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The Example JSP Pages

This chapter illustrates JSTL with excerpts from the JSP version of the Duke's Bookstore application discussed in Custom Tags in JSP Pages rewritten as follows:

• Replaced the Struts logic tags with JSTL core tags.
• Replaced scriptlets accessing a message store with message formatting tags.
• Removed the JavaBeans component database helper object and replaced its function with direct calls to the database via the JSTL SQL tags. For most applications, it is better to encapsulate calls to a database in a bean. JSTL includes SQL tags for situations where a new application is being prototyped and the overhead of creating a bean may not be warranted.

The source for the Duke's Bookstore application is located in the docs/tutorial/examples/web/bookstore4 directory created when you unzip the tutorial bundle (see Running the Examples). To build, deploy, and run the example:

1. Go to the examples directory and build and deploy the example by running ant. This runs the default ant target deploy which depends on the build target. The build target will spawn any necessary compilations and copy files to the docs/tutorial/examples/web/bookstore4/build directory. The deploy target copies the bookstore4.xml context file to <JWSDP_HOME>/webapps as described in Running Web Applications.
2. Start the Pointbase database server (see Accessing Databases from Web Applications).
3. Start or restart Tomcat.
4. Open the bookstore URL http://localhost:8080/bookstore4/enter.

See Common Problems and Their Solutions and Troubleshooting for help with diagnosing common problems.

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