value substitution for every request for an object.	name default

Summary of Web Object Cache Tag Library

The OC4J Web Object Cache is a mechanism that allows Web applications written in Java to capture, store, reuse, post-process, and maintain the partial and intermediate results generated by a dynamic Web page, such as a JSP page or servlet. The programming interfaces it provides are a tag library (for use in JSP pages) and a Java API (for use in servlets).

Table 1-11 summarizes the Web Object Cache tag library. See "Web Object Cache Tag Descriptions" for more information.

Table 1-11 Summary of Web Object Cache Tag LIbrary  

Tag	Description	Attributes
cache	Use this tag to cache an object, for example a text fragment, in a JSP application. (Note, however, that there are separate tags for caching XML DOM objects or Java serializable objects.)	policy ignoreCache invalidateCache scope autoType selectedParam selectedCookies reusableTimeStamp reusableDeltaTime name expirationType TTL timeInaDay dayInaWeek dayInaMonth writeThrough printCacheBlockInfo printCachePolicy cacheRepositoryName reportException
cacheXMLObj	Generally speaking, use this tag instead of the cache tag if you are caching XML DOM objects. The cacheXMLObj tag supports all the cache tag attributes, as well as additional XML-specific parameters.	All attributes of the cache tag, plus: fromXMLObjName toXMLObjName toWriter
useCacheObj	Use this tag to cache any Java serializable object. The useCacheObj tag supports all the cache tag parameters, as well as additional attributes specific to its functionality.	All attributes of the cache tag, plus: type id cacheScope
cacheInclude	This tag combines functionality of the cache tag (but not the cacheXMLObj tag or useCacheObj tag) and the standard jsp:include tag.	policy page printCacheBlockInfo reportException
invalidateCache	Use this tag to programmatically invalidate a cache object. Most attributes of the invalidateCache tag behave the same way as attributes of the same names in the cache tag.	policy ignoreCache scope autoType selectedParam selectedCookies name invalidateNameLike page autoInvalidateLevel cacheRepositoryName reportException

Support for the JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library

With Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4), the OC4J JSP product includes an implementation of the JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL), as specified in the Sun Microsystems JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library, Version 1.0 specification. The following sections provide an overview of JSTL features and OC4J support:

• Overview and Philosophy of JSTL

• Summary of JSTL Expression Language

• Overview of JSTL Tags and Additional Features

• JSTL Usage Notes and Future Considerations

For complete information about JSTL, refer to the specification at the following location:

http://www.jcp.org/aboutJava/communityprocess/first/jsr052/index.html

Note: JSTL 1.0 requires a JSP 1.2 environment.

Overview and Philosophy of JSTL

JSTL is intended as a convenience for JSP page authors who are not familiar or not comfortable with scripting languages such as Java. Historically, scriptlets have been used in JSP pages to process dynamic data. With JSTL, the intent is for JSTL tag usage to replace the need for scriptlets.

Readers who have used previous versions of the OC4J JSP product will recognize this as similar to the goals of the Oracle JavaServer Pages Markup Language (JML) tag library. While the JML tag library is still supported, use of the standard JSTL is encouraged. Also see "JSTL Usage Notes and Future Considerations".

Key JSTL features include the following:

• JSTL expression language (EL)

  The expression language further simplifies the code required to access and manipulate application data, making it possible to avoid request-time expressions as well as scriptlets. See the next section, "Summary of JSTL Expression Language".

• Core tags for expression language support, conditional logic and flow control, iterator actions, and access to URL-based resources

• Tags for XML processing, flow control, and XSLT transformations

• SQL tags for database access

• Tags for I18N-capable internationalization and formatting

  (The term "I18N" refers to an internationalization standard.)

Tag support is broken into four JSTL sublibraries according to the preceding functional areas. Table 1-12 shows the standard TLD URI and prefix for each sublibrary.

Table 1-12 JSTL Sublibraries  

Functionality	URI	Prefix
Core	http://java.sun.com/jstl/core	c:
XML processing	http://java.sun.com/jstl/xml	x:
SQL database access	http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql	sql:
I18N internationalization and formatting	http://java.sun.com/jstl/fmt	fmt:

See "Overview of JSTL Tags and Additional Features" for more information.

Note: Given the constraints of having to work with JSP 1.2 containers, the JSTL 1.0 implementation was required to support both the expression language model and the request-time expression model. This dual support is accomplished through parallel JSTL sublibraries. For each sublibrary (core, XML, SQL, and I18N) there are separate TLDs, and hence separate TLD URIs, for the two versions. It is expected that most users will want to use the expression language model, corresponding to the URIs listed previously. To use the request-time expression model, add "_rt" to each URI in order to access the appropriate TLDs. By convention, add "_rt" to each prefix as well ("c_rt:", for example).

Summary of JSTL Expression Language

The JSTL expression language makes use of the fact that JSP scoped attributes and request parameters are the preferred vehicles for passing information to and from JSP pages. By using the JSTL expression language, you can avoid having to use JSP scriptlets and request-time expressions.

In JSTL 1.0, the expression language can be used only in JSTL tag attribute values.

As an example, consider the following use of the JSTL c:if tag to pick out steel-making companies from a company list:

<c:if test="${company.industry == 'steel'}">
   ...
</c:if>

The rest of this section summarizes JSTL expression language syntax and documents how to enable JSTL expression language evaluation in your OC4J JSP applications.

JSTL Expression Language Syntax

This following list offers a brief summary of key syntax features of the JSTL expression language. This is followed by a few simple examples.

