JSP Tag Files in subdirectories, using a single taglib prefix. Is that possible?

java, jsp, jsp-tags, taglib

Solution

Define them as `<tag-file>` in a single `.tld` file which you put in `/WEB-INF` folder.

E.g. `/WEB-INF/my-tags.tld`

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<taglib 
    xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee"
    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-jsptaglibrary_2_1.xsd"
    version="2.1"
>    
    <display-name>My custom tags</display-name>    
    <tlib-version>1.0</tlib-version>
    <short-name>my</short-name>
    <uri>http://example.com/tags</uri>

    <tag-file>
        <name>foo</name>
        <path>/WEB-INF/tags/users/foo.tag</path>
    </tag-file>

    <tag-file>
        <name>bar</name>
        <path>/WEB-INF/tags/widgetsA/bar.tag</path>
    </tag-file>

    <tag-file>
        <name>baz</name>
        <path>/WEB-INF/tags/widgetsB/baz.tag</path>
    </tag-file>
</taglib>

Use it in your JSPs as follows

<%@taglib prefix="my" uri="http://example.com/tags" %>
...
<my:foo />
<my:bar />
<my:baz />

Problem

I currently have my .tag files declared with: ``` <%@taglib prefix="t" tagdir="/WEB-INF/tags" %> ``` Example of the path of a tag file : ``` /WEB-INF/tags/test.tag ``` And I use them like so : ``` <t:test oneAttributeKey="oneAttributeValue"> some content... </t:test> ``` My problem : I don't want to put all my tag files in one single folder, "/WEB-INF/tags". I would prefere to have them in different subdirectories : /WEB-INF/tags/users/ /WEB-INF/tags/widgetsA/ /WEB-INF/tags/widgetsB/ (...) Is this possible, without creating a different taglib prefix for each and everyone of them? Example of what I'd like to avoid : ``` <%@taglib prefix="t_users" tagdir="/WEB-INF/tags/users" %> <%@taglib prefix="t_widgetsA" tagdir="/WEB-INF/tags/widgetsA" %> <%@taglib prefix="t_widgetsB" tagdir="/WEB-INF/tags/widgetsB" %> ``` Example of what I would like, using a single "t" prefix : ``` <t:users/onetag oneAttributeKey="oneAttributeValue"> some content... </t:users/onetag> ``` Does a similar solution exist? UPDATE : BalusC showed it's possible to use one prefix only, by defining all the tag files in a single .tld. I guess my question was not clear enough then : I'd like to know if it's possible to use the tag files in multiple subdirectories, without having to specify a path to each of them anywhere except in the element that use them (ex: "<t:users/onetag")! What I do not like about JSP Tags is that they act very differently than regular JSP files, even if they actually share very similar content. In fact, I even decided to put all my jsp files inside the /WEB-INF/tags/ folder, so they are side to side with the tag files (I had to choose /WEB-INF/tags/ for that, since this folder is mandatory for the tag files, for some reason)! I don't understand why some of my files containing HTML would go in /WEB-INF/jsp/ and some others in /WEB-INF/tags/!! I want to be able to group the jsp and tag files into directories, depending of what they are related to! Example : ``` /WEB-INF/tags/users/userProfileLayout.tag /WEB-INF/tags/users/employeeProfile.jsp /WEB-INF/tags/users/employerProfile.jsp /WEB-INF/tags/widgetsA/widgetALayout.tag /WEB-INF/tags/widgetsA/oldWidgetA.jsp /WEB-INF/tags/widgetsA/newWidgetA.jsp ``` But this forces me to declare the path of each of the subdirectories, in multiple @tablib or in a .tld, which I find a little bit inconvenient. I'll live with it, but I think it could be improved.

Original source