JSTL: JSP Standard Tag Library Kick Start

The JSP Standard Tag Library is a collection of commonly used functions and tools invaluable to JSP developers to avoid re-creating the same functions on site after site. Sun has indicated that JSP development should be based around using tag libraries going forward, and will relase JSP STL, as their official library. This book starts with an in-depth deiscussion of the JSP STL, then goes beyond the standard library to teach developers to create their own tags to further encapsulate the most common features of their specific applications. Along the way, readers will also learn to use tags to access data, process XML, handle expressions, and further customize pages for international visitors. Later chapters explain how readers can expand the Standard Tab Library by creating their own tags.

User review
Big book, bad code, little help
This is a relatively large book and one would expect it to have a lot of material inside. Suprisingly, it does not.
JSTL is described at length but the more you delve into the book you find that you are not learning much and that examples are not really applicable. Another qualm with this book is that its examples contain really bad HTML code - and I know, we are dealing with JSPs and JSTL, but if you are an author, correct HTML will not hurt.

There are other books available on the topic - get one of them (stay away from JSTL: Practical Guide which is even worse than this book).

User review
Just what I needed!
Jeff Heaton has done an excellent job with this book! I get tired of bloated, windy programming books. Usually I buy a book to help me get started on a task at hand. This books definitely got me started and instantly allowed me to reap the benefits of JSTL! (Although I still prefer Coldfusion MX ;)