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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-15T04:28:20+00:00

Seems like JSPs, Velocity, Freemarker etc. can offer so