• Invocation

  The JSTL expression language is invoked through ${expression} syntax. The most basic semantic is that invocation of a named variable ${foo} yields the same result as the method call PageContext.findAttribute(foo).

• Data structure access

  To access data within JavaBeans and within collections such as lists, maps, and arrays, the expression language supports the "." and "[]" constructs. The "." construct allows access to properties whose names are standard Java identifiers. The "[]" construct is for more generalized access, but for valid Java identifiers is equivalent to the "." construct. The expressions foo.bar and foo["bar"] yield the same result, for example.

• Relational operators

  The expression language supports the relational operators == (or eq), != (or ne), < (or lt), > (or gt), <= (or le), >= (or ge).

• Arithmetic operators

  The expression language supports the arithmetic operators +, -, *, / (or div), % (or mod, for remainder or modulo).

• Logical operators

  The expression language supports the logical operators && (or and), || (or or), ! (or not), empty.

Example: Basic

The following example shows fairly basic invocations of the expression language, including the relational "<=" (less than or equal to) operator.

<c:if test="${auto.price <= customer.priceLimit}">
   The <c:out value="${auto.makemodel}"/> is in your price range.
</c:if>

Example: Accessing Collections

The following example, from the Sun Microsystems JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library, Version 1.0 specification, shows use of the "." and "[]" constructs:

<%-- "productDir" is a Map object containing the description of
      products, "preferences" is a Map object containing the
      preferences of a user --%>
product:
<c:out value="${productDir[product.custId]}"/>
shipping preference:
<c:out value="${user.preferences['shipping']}"/>

JSTL Expression Language Implicit Objects

JSTL offers the following implicit objects:

• pageScope: Allows access to page-scope variables.

• requestScope: Allows access to request-scope variables.

• sessionScope: Allows access to session-scope variables.

• applicationScope: Allows access to application-scope variables.

• pageContext: Allows access to all properties of the page context of a JSP page.

• param: This is a Java Map object where param["foo"] returns the first string value associated with the request parameter foo.

• paramValues: Use paramValues["foo"], for example, to return an array of all string values associated with request parameter foo.

• header: Similarly to using param, you can use this to access the first string value associated with a request header.

• headerValues: Similarly to using paramValues, you can use this to access all string values associated with a request header.

• initParam: Allows access to context initialization parameters.

• cookie: Allows access to cookies received in the request.

JSTL Expression Language Additional Features

The expression language also offers the following features:

• It can provide default values where failure to evaluate an expression is considered to be recoverable.

• Where application data might not exactly match the type expected by a tag attribute or expression language operator, there are rules to convert the type of the resulting value to the expected type.

See the JSTL 1.0 specification for information.

Overview of JSTL Tags and Additional Features

The following sections provide a summary of JSTL tags and discuss some additional JSTL features:

• Scoped Variables

• Configuration Data and the Config Class

• JSTL Tag Summary

Scoped Variables

JSTL tags make data available through JSP scoped attributes, referred to as scoped variables, which are used in place of scripting variables. JSTL tags that can make data available in this way have var and scope among their attributes, used as follows:

• var: the variable that is to be exposed

• scope: the scope of the variable, either page (default), request, session, or application

The scope attribute would not be relevant for NESTED variables (which would always have page scope), but variables in the JSTL are AT_END (available from the end-tag to the end of the page).

The following example uses the core library iterator action tag forEach and expression language support tag out to expose the current item of an employees collection:

<c:forEach var="employee" items="${customers}">
   The current employee is <c:out value="${customer}"/>
</c:forEach>

Configuration Data and the Config Class

JSTL includes functionality to dynamically override JSP configuration data for a particular scope, through a scoped variable. You can accomplish this using functionality of the javax.servlet.jsp.jstl.core.Config class.

According to the JSP specification, all scopes (page, request, session, and application) that exist within a JSP page context should together form a single namespace; that is, the name of a scoped variable should be unique across execution of a page.

The Config class has functionality to transparently manipulate configuration parameter names to produce the effect that each scope has its own namespace. Effectively, this enables you to set a configuration parameter for a particular scope only.

See the JSTL 1.0 specification for information.

JSTL Tag Summary

Table 1-13 summarizes the JSTL tags, organized into functional groups. The JSTL standard tag prefix is noted for each group.

Table 1-13 Summary of JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library  

