JSP/Servlet Profesional – Part 6 JSTL display list in JSP and set variable

From JSP/Servlet Profesional – Part 4 How display a list from database in JSP, we know how to display list to JSP using scriptlet.

The problem is java code is mixed with HTML code make the code messy & hard to debug. By using JSTL (core), we have another way – a much better way to do the similar thing.

The JavaServer Pages Standard Tag Library (JSTL) is a component of the Java EE Web application development platform. It extends the JSP specification by adding a tag library of JSP tags for common tasks, such as XML data processing, conditional execution, database access, loops and internationalization.

JSTL was developed under the Java Community Process (JCP) as Java Specification Request (JSR) 52. On May 8, 2006, JSTL 1.2 was released, followed by JSTL 1.2.1 on Dec 7, 2011.[1]

JSTL provides an effective way to embed logic within a JSP page without using embedded Java code directly. The use of a standardized tag set, rather than breaking in and out of Java code, leads to more maintainable code and enables separation of concerns between the development of the application code and user interface.