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News: Coldtags suite ver. 2.2 released

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  1. Coldtags suite ver. 2.2 released (20 messages)

    Coldbeans Software announced the major new release of Coldtags suite. This suite provides 220+ custom JSP tags for common programming tasks faced by JSP developers.

    Coldtags suite comes with a wide range out of the box ready-to-use the most common control components that are repeatedly required for the development of J2EE applications. They include standard user interface components like buttons, lists, edits, grids, menus, tables, tree views, calendars, JavaScript integration etc.

    With this suite developers and web designers no need to worry about writing browser-specific HTML or JavaScript.

    All controls are carefully written and tested to operate equally well on major Internet browsers as well J2EE servers.

    Also this suite includes ASP.NET similar web controls.

    At this moment Coldtags suite is probably the largest collection of custom JSP tags over the Net and continues to grow.
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  2. Coldtags suite ver. 2.2 released[ Go to top ]

    Coldtags suite is probably the largest collection of custom JSP tags over the Net and continues to grow.

    Does its user base also continue to grow? I'm asking because the tags seem rather low level (I mean API, not quality level) to me and that they try to mimic what can (much simpler!) be done with Java.

    Has anybody used the suite in a business app (e.g. a financial app)? What is/was your experience?
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  3. Coldtags suite ver. 2.2 released[ Go to top ]

    I have used quite a few of their tags in a financial app.
    (I have to go and look which all)
    They didnt cause me any problems at all and they worked well as documented. On one or two occasions I had questions and so emailed them..and the response was quick and to the point(helpful, iow)
    Some of their tags which at the time of their posting was a dream-come-true for developers (iow, some of the new things said to be in the new struts jar like calendar tag etc were there since 2002)
    Reply to this Reply to original

  4. Coldtags suite ver. 2.2 released[ Go to top ]

    Good work. But I think there is not better web component than ASP.NET 's DataGrid(It can paging,sorting etc..) in J2EE. Is it too hard to write such grid component using taglib?

     Displaytag maybe a good one. But it fetch all data from database one time to client. I mean that if you have 10,0000000.... .. records in database, it will load all the record from DB to client(or server). It is not allowed in a true large J2EE project ;-(

      Now, I write such grid component using Hibernate myself.But there are so much work to do compared to ASP.NET's DataGrid.

     If there is someone have a good idea or such taglib, please tell me,Thks

                                         --- liyong
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  5. JSF[ Go to top ]

    What about the MyFaces Datagrid ?
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  6. Thks Robert[ Go to top ]

    I have seen the MyFace project.But it seems that it can't give the sublist function like dotj taglib. ;-)
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  7. Coldtags suite ver. 2.2 released[ Go to top ]

    Liyong,

    You can check out our dotJ Custom Tag Library, which now has support for grid sublist processing as of version 2.1. It also has other features such as sorting, paging, inline editing, etc.

    Joe Pardi
    http://www.dotjonline.com
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  8. :)[ Go to top ]

    It's really good! It is the best taglib that I have seen
     :-)
    I think I should learn it some days.
    Reply to this Reply to original

  9. Thks Joe[ Go to top ]

    The dotj is the best taglib that I have seen. It implement almost all html tag and have more function. But it seems a little expensive. It worth to learn some days and I will introduce to my company. ;-(
     
     Thank your recommendation!

                           --- liyongc@digitalchina.com
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  10. Coldtags suite ver. 2.2 released[ Go to top ]

    I agree. Actually, DisplayTag can be "tweaked" to only load one page at a time (it's painful, but can be done by building an empty list of N elements, and only populating the page your interested in), but you loose the ability to sort the data. It's a shame...
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  11. Coldtags suite ver. 2.2 released[ Go to top ]

    Good work. But I think there is not better web component than ASP.NET 's DataGrid(It can paging,sorting etc..) in J2EE. Is it too hard to write such grid component using taglib? Displaytag maybe a good one. But it fetch all data from database one time to client. I mean that if you have 10,0000000.... .. records liyong

    So what? For those of us with customers who don't have 200 days to scroll through 10 million results twenty at a time, DisplayTag works great.