Tag Group	Description of Group	Individual Tags
Core, EL support	Includes tags to evaluate an expression and output the result to the current JspWriter object, set the value of a scoped variable or of a property of a target object, remove a scoped variable, and catch a Throwable instance thrown by a nested action.	c:out c:set c:remove c:catch
Core, conditional	Includes tags to evaluate body content if a test attribute evaluates as true, and specify mutually exclusive conditional execution paths. The when and otherwise tags are used with the choose tag.	c:if c:choose c:when c:otherwise
Core, iterators	Includes tags to iterate body execution over a collection of objects, or a specified number of times, and iterate over a set of tokens separated by supplied delimiters.	c:forEach c:forTokens
Core, URL-related	Includes tags to import the content of a URL-based resource, create a URL using appropriate rewriting rules, send an HTTP redirect to the client, and add a request parameter to a URL. The param tag is a subtag of the import, url, and redirect tags.	c:import c:url c:redirect c:param
XML, core	Includes tags to parse an XML document, evaluate an XPath expression and output the result to the current JspWriter object, and evaluate an XPath expression and store the result in a scoped variable. (See the note after this table regarding XPath.)	x:parse x:out x:set
XML, flow control	Includes tags to evaluate a specified XPath expression and render its content if the expression evaluates as true, specify mutually exclusive conditional execution paths, and evaluate a specified XPath expression and repeat body execution over the result. The when and otherwise tags are used with the choose tag.	x:if x:choose x:when x:otherwise x:forEach
XML, transforms	Includes tags to apply an XSLT style sheet transformation to a document, and set transformation parameters. The param tag is a subtag of the transform tag.	x:transform x:param
SQL	Includes tags to query a database, update a database (UPDATE/INSERT/DELETE), establish a transaction context for queries and updates, export a data source as a scoped variable or data source configuration variable, set the values for parameter placeholders ("?") in a SQL statement, and set the values for parameter placeholders where the type is java.util.Date. The param and dateParam tags are subtags of the query and update tags.	sql:query sql:update sql:transaction sql:setDataSource sql:driver sql:param sql:dateParam
I18N, internationalization	Includes tags to store a specified locale in the locale configuration variable, create an I18N localization context for use within the tag, create a localization context and store it for use outside the tag, look up a localized message in a resource bundle, and set the request character encoding. The param tag can be used with the message tag to replace a parameter in the message tag.	fmt:locale fmt:bundle fmt:message fmt:param fmt:requestEncoding
I18N, formatting	Includes tags to specify a time zone for formatting or parsing, store a specified time zone in a scoped variable or time zone configuration variable, format a numeric value as appropriate for a locale or special customization, parse the string representation of a numeric value that had been formatted for a locale or special customization, format a date or time for a locale or special customization, and parse the string representation of a date or time that had been formatted for a locale or special customization.	fmt:timeZone fmt:setTimeZone fmt:formatNumber fmt:parseNumber fmt:formatDate fmt:parseDate

Note: JSTL tags for XML processing are based on XPath (XML Path), a W3C recommendation. XPath provides a concise notation for specifying and selecting parts of an XML document. Refer to the following Web site for information: http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath

JSTL Usage Notes and Future Considerations

Be aware off the following considerations:

• The Oracle Application Server 10g (9.0.4) JSTL implementation is based on the Jakarta 1.0.3 JSTL version and is suitable for use with OC4J. See the following location for more information about Jakarta:

  http://jakarta.apache.org/taglibs/doc/standard-doc/intro.html
  
  

• The custom JML, XML, and data-access (SQL) tag libraries provided with OC4J pre-date JSTL and have areas of duplicate functionality. For standards compliance, it is now generally advisable to use JSTL instead of the custom libraries. Oracle is not desupporting the existing tags, however. For features in the custom libraries that are not yet available in JSTL, where there seems to be general usefulness, Oracle will try to have the features adopted into the JSTL standard as appropriate.

Overview of Tag Libraries from Other Oracle Components

A number of other Oracle components, outside OC4J, provide JSP tag libraries. The following sections summarize these libraries:

• Oracle Business Components for Java Tag Library

• Oracle JDeveloper User Interface Extension (UIX) Tag Library

• Oracle JDeveloper BC4J UIX JSP Tag Library

• Oracle Reports Tag Library

• Oracle Application Server Wireless Location Tag Library

• Oracle Application Server MapViewer Tag Library

• Oracle Ultra Search Tag Library

• Oracle Application Server Portal Tag Library

• Oracle Business Intelligence Beans Tag Library

• Oracle Application Server Multimedia Tag Library

The Oracle tag libraries introduced in this section comply with JSP standards.

The following discussion assumes some prior knowledge of the underlying components.

Oracle Business Components for Java Tag Library

Oracle JDeveloper provides a set of custom tags known as Oracle Business Components for Java (BC4J) data tags. BC4J data tags provide a simple tag-based approach for interaction with business components data sources. The tags provide complete access to business components and allow viewing, editing, and full DML control.

Custom data tags allow simplified interaction with BC4J data sources. The tag-based approach to building JSP applications with BC4J does not require extensive Java programming and is very much like coding an HTML page.

Table 1-14 summarizes the BC4J tag library. The default or typical tag prefix is jbo, but you can change this in your taglib directives.

For more information, refer to the Oracle JDeveloper online help or to the following location on the Oracle Technology Network:

http://otn.oracle.com/products/jdev/content.html

Note: Because of the size of this library, tags are not described individually.

