global Methods inside JSPs
hi everyone,
is it possible to create Global methods inside JSPs so that all my JSPs can access them. notice that I am not looking at helper classes or simialr solutions. I want to be able to do the following inside my JSP
<%= getname("test") =%>
on solution I thought of is to make the JSP class extends MyClass instade of the HttpJspBase. MyClass will extends the HttpJspBase class and add the additional methods. but I don't know how to tell the JSPcontainer to do it my way.
any idea? is there an easy way to create globel methods in JSPs?
thanks in advance
[606 byte] By [
Adelxa] at [2007-11-26 12:20:02]
# 1
Easiest way without hacking into the JSP class is just to provide a utility class that your JSPs can use, and include a whole bunch of static "helper" methods in it.
<%= MyUtilities.getName("test") %>
However, scriptlet code is discouraged in JSPs. I would suggest you write this sort of thing into a servlet/action layer where you can more easily do this overriding.
Another alternative is to use the <%@ include %> directive to always include some basic functions in the JSP.
However any functions that you want to define will NOT be able to access the implicit variables in a JSP (request, response, application...) They will be seperate methods. If you want to use those variables, you have to pass them to the method. At that case, a seperate bean class implementing static methods becomes equivalent, and even preferable for testing purposes.
# 2
thank you for your reply,
I am well aware of the idea of helper classes. and this is not what I want.
as you may know, the JSP is converted to a Java Class. this java Class extends the HttpJspBase class. if I am able to tell the container to extend my Class, then I am able to provide more functions in my JSPs.
I like my code to look like this <%= getName("test") %> rather then <%= helperClass.getName(request, "test") %>
I am very sure that there is away. I just need to dig more to find it. I will be greatful of any help in this area.
# 3
There is no way I am aware of to do exactly what it is you are asking.
But there are two alternatives you might consider
1: JSTL/EL
I'm not exactly sure what you want <%= getName("test") %> to do , but it may be possible to write as an EL expression. eg ${param.test} or ${requestScope.test}
2,write a custom tag to do this lookup.
<myTags:name value="test" />
Hope this helps some,
evnafets
