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(Quick Reference)

8 Tag Libraries

Version: 6.2.3

8.1Variables and Scopes

8.2Simple Tags

8.3Logical Tags

8.4Iterative Tags

8.5Tag Namespaces

8.6Using JSP Tag Libraries

8.7Tag return value

8 Tag Libraries

Like Java Server Pages (JSP), GSP supports the concept of custom tag libraries. Unlike JSP, Grails' tag library mechanism is simple, elegant and completely reloadable at runtime.

Quite simply, to create a tag library create a Groovy class that ends with the convention TagLib and place it within the grails-app/taglib directory:

class SimpleTagLib {

}

Now to create a tag create a Closure property that takes two arguments: the tag attributes and the body content:

class SimpleTagLib {
    def simple = { attrs, body ->

    }
}

The attrs argument is a Map of the attributes of the tag, whilst the body argument is a Closure that returns the body content when invoked:

class SimpleTagLib {
    def emoticon = { attrs, body ->
       out << body() << (attrs.happy == 'true' ? " :-)" : " :-(")
    }
}

As demonstrated above there is an implicit out variable that refers to the output Writer which you can use to append content to the response. Then you can reference the tag inside your GSP; no imports are necessary:

<g:emoticon happy="true">Hi John</g:emoticon>

To help IDEs like Spring Tool Suite (STS) and others autocomplete tag attributes, you should add Javadoc comments to your tag closures with @attr descriptions. Since taglibs use Groovy code it can be difficult to reliably detect all usable attributes.

For example:

class SimpleTagLib {

    /**
     * Renders the body with an emoticon.
     *
     * @attr happy whether to show a happy emoticon ('true') or
     * a sad emoticon ('false')
     */
    def emoticon = { attrs, body ->
       out << body() << (attrs.happy == 'true' ? " :-)" : " :-(")
    }
}

and any mandatory attributes should include the REQUIRED keyword, e.g.

class SimpleTagLib {

    /**
     * Creates a new password field.
     *
     * @attr name REQUIRED the field name
     * @attr value the field value
     */
    def passwordField = { attrs ->
        attrs.type = "password"
        attrs.tagName = "passwordField"
        fieldImpl(out, attrs)
    }
}

8.1 Variables and Scopes

Within the scope of a tag library there are a number of pre-defined variables including:

actionName - The currently executing action name
controllerName - The currently executing controller name
flash - The flash object
grailsApplication - The GrailsApplication instance
out - The response writer for writing to the output stream
pageScope - A reference to the pageScope object used for GSP rendering (i.e. the binding)
params - The params object for retrieving request parameters
pluginContextPath - The context path to the plugin that contains the tag library
request - The HttpServletRequest instance
response - The HttpServletResponse instance
servletContext - The javax.servlet.ServletContext instance
session - The HttpSession instance

8.2 Simple Tags

As demonstrated in the previous example it is easy to write simple tags that have no body and just output content. Another example is a dateFormat style tag:

def dateFormat = { attrs, body ->
    out << new java.text.SimpleDateFormat(attrs.format).format(attrs.date)
}

The above uses Java’s SimpleDateFormat class to format a date and then write it to the response. The tag can then be used within a GSP as follows:

<g:dateFormat format="dd-MM-yyyy" date="${new Date()}" />

With simple tags sometimes you need to write HTML mark-up to the response. One approach would be to embed the content directly:

def formatBook = { attrs, body ->
    out << "<div id=\"${attrs.book.id}\">"
    out << "Title : ${attrs.book.title}"
    out << "</div>"
}

Although this approach may be tempting it is not very clean. A better approach would be to reuse the render tag:

def formatBook = { attrs, body ->
    out << render(template: "bookTemplate", model: [book: attrs.book])
}

And then have a separate GSP template that does the actual rendering.

8.3 Logical Tags

You can also create logical tags where the body of the tag is only output once a set of conditions have been met. An example of this may be a set of security tags:

def isAdmin = { attrs, body ->
    def user = attrs.user
    if (user && checkUserPrivs(user)) {
        out << body()
    }
}

The tag above checks if the user is an administrator and only outputs the body content if he/she has the correct set of access privileges:

<g:isAdmin user="${myUser}">
    // some restricted content
</g:isAdmin>

8.4 Iterative Tags

Iterative tags are easy too, since you can invoke the body multiple times:

def repeat = { attrs, body ->
    attrs.times?.toInteger()?.times { num ->
        out << body(num)
    }
}

In this example we check for a times attribute and if it exists convert it to a number, then use Groovy’s times method to iterate the specified number of times:

<g:repeat times="3">
<p>Repeat this 3 times! Current repeat = ${it}</p>
</g:repeat>