Table 1-14 Summary of BC4J Tag Library  

Tag Group	Description of Group	Individual Tags
Component tags	This group includes tags to display a form and edit a record, handle business component events, perform a search on a data source, display a record bound to a data source, display a table bound to a data source, and render database transaction operations.	DataEdit DataHandler DataNavigate DataQuery DataRecord DataScroller DataTable DataTransaction
Connection tags	This group includes tags to create a BC4J application module instance to service HTTP requests, apply changes made on a data source to the database, create a handle for a rowset, create a dynamic view object from an application module, create a JSP page data source, create a data source variable, post changes made on a data source to the database, reexecute the data of a data source, trigger the release of an application module instance, roll back current data source changes, and create a scriptable variable to work with the view object API.	ApplicationModule Commit CreateRowSet CreateViewObject DataSource DataSourceRef PostChanges RefreshDataSource ReleasePageResources RollBack ViewObject
Data access tags	This group includes tags to iterate through the data source attribute definition, set a WHERE clause, execute a SQL statement, display an attribute using a field renderer, retrieve a data row instance and perform an operation, iterate through the rows of a data source, move the viewing range of a data source, update an attribute in a row, set bind parameters to customize a WHERE clause on the view object, display the criteria of a data item, display the meta data of an attribute, display the hints of an attribute, display an attribute value, set search view criteria, and iterate through the rows of view criteria.	AttributeIterate Criteria CriteriaRow ExecuteSQL RenderValue Row RowsetIterate RowsetNavigate SetAttribute SetWhereClauseParam ShowCriteria ShowDefinition ShowHint ShowValue ViewCriteria ViewCriteriaIterate
Event tags	This group includes tags to execute a business component event, handle a business component event, and build a URL for events.	FormEvent OnEvent UrlEvent
Forms tags	This group includes tags to insert an input date field, insert an input field, insert a hidden input field, insert a password field, overwrite the field renderer, and add HTML attributes to an input tag.	InputDate InputHidden InputPassword InputRender InputSelect InputSelectGroup InputSelectLOV InputText InputTextArea SetDomainRenderer SetFieldRenderer SetHtmlAttribute
interMedia tags	This group includes tags to insert an HTML ANCHOR tag for an interMedia object, insert an HTML OBJECT tag for an interMedia audio object, insert an HTML IMAGE tag for an interMedia image object, insert an HTML OBJECT tag for an interMedia video object, insert an HTML FORM tag for a file upload, and insert a URL string for an interMedia object.	AnchorMedia EmbedAudio EmbedImage EmbedVideo FileUploadForm MediaUrl
Web bean tags	This group includes tags to insert a Web bean or Data Web bean into a page.	DataWebBean WebBean

Oracle JDeveloper User Interface Extension (UIX) Tag Library

Oracle JDeveloper provides a set of custom tags known as User Interface Extension (UIX) tags. The tags invoke UIX controls, generating the HTML to render tabs, buttons, tables, headers, and other layout and navigational components that implement the Oracle browser look and feel.

The tags are included on several palette pages: UIX JSP Border Layout, UIX JSP Form, UIX JSP Layout, UIX JSP Message Components, UIX JSP Page Layout, UIX JSP Simple Components, and UIX JSP Table.

Table 1-15 summarizes the UIX tag library. The default or typical tag prefix is uix, but you can change this in your taglib directives.

For more information, refer to the Oracle JDeveloper online help or to the following location on the Oracle Technology Network:

http://otn.oracle.com/products/jdev/content.html

Note: Because of the size of this library, tags are not described individually.

Table 1-15 Summary of UIX Tag Library  

Tag Group	Description of Group	Individual Tags
Border Layout tags	This group includes tags to lay out components relative to one another in a specified area (borderLayout) of a page. "Indexed" child components are laid out in the order in which they are listed. "Named" components are laid out in named, predefined areas such as left, right, innerStart, innerEnd, and so forth.	alternateContent borderLayout bottom center frameBorderLayout innerBottom innerEnd innerLeft innerRight innerStart innerTop left right top
Form tags	This group includes tags to create input forms and related controls, such as HTML forms, text fields, calendars, radio buttons, lists of values (LOVs), and text fields. Also included are tags for functions such as validating and submitting the input (for example, checking upload files) and submitting values entered by the user. There are also tags for validating input (with a JavaScript regular expression validator, for example).	checkBox choice date dateField decimal fileUpload filterChoice form formParameter formValue list listOfValues lovField onBlurValidater onSubmitValidater option radioButton radioGroup regExp resetButton submitButton textInput utf8Length wml
Layout tags	This group includes tags to lay out child components horizontally or vertically, plus special tags for laying out content in tables, cells, columns, and content containers.	cellFormat contentContainer flowLayout header labeledFieldLayout rowLayout spacer stackLayout tableLayout
Message Component tags	This group includes tags to display messages (such as information, warning, and error messages), either as simple inline messages or as messages associated with other controls such as radio buttons, date fields, and LOVs.	inlineMessage messageBox messageCheckBox messageChoice messageDateField messageFileUpload messageLovField messagePrompt messageRadioButton messageRadioGroup messageStyledText messageText messageTextInput
Page Layout tags	This group consists of tags for creating the main layout and navigation controls for a page, with tags for including branding and advertising information as well. Also included are tags for creating navigation controls such as headers and footers, tabs, global buttons, and context switchers.	about cobranding contentFooter contextSwitcher copyright corporateBranding footer footNote globalButton globalButtonBar globalButtons globalHeader largeAdvertisement mediumAdvertisement messages pageButtons pageHeader pageHeaderLayout pageLayout pageStatus privacy productBranding quickSearch returnNavigation sideBar sideNav subTabBar subTabs subTabLayout tabs userInfo
Simple Component tags	This group includes a diverse collection of tags not otherwise covered by the UIX JSP tag categories. Included are tags for creating controls that are not necessarily complex controls (like tables or page layouts), such as buttons, shuttles, switches, "bread crumbs", lists, text, menus, and trees. There are also structural tags for creating and managing documents and user interface nodes, such as tags for writing document meta information, importing and using JavaScript libraries, building and using UIX user interface node (UINode) trees, and so on. This group also includes tags used for binding user interface controls to data sources.	applicationSwitcher body boundMessage breadCrumbs browseMenu bulletedList bundle button case catch categories contentLink contents dataScope displayException document end filter formattedText frame head hideShow hideShowHeader image importScript include items label leading leadingFooter link location media messageList metaContainer navigationBar nodeStamp pageButtonBar prompt provider proxy rawText
Simple Component tags	(Continued)	script selection separator servletInclude shuttle start styleSheet styledItem styledList styledText switcher tabBar text tip trailing trailingFooter train tree try urlInclude
Table tags	This group includes tags for creating and formatting table layouts in which tabular data can be displayed and manipulated by users. Included in this group is the hGrid control for displaying tabular data in a tree-like control.	addTableRow column columnFooter columnFormat columnHeader columnHeaderStamp detail hGrid multipleSelection rowHeaderStamp singleSelection sortableHeader table tableFilter tableFormat tableSelection totalRow

Oracle JDeveloper BC4J UIX JSP Tag Library

UIX JSP pages can include both BC4J data tags and BC4J UIX convenience tags that simplify the presentation of data.

