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Description

Ant task to run the JSP compiler and turn JSP pages into Java source.

It can be used to precompile JSP pages for fast initial invocation of JSP pages, deployment on a server without the full JDK installed, or simply to syntax check the pages without deploying them. In most cases, a javac task is usually the next stage in the build process. The task does basic dependency checking to prevent unnecessary recompilation -this checking compares source and destination timestamps, and does not factor in class or taglib dependencies, or <jsp:include> references.

By default the task uses the Jasper JSP compiler. This means the task needs jasper.jar and jasper-runtime.jar, which come with builds of Tomcat 4/Catalina from the Jakarta Tomcat project. We recommend Tomcat version 4.1.x for the most robust version of jasper.

There are many limitations with this task which partially stem from the many versions of Jasper, others from implementation 'issues' in the task (i.e. nobody's willingness to radically change large bits of it to work around jasper). Because of this and the fact that JSP pages do not have to be portable across implementations -or versions of implementations- this task is better used for validating JSP pages before deployment, rather than precompiling them. For that, just deploy and run your httpunit junit tests after deployment to compile and test your pages, all in one go.


next up previous contents index
Next: Parameters Up: JspC Previous: JspC   Contents   Index
Andrew Marlow 2003-07-08