Tag Libraries Tutorial

Tag Library Descriptors

A tag library descriptor (TLD) is an XML document that describes a tag library. A TLD contains information about a library as a whole and about each tag contained in the library. TLDs are used by a JSP container to validate the tags and by JSP development tools.

The following TLD elements are used to define a tag library:

<taglib>

<tlibversion> - The tag library's version

<jspversion> - The JSP specification version the tag library depends on

<shortname> - A simple default name that could be used by a JSP page authoring tool to create names with a mnemonic value; for example, shortname may be used as the preferred prefix value in taglib directives and/or to create prefixes for IDs.

<uri> - A URI that uniquely identifies the tag library

<info> - Descriptive information about the tag library

<tag>

...

</tag>

...

</taglib>

The TLD element required for all tags is the one used to specify a tag handler's class:

<tag>
   <tagclass>classname</tagclass>
   ...
</tag>

The following sections will describe the methods and tag library descriptor elements that you need to develop for each type of tag introduced in "Using Tags".

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