The BC4J UIX convenience tags rely on an ApplicationModule data tag to get the data source from the BC4J application module. In addition to the BC4J UIX tags listed here, you can use the (non-UIX) BC4J tags in UIX JSP pages.

Table 1-16 summarizes the BC4J UIX JSP tags. The default or typical tag prefix is bc4juix, but you can change this in your taglib directives.

For more information, refer to the Oracle JDeveloper online help or to the following location on the Oracle Technology Network:

http://otn.oracle.com/products/jdev/content.html

Table 1-16 Summary of BC4J UIX JSP Tag Library  

Tag	Description	Attributes
AddTableRow	Renders a special "table row" that lets users add rows of data to the data source. The body can contain JSP content.	text rows destination
InputRender	Renders an input field from a data source to a page.	datasource dataitem
LabelStyledText	Binds styled text labels to the data source automatically.	datasource dataitem styleClass accessKey labeledNodeId
NavigationBar	Binds the navigation bar to the data source automatically.	datasource
RenderValue	Displays data of special datatypes--such as images, audio, or video--using a field render specific to the data object type.	datasource dataitem
StyledText	Binds styled text to the data source automatically.	datasource dataitem styleClass accessKey destination labeledNodeId
Table	Binds a table to the data source automatically. The body can contain JSP content.	datasource alternateText destination formSubmitted height width name nameTransformed proxied summary text value displayattributes
TableDetail	Causes the detail column from the data source to be displayed. The body can contain JSP content.	(None)

Oracle Reports Tag Library

Oracle Reports consists of Oracle Reports Developer (a component of the Oracle Developer Suite) and Oracle Reports Services (a component of the Oracle Application Server). The Oracle Reports Developer includes tags integrated with data model objects that are used to create JSP reports. The Oracle Reports custom tags allow you to quickly add report blocks and graphs to existing JSP files. These tags can be used as templates to enable you to build and insert your own data-driven Java component into an HTML page for a JSP-based Web report.

The report and objects tags, respectively, delimit and define the report block. Inside these tags, other custom tags define the content and the look and feel of the report data.

Table 1-17 summarizes the custom JSP tags for Oracle Reports. By default, these tags use the rw prefix, but you can change this in your taglib directives.

For more information, refer to the Oracle Reports Developer online help, available through the Help menu in Reports Builder. You can also find more information about Oracle Reports on the Oracle Technology Network:

http://otn.oracle.com/products/reports/content.html

Table 1-17 Summary of Oracle Reports Tag Library  

Tag	Description	Attributes
report	Delimits a report object within a JSP page.	id parameters
objects	Encapsulates the XML definition for the report data model and paper layout.	id
dataArea	This tag is a placeholder for report data that is inserted by the Report Wizard. It can optionally be used in conjunction with a style tag. The dataArea tag is used during the report design process when the JSP page is created, and has no effect at runtime.	id
field	Provides formatting to render a single value source object in HTML.	id src breakLevel breakValue nullValue containsHtml formatMask formatTrigger
foreach	Loops through a data source group.	id src startRow endRow increment
getValue	Retrieves the name of a report object.	id src formatMask
graph	Defines a graph.	id src groups dataValues series width height graphHyperlink
headers	Retrieves ID values for row and column headers generated by the id tag.	id src
id	Generates unique HTML IDs for row and column headers for accessibility compliance.	id breakLevel asArray
include	Reformats a top-level layout object into a simple HTML table.	id src format
seq	Defines a sequence of values.	name seq
seqval	Operates on a sequence of values defined by the seq tag.	ref op
style	This tag is a placeholder for style information, such as specification of a style sheet, that is inserted by the Report Wizard and used to format report data. It can optionally be used in conjunction with a dataArea tag. The style tag is used during the report design process when the JSP page is created, and has no effect at runtime.	id

Oracle Application Server Wireless Location Tag Library

Developers of location-based applications need specialized services for the following:

• Geocoding: associating geographical coordinates with addresses

• Mapping: providing a graphical map for a point, set of points, route, or driving maneuver

• Routing: providing driving directions

• Business directories ("yellow pages"): listing businesses by region and by either category or name

• Traffic: providing information about accidents, construction, and other incidents that affect traffic flow

The OracleAS Wireless location application components compose an API for performing geocoding, providing driving directions, and looking up business directories. Service proxies are included that map existing key providers to the API, and additional providers are expected to be accommodated in the future.

For JSP developers, a tag library is provided. Table 1-18 summarizes the library, organizing tags by the types of applications for which they are used. The default or typical tag prefix is loc, but you can change this in your taglib directives.

For more information, refer to the Oracle Application Server Wireless Developer's Guide.