Notice how in this example we use the implicit it variable to refer to the current number. This works because when we invoked the body we passed in the current value inside the iteration:

out << body(num)

That value is then passed as the default variable it to the tag. However, if you have nested tags this can lead to conflicts, so you should instead name the variables that the body uses:

def repeat = { attrs, body ->
    def var = attrs.var ?: "num"
    attrs.times?.toInteger()?.times { num ->
        out << body((var):num)
    }
}

Here we check if there is a var attribute and if there is use that as the name to pass into the body invocation on this line:

out << body((var):num)

Note the usage of the parenthesis around the variable name. If you omit these Groovy assumes you are using a String key and not referring to the variable itself.

Now we can change the usage of the tag as follows:

<g:repeat times="3" var="j">
<p>Repeat this 3 times! Current repeat = ${j}</p>
</g:repeat>

Notice how we use the var attribute to define the name of the variable j and then we are able to reference that variable within the body of the tag.

8.5 Tag Namespaces

By default, tags are added to the default Grails namespace and are used with the g: prefix in GSP pages. However, you can specify a different namespace by adding a static property to your TagLib class:

class SimpleTagLib {
    static namespace = "my"

    def example = { attrs ->
        //...
    }
}

Here we have specified a namespace of my and hence the tags in this tag lib must then be referenced from GSP pages like this:

<my:example name="..." />

where the prefix is the same as the value of the static namespace property. Namespaces are particularly useful for plugins.

Tags within namespaces can be invoked as methods using the namespace as a prefix to the method call:

out << my.example(name:"foo")

This works from GSP, controllers or tag libraries

8.6 Using JSP Tag Libraries

In addition to the simplified tag library mechanism provided by GSP, you can also use JSP tags from GSP.

In order to use JSP support you must ensure you have the grails-web-jsp dependency on your classpath by adding it to your build.gradle file:

build.gradle

dependencies {
    //...
    runtimeOnly "org.grails:grails-web-jsp:6.2.3"
}

Then you will need to declare the JSP taglib to use with the taglib directive at the top of your GSP file:

<%@ taglib prefix="fmt" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/fmt" %>

Besides this you have to configure Grails to scan for the JSP tld files. This is configured with the grails.gsp.tldScanPattern setting. It accepts a comma separated String value. Spring’s PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver is used to resolve the patterns.

For example, you could scan for all available tld files by adding this to application.yml:

grails-app/conf/application.yml

grails:
    gsp:
        tldScanPattern: 'classpath*:/META-INF/*.tld,/WEB-INF/tld/*.tld'

JSTL standard library is no longer added as a dependency by default. In case you are using JSTL, you should also add these dependencies to build.gradle:

build.gradle

dependencies {
    //...
    runtimeOnly 'javax.servlet:jstl:1.1.2'
    runtimeOnly 'taglibs:standard:1.1.2'
}

Then you can use JSP tags like any other tag:

<fmt:formatNumber value="${10}" pattern=".00"/>

With the added bonus that you can invoke JSP tags like methods:

${fmt.formatNumber(value:10, pattern:".00")}

8.7 Tag return value

A taglib can be used in a GSP as an ordinary tag, or it might be used as a function in other taglibs or GSP expressions.

Internally Grails intercepts calls to taglib closures. The "out" that is available in a taglib is mapped to a java.io.Writer implementation that writes to a buffer that "captures" the output of the taglib call. This buffer is the return value of a tag library call when it’s used as a function.

If the tag is listed in the library’s static returnObjectForTags array, then its return value will be written to the output when it’s used as a normal tag. The return value of the tag lib closure will be returned as-is if it’s used as a function in GSP expressions or other taglibs.

If the tag is not included in the returnObjectForTags array, then its return value will be discarded. Using "out" to write output in returnObjectForTags is not supported.

Example:

class ObjectReturningTagLib {
        static namespace = "cms"
        static returnObjectForTags = ['content']

        def content = { attrs, body ->
                CmsContent.findByCode(attrs.code)?.content
    }
}

Given this example cms.content(code: 'something') call in another taglib or GSP expression would return the value CmsContent.content directly to the caller without wrapping the return value in a buffer. It might be worth doing so also because of performance optimization reasons. There is no need to wrap the tag return value in an output buffer in such cases.

<< 7Making Changes to a Deployed Application

8 Tag Libraries

Table of Contents

8 Tag Libraries

8.1 Variables and Scopes

8.2 Simple Tags

8.3 Logical Tags

8.4 Iterative Tags

8.5 Tag Namespaces

8.6 Using JSP Tag Libraries

8.7 Tag return value

Tag Libraries

Tags