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Hi,
I was disappointed when I finally got MyEclipse loaded on my Linux system today. The first real problem I ran into was that MyEclipse does not seem to support the pure xml variant of JSP. I find that a shame, because it really is quite superior to the HTML (kiddy version:-) [I have already put on my flame proof asbestos suit ;-)] No, seriously, there really are reasons to prefer the xml syntax over the foot loose and fancy free syntax.
In any case, my company standardized on the xml variant three years ago so not having support for it in MyEclipse really is hurtful if not quite a show stopper. Are there any plans to add support this in the near future.
Thanks,
JoelJoel,
I presume you’re talking about XHTML 1.0? When you say we don’t support it, specifically what are you referring to? Are the pages failing to compile? Is it code assist? What specific features do you find lacking?
–Scott
MyEclipse SupportScott,
No, XHTML is good and I would hope that you would also consider support for it if you do not already have. What I speaking of is defined in the JSP 1.2 specifation. While you can read all about in the specification itself, it is easier to take a look at “JAVASERVER PAGES™ (JSP™) SYNTAX version 1.2” (http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/syntax/1.2/card12.pdf) which compares the two possible syntax, JSP and XML.
One of the advantages of using the XML syntax is, of course, that it is well formed and valid xml. This enables one to bring to bear all of one’s XML tools, utilities and expertise with XML when working with and processing these pages. We have found this to be of great benefit. They are also *much* cleaner to work with. One is not even tempted to go down the path of using scriplets, so the pages stay unpolluted.
I take MVC in my J2EE applications very seriously. Having business logic littering the JSP is not desirable. Using the XML syntax the temptation to put in “just a bit of code” is greatly reduced. It is not that it is not possibly, it is simply so obvious that you are breaking the conventions that you stop and think about the alternatives, e.g. create a bean in the model or controller and call it.
Btw, since the availability of the JSTL, developing with the XML syntax has become even more powerful since many of the task that used to be awkward are now straight forward.
It is obvious that MyEclipse has a goal to the J2EE development platform of choice. Therefore, I think is is important that you provide support for those aspects of development that enable and support best practices. Here is one that is on the top of my list of one that would make a difference.
I invite you to join me in knocking down a couple of windmills this week 😉
Btw, to answer your question about what does not work here, simply everything. It starts out with a message “jsp:root not supported yet” and does down hill from the there. Most of the file is in “red” indicating errors in the syntax. Of course it will not compile.
Thanks,
JoelJoel,
Thanks for the education. I’ve checked out the spec and see what you mean. Are there that many JSP 1.2 compliant containers available to run this stuff in? You said you made this decision a few years ago, so what container do you use?
I’ve added an enhancement request for full JSP XML syntax support in a future release of the JSP editor in our internal tracking system.
–Scott
MyEclipse SupportScott,
This alll goes back to JSP 1.1, so ALL of the modern containers support this now. We started 3 years ago (more or less) with a beta implementation of Tomcat 3.x that was the reference implemetation for JSP 1.1. This stuff has been in the core of JSP for ages. I for one have a very hard time understanding why there is not more support for it. It seems to me that folks do use it because it is not wel supported with tools and so tools do not support it because it is not used much. Same old chicken and egg story.
Thanks for getting it into the tracking system.
Regards,
JoelScott,
Sorry, I went back and double checked and these features came in with JSP 1.2 rather than 1.1.
Joel
Ok, that makes more sense. It’s amazing how little used the XML varient syntax seems to be. Good enhancement request.
–Scott
MyEclipse SupportScott,
I rather suspect that this feature may not be the #1 priority of the next release. While we patiently (;-) await it, it would be really helpful if there was a way to configure the Web Module Projects to ignore the checking and compilation of the JSP pages. As it is now the Web Module Projects are unusable if one is using XML syntax JSPs because they are always marked as broken. Therefore, by association, the Enterprise Application Projects are unusable if they contain a web module. Sigh, there goes a really big part of the benefits of using MyEclipse.
Any chance of getting this into the next maintanence release?
Thanks,
JoelThis is an excellent enhancement and fairly simple request to implement. We can’t promise to deliver this feature in the maintenance build but I can assure you that we will give it our best shot.
Michael
MyEclipse SupportThanks for getting this done so quickly, I am upgrading as we speak.
Do you have any idea when in the roadmap the support for the XML syntax in jsp will be added?
– joel
Joel,
Do you have any idea when in the roadmap the support for the XML syntax in jsp will be added?
Sorry, but I don’t at this point. They’re still pulling the feature set together for the next ‘dot’ release now. If I hear anything, I’ll see if I can pass it on. 🙂
–Scott
MyEclipse SupportJoel,
I checked and the level of effort to provide this is quite large given that it requires the implementation of a completely new XML JSP compiler. Given that, and the other things we need to implement to round out the toolset it looks like the earliest implementation would be toward the end of the 4th quarter, at best.
Of course, the priority would change if there was a large site license hanging in the balance or a customer specifically wanted to fund this effort.
I know that’s not the news you wanted, but it’s as accurate as I can find.
–Scott
MyEclipse SupportScott,
Nope, not the news I wanted ;-( but it *is* good to know where we stand. Sorry we are not that large site licence, just two developers, but who knows maybe someone lurks in the dark corners 😉
What I would really like to know is why the majority of development is *not* being done with the xml syntax. It really baffles me and none of my efforts to research it have shed any real light. I do not even find articles that talk about it.
– joel