Table 1-18 Summary of Location Tag Library  

Type of Application or Usage	Description	Individual Tags
General	(Apply to multiple application categories.)	geometry point
Geocoding	Provide the geographic locations of given addresses, or the addresses associated with given geographic locations.	address geocode iterateGeocodes iterateReverseGeocodes listGeocodes listReverseGeocodes
Mapping	Create map images for a single point, multiple points, a complete route, or a single driving maneuver.	map
Routing	Provide routing information (driving directions) based on a start point, an end point, and optionally a list of intermediate points. All points are specified as longitude/latitude pairs or addresses.	drivingDistance drivingTime iterateManeuvers listManeuvers route
Business directory ("yellow pages")	Provide and manipulate lists of businesses in a given area that match a specified name or category.	businesses category iterateBusinesses iterateBusinessesInCity iterateBusinessesInCorridor iterateBusinessesInPostalCode iterateBusinessesInRadius iterateBusinessesInState iterateBusinessesNearestTo iterateCategoriesMatchingKeyword iterateChildCategories listBusinessesInCity listBusinessesInCorridor listBusinessesInPostalCode listBusinessesInRadius listBusinessesInState listBusinessesNearestTo listCategoriesMatchingKeyword listChildCategories
Sorting	Sort destination points according to a particular criterion.	iterateByDistance iterateByDrivingDistance iterateByName iterateByRegionName listByDistance listByDrivingDistance listByName listByRegionName
Location marks	Display or manipulate location marks. A location mark is a chosen concise name ("My home", for example) that represents underlying detailed information such as address, latitude, and longitude.	defaultLocationMark iterateLocationMarks listLocationMarks
Mobile positioning	Associate locations with users.	mobilePos
Communities	List or manipulate communities. A mobile community is a collection of one or more users who can be granted or denied positioning rights. Mobile users can be assigned to one or more communities, and users can grant and deny positioning rights to communities.	addMembers createPrivateCommunity createSharedCommunity createSystemCommunity deleteCommunity getCommunity listAllMembers listCreatedCommunities listCreatedPrivateCommunities listCreatedSharedCommunities listCreatedSystemCommunities removeAllMembers removeMembers setCommunityName

Oracle Application Server MapViewer Tag Library

The OracleAS MapViewer is a programmable tool for rendering maps using spatial data managed by Oracle Spatial or Oracle Locator (also referred to as Locator). OracleAS MapViewer provides tools that hide the complexity of spatial data queries and cartographic rendering, while providing customizable options for more advanced users. These tools can be deployed in a platform-independent manner and are designed to integrate with map-rendering applications.

For convenience, OracleAS MapViewer includes a JSP tag library that you can use to submit map requests.

The tag library is summarized in Table 1-19. The default or typical tag prefix is mv, but you can change this in your taglib directives.

For more information, see the Oracle Application Server MapViewer User's Guide.

Table 1-19 Summary of OracleAS MapViewer Tag Library  

Tag	Description	Attributes
init	Create the OracleAS MapViewer bean and place it in the current session. This must come before any other OracleAS MapViewer JSP tags.	url datasource id
setParam	Specify one or more parameters for the current map request.	antialiasing basemap bgcolor bgimage centerX centerY height imagescaling size title width
addPredefinedTheme	Add a predefined theme to the current map request.	name min_scale max_scale
addJDBCTheme	Add a dynamically defined theme to the current map request.	name min_scale max_scale spatial_column srid datasource jdbc_host jdbc_port jdbc_sid jdbc_user jdbc_password jdbc_mode asis render_style label_style label_column
importBaseMap	Add the predefined themes that are in the specified base map to the current map request.	name
makeLegend	Create a legend (map inset illustration) drawn on top of the generated map.	id datasource format
getParam	Get the value associated with a specified parameter for the current map request.	name
getMapURL	Get the HTTP URL for the currently available map image, as generated by the OracleAS MapViewer service.	(None)
identify	Get nonspatial attribute (column) values associated with spatial features that interact with a specified point or rectangle on the map display. This optionally uses a marker style to identify the point or rectangle.	id datasource table spatial_column srid x y x2 y2 style
run	Submit the current map request to the OracleAS MapViewer service for processing. The processing can be to zoom in, zoom out, recenter the map, or perform a combination of these operations.	action x y x2 y2 factor

Oracle Ultra Search Tag Library

Oracle Ultra Search provides a custom tag library for use by developers in incorporating content search functionality into JSP applications. The library includes the following functionality:

• The ability to retrieve search attributes, groups, languages, and lists of values (LOVs) for rendering the advance query form

• The ability to iterate through the resulting hit set and retrieve document attributes and properties for rendering the result page

• The ability to perform a search with "relevance boosting" and an estimation of the total hit count

The tag library is summarized in Table 1-20. The default or typical tag prefix is US, but you can change this in your taglib directives.

For more information, see the Oracle Ultra Search User's Guide. Alternatively, refer to the Oracle Ultra Search online documentation, under Oracle Ultra Search JSP Tag Library.

