[Apache Struts Wiki] New: StrutsDocTiles

[de...@struts.apache.org]

   Date: 2004-12-01T21:41:18
   Editor: BillKeese <bi...@tech.beacon-it.co.jp>
   Wiki: Apache Struts Wiki
   Page: StrutsDocTiles
   URL: http://wiki.apache.org/struts/StrutsDocTiles

   no comment

New Page:

##language:en
== Tips on Tiles ==
Here are some tips on using tiles.

=== Nested tiles ===
==== Problem ====
How do you do nested tiles?  For example, suppose my .mainLayout is header/body/footer tiles.
||<#FF8080>Header||
||<#80FF80>Body||
||<#8080FF>Footer||
[[BR]]
However, for the edit page, I want to compose "body" from multiple subtiles.
||<#FF8080 -2> Header||
||<#80FF80>A||<#80FF80>B||
||<-2 #8080FF>Footer||

layout.jsp:
{{{
   <tiles:insert attribute="header" />
   <tiles:insert attribute="body"/ >
   <tiles:insert attribute="footer" />
}}}

editBody.jsp:
{{{
   <table>
      <tr>
         <td><tiles:insert attribute="a"/></td>
         <td><tiles:insert attribute="b"/></td>
      </tr>
   </table>
}}}
So, had do I set the values of "a" and "b" from tiles-def.xml?

There are two possible ways.

==== Solution #1 ====
The first way is to use 2 definitions (plus the defaultLayout definition) in tiles-def.xml:
{{{
  <definition name="defaultLayout" template="/WEB-INF/layout.jsp">
      <put name="header" value="/WEB-INF/header.jsp" />
      <!-- definitions based on this layout must define "body"  -->
      <put name="footer" value="/WEB-INF/footer.jsp" />
  </definition>

  <!-- first define the inner tile -->
  <definition name="editpage.body" template="/WEB-INF/editBody.jsp">
      <put name="a" value="/WEB-INF/a.jsp" />
      <put name="b" value="/WEB-INF/b.jsp" />
  </definition>

   <!-- then define the whole page by referencing the inner tile -->
  <definition name="editpage" extends="defaultLayout">
      <put name="body" value="editpage.body"  type="definition"/>
  </definition> 
}}}

This is a versatile solution but on the downside the tiles-def.xml file gets big.

==== Solution #2 ====
Another approach is to only use one definition (plus the defaultLayout definition) in the tiles-def.xml file.

tiles-def.xml:
{{{
   <definition name="defaultLayout" template="/WEB-INF/layout.jsp">
       <put name="header" value="/WEB-INF/header.jsp" />
       <!-- definitions based on this layout must define "body"  -->
       <put name="footer" value="/WEB-INF/footer.jsp" />
   </definition>

   <definition name="editPage" extends="defaultLayout">
       <put name="body" value="/WEB-INF/editBody.jsp" />
       <put name="a" value="/WEB-INF/a.jsp" />
       <put name="b" value="/WEB-INF/b.jsp" />
   </definition>
}}}

layout.jsp:
{{{
   <tiles:insert attribute="header">
   <tiles:insert attribute="body" >
       <!-- propogate "a" and "b" down to the next level -->
       <tiles:put name="a" beanName="a"/>
       <tiles:put name="b" beanName="b"/>
   </tiles:insert>
   <tiles:insert attribute="footer">
}}}

editBody.jsp:
{{{
   <table>
      <tr>
         <td><tiles:insert attribute="a"/></td>
         <td><tiles:insert attribute="b"/></td>
      </tr>
   </table>
}}}

The downside of this approach is that layout.jsp must know the list of possible arguments
to (any) body.jsp page.

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