    Also, since you are the one passing data to DisplayTag, you, not it, are loading the data.
    Reply to this Reply to original

  12. Coldtags suite ver. 2.2 released[ Go to top ]

    It is up to the developer how many records will go to the Grid tag.

    yes, you can add paging and editing too. See:
    http://www.servletsuite.com/tips.htm
    http://www.servletsuite.com/tips/grid1.htm
    http://www.servletsuite.com/tips/cells.htm

    what feature from ASP.NET Grid did you miss?
    Reply to this Reply to original

  13. Bad practise?[ Go to top ]

    Is it just me or do most of this tags encourage bad programming. These tags seem to tackle challenges which involves putting businesslogic in your view. So to my opninion these tags are quiet redundant since they do not generally tackle view challenges.
    Reply to this Reply to original

  14. Bad practise - exactly.[ Go to top ]

    This has been my personal opinion for a long time. I call it the AMVC model for anti-model-view-controller.

    There are probably cases when this is okay though - such as corporate developers.
    Reply to this Reply to original

  15. Bad practise - exactly.[ Go to top ]

    As the author of a commercial tag library, here is my philosophy:

    A custom tag must be a pre-canned, standalone component that fulfills a specific visual purpose. If it doesn't fulfill a visual purpose, then the logic should be moved to the backend. It doesn't matter if the logic is written as a scriptlet or via custom tags since that's just a matter of syntax.

    The only reason we bend the rules somewhat (e.g. email tag, upload tag) is because we get lots of requests from customers that need to put together prototype applications very quickly so that they can secure funding to write the real application. They then usually switch their design from a Model-1 design to MVC.

    Joe Pardi
    http://www.dotjonline.com
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  16. Bad practise - exactly.[ Go to top ]

    The custom tag is something that responds to customers requests or needs. That is actually a philosophy. It is something that helps them to complete the task and do it more quickly.

    >They then usually switch their design from a Model-1 >design to MVC

    again, it is up to customers. If they need they can go, if not – we can support that too.

    >There are probably cases when this is okay though - such
    >as corporate developers.

    Are corporate developers not the developers ? -:)

    Dmitry
    http://www.servletsuite.com
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  17. Bad practise - exactly.[ Go to top ]

    For me the custom tag is a way to encapsulate and reuse view logic. If I'm not going to reuse a scriptlet, I most certainly will not write a custom tag.

    Though the customers might request for such tags, it doesn't ractify its design. I would rather see such tags separate there logic. For instance the popmail element: you could create a pop-view tag but populate the backingObject by means of a httpListener.

    This way you can configure your pop settings in your web.xml instead of cluttering your jsp's. Same quick development, better maintainabilty and design..
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  18. Bad practise - exactly.[ Go to top ]

    That is right of course, but I would like to change this a bit (it is IMHO of course):

    >For me the custom tag is a way to encapsulate and reuse
    >view logic.

    Encapsulate and reuse some functionality (what includes a view logic too).


    Dmitry
    http://www.servletsuite.com
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  19. Still not convinced?[ Go to top ]

    So that means if you would like to offer for instance pop-access on two of your JSP pages, you would have to provide the same pop-server information on two pages.

    Sure this can be avoided by using a workaround as global initialisation paramaters, but it imediately shows it's fundemental flaw. That's why you should seperate this logic from your custom tag. And as explained in my previous post, this doesn't slow development down, as a mather of fact it speeds it up.
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  20. Still not convinced?[ Go to top ]

    Sure this can be avoided by using a workaround as global
    >initialisation paramaters, but
    >it imediately shows it's fundemental flaw.

    Yes, you can use web.xml. As for the listener too by the way.

    >That's why you should seperate this logic from your custom
    >tag.
    Agreed, but again (in my opinion of course) you "may" or you "can" instead of "should". And tag (or functionality) must be useable in all the cases

    Dmitry
    http://www.servletsuite.com
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  21. Something shady...[ Go to top ]

    I have not used any other these tags, so I will not comment on the tags themselves.

    However, I did find it odd that all of the "user" comments are written in the same broken English, misspelled fashion. My BS-meter was going off when reading these comments.

    Anyone else feel the same?
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