Table 1-20 Summary of Oracle Ultra Search Tag Library  

Tag	Description	Attributes
instance	Establish a connection to an Oracle Ultra Search instance.	instanceId username password url dataSourceName tablePagePath emailPagePath filePagePath
iterAttributes	For an advanced query, use this tag to show the list of attributes that are available.	instance locale
iterGroups	For an advanced query, use this tag to show the list of groups that are available.	instance locale
iterLanguages	For an advanced query, use this tag to show the list of languages defined in the Oracle Ultra Search instance.	instance
iterLOV	Show all values defined for a search attribute.	instance locale attributeName attributeType
getResult	Perform the search.	resultId instance query queryLocale documentLanguage from to boostTerm withCount
fetchAttribute	This is a nested tag within getResult to specify which attributes of each document should be fetched along with the query results. There can be multiple fetchAttribute tags nested inside a getResult tag.	attributeName attributeType
showHitCount	If withCount="true" in the getResult tag, then the result includes a total number of hits and you can use showHitCount to display this number.	result
iterResult	Iterate through all the documents in the search results. Use this tag to present the results in the JSP page.	result instance
showAttributeValue	Render a document attribute.	attributeName attributeType default

Oracle Application Server Portal Tag Library

With OracleAS Portal, developers can accomplish the following:

• Build and deploy Internet portals to deliver relevant information and applications to customers, employees, and partners.

• Develop portals rapidly, without code, using productive online tools.

• Increase user productivity with single sign-on and self-service publishing.

• Add value quickly with over 250 prebuilt portlets based on open standards.

The OracleAS Portal tag library provides further convenience for developers building customizable Internet portals. A developer can create internal JSP pages, which are stored inside the Portal database and downloaded when the portal is executed, or external JSP pages, which are stored in the file system, or some combination.

The tag library is summarized in Table 1-21. The default or typical tag prefix is portal, but you can change this in your taglib directives.

For more information, refer to OracleAS Portal: Adding JSPs, available through the Oracle Technology Network:

http://otn.oracle.com/documentation

Table 1-21 Summary of Portal Tag Library  

Tag	Description	Attributes
usePortal	Specify the overall portal, which forms the framework of the Web page and contains portlets that have the dynamic content. This must be the first Portal tag in a JSP page.	id pagegroup login
prepare	Set up a bundle of one or more portlets that will be displayed within the portal.	portal portletHeaders
portlet	Use one or more of these tags inside a prepare tag to declare the portlets to be displayed.	id instance header
showPortlet	Display a portlet. This would typically, but not necessarily, be a portlet that was declared through a portlet tag. In its simplest usage, however, the showPortlet tag itself specifies the portlet to display.	name portal header
parameter	Use this inside a portlet or showPortlet tag to specify a parameter setting for a portlet. (For example, for a stock-quote portlet, specify the stock to quote.)	name value
useStyle	Specify a CSS style to use for the portal, or use the default style. (Alternatively, do not use this tag at all and implement the desired style by other means.)	name portal

Oracle Business Intelligence Beans Tag Library

The Oracle Business Intelligence Beans (Oracle BI Beans) product consists of Java components, utilities, and a JSP tag library that enable rapid development of analytical applications. Oracle BI Beans applications leverage the capabilities of OLAP in Oracle Database. Using Oracle BI Beans, you can develop both HTML-client and Java-client applications.

Note: The Oracle BI Beans product is a component of the Oracle Developer Suite (OracleDS) and is for use with Oracle JDeveloper. When you install OracleDS with the J2EE option, the installation will include JDeveloper and Oracle BI Beans.

Oracle BI Beans includes the following groups of Java components:

• Presentation beans: beans that let you view, manipulate, and print data

• OLAP beans: beans that interact with an Oracle OLAP data source

• Persistence service: a set of Java packages that support the storage and retrieval of object definitions in the Oracle BI Beans Catalog

For further developer convenience, Oracle BI Beans includes a JSP tag library. You can use JDeveloper to create Oracle BI Beans JSP pages. A JDeveloper wizard prompts you for information related to the tag that you want to use and inserts the coded tag in the JSP page.

The Oracle BI Beans tags are categorized as follows:

• Common tags: BIThinSession, Render, InsertHiddenFields

• Explorer tags: ExplorerDetail, ExplorerQuickSearch, ExplorerTree, SearchTool

• Thin presentation tag and customizer tags: Presentation, Toolbar, FavoriteTool, RotateTool, SortTool, ViewType

• Thin dialog tags: DialogLink, ApplyButton, CancelButton, SaveButton, ExportOptions, FindMember, PrintOptions, PrinterFriendlyView, SaveAs, SaveConfirmation

Table 1-22 summarizes the individual tags. The default or typical tag prefix is orabi, but you can change this in your taglib directives.

For more information, refer to the Oracle BI Beans online help. Under "Building Web Modules", click "Using JSP Tags", then "List of BI Beans JSP Tags".

Table 1-22 Summary of Oracle BI Beans JSP Tag Library  

Tag	Description	Attributes
BIThinSession	Store initialization information for each page.	id configuration scope stateful charset
Render	Render a specified thin presentation bean.	targetId parentForm
InsertHiddenFields	Add hidden fields to the generated HTML form.	parentForm biThinSessionId
ExplorerDetail	Browse a specified root folder in the Oracle BI Beans Catalog and provide the ability to search for and select an object.	id scope openPage openFrame presentationId rootName allowSearch allowFilter submitFolderPage submitFolderTargetId
ExplorerQuickSearch	Provide an alternative approach for displaying search controls for an ExplorerDetail tag.	id scope explorerDetailId
ExplorerTree	Browse a tree file structure.	id scope rootName selectedFolder allowFilter allowSearch explorerDetailPage explorerDetailFrame explorerDetailId searchPage searchFrame searchToolId
SearchTool	Provide the same display as an ExplorerDetail tag. (Present in the current release only for backward compatibility.)	id scope openPage presentationId
Presentation	Create an instance of a thin presentation bean.	id scope location newViewType pagingControlVisible referenceId findMemberPage findMemberId
Toolbar	Provide tools for manipulating a thin presentation bean, including the FavoriteTool, RotateTool, SortTool, and ViewType.	id scope presentationId
FavoriteTool	Apply favorite selections to a thin presentation bean without using the ViewToolBar.	id scope presentationId
RotateTool	Manipulate the layout of dimensions on a thin presentation bean without using the ViewToolBar.	id scope presentationId
SortTool	Sort the dimensions on a thin presentation bean without using the ViewToolBar.	id scope presentationId
ViewType	Change the type of a thin presentation bean between thin Crosstab and thin Graph without using the ViewToolBar.	id scope presentationId
DialogLink	Create a button that initializes a thin dialog.	id scope presentationId targetFrame targetPage targetToolId text
ApplyButton	Create an Apply button for use in any of the thin dialogs.	id scope dialogId text
CancelButton	Create a Cancel button for use in any of the thin dialogs.	id scope dialogId text
SaveButton	Create a button for use in saving a presentation bean.	id scope presentationId saveConfirmationPage saveConfirmationId
ExportOptions	Display a thin dialog to export a thin table or thin crosstab.	id scope presentationId
FindMember	Display additional members of a dimension for selection in the page control of a thin presentation bean.	id scope
PrintOptions	Display a thin dialog to print a thin presentation bean.	id scope presentationId applyPage printerFriendlyViewId
PrinterFriendlyView	Display a printable version of a presentation.	id scope presentationId
SaveAs	Display a thin dialog to save a thin presentation bean.	id scope explorerTreeId presentationId selectFolderPage selectFolderTargetId saveConfirmationPage saveConfirmationId
SaveConfirmation	Display a thin dialog to prompt for confirmation during the saving of a thin presentation bean.	id scope

Oracle Application Server Multimedia Tag Library

Oracle Application Server provides the Multimedia Tag Library, a custom JSP tag library for use by developers and Web page authors when generating multimedia HTML tags in JSP pages and uploading multimedia data into interMedia objects.

Oracle interMedia enables Oracle Database to store, retrieve, manage, and manipulate images, audio, video, and other media data, while integrating it with other enterprise information. Specifically, Oracle interMedia supports media storage, media retrieval, media management, and manipulation of media data managed by Oracle and stored in binary large objects, file-based large objects, URLs that contain media data, and specialty servers. Oracle interMedia is accessible to applications through relational and object interfaces.

Oracle interMedia uses object types that are similar to Java classes to describe media data. These interMedia objects have a common media data storage model. Oracle interMedia also provides Java classes to enable users to write Java applications using interMedia objects. There are also Oracle interMedia Java classes for servlets and JavaServer Pages to facilitate retrieving and uploading media data from and to Oracle Database instances.

The Multimedia Tag Library includes a set of tags for retrieving media data and a set for uploading media data. The Multimedia JSP tags for media retrieval include a set of common attributes and tag-specific media-render-attributes. The common attributes are: custom-retrieval-attributes, database-connection-attributes, media-access-attributes, media-cache-control-attributes, and table-and-column-attributes. The media-render-attributes are described with each media retrieval tag.

Table 1-23 summarizes the Multimedia JSP tags for media retrieval and lists the media-render-attributes for each tag.

Table 1-23 Multimedia JSP Tags for Media Retrieval  

Tag	Description	media-render-attributes
embedAudio	Build an HTML <OBJECT> tag and <EMBED> tag to embed an audio object in a page. This tag can specify the audio player. It also defines a common set of audio attributes.	height width alt helperApp showControls autoStart loop standby audio
embedImage	Build an HTML <IMG> tag to embed an image in a page. A common set of <IMG> tag attributes is also defined. The generated <IMG> tag always includes the height and width attributes. If these attributes are not specified in this tag, they are obtained either from the image object specified in this tag or from the image object fetched from the database.	height width border align alt longdesc image
embedVideo	Build an HTML <OBJECT> tag and <EMBED> tag to embed a video object in a page. This tag can specify the video player. It also defines a common set of video attributes.	height width alt helperApp showControls autoStart loop standby video
mediaUrl	Generate a media retrieval URL object that can be used in the tag body.	id

Table 1-24 summarizes the Multimedia JSP tags for media upload.

Table 1-24 Multimedia JSP Tags for Media Upload  

Tag	Description	Attributes
storeMedia	Load the uploaded media data from HTML form into the OrdImage, OrdAudio, OrdVideo, or OrdDoc object in the specified table and column in the database. This tag is intended for use within the body of the uploadFormData tag. It implicitly uses the form data object created by the uploadFormData tag through the parameter attribute. After loading the media data in the database BLOB, the tag calls the setProperties() method to set the media properties within the object.	conn mediaColumns mediaParameters otherColumns otherValues table key keyColumn rowid
uploadFile	Provide access to uploaded file information. This tag uses the object created by the uploadFormData tag implicitly, through the parameter attribute. This tag is nested within the uploadFormData tag.	parameter mimetype length fullFileName shortFileName inputStream
uploadFormData	Parse the multipart/form-data HTTP request to provide access to text-based form parameters and the contents of uploaded files transmitted from a browser to a Web server.	formDataId releaseFormData maxMemory tempDir

See Oracle Application Server 10g Multimedia Tag Library for JSP User's Guide and Reference for additional information about the Multimedia JSP tags. That guide is a supplement to Oracle interMedia Reference, Oracle interMedia User's Guide, and Oracle interMedia Java Classes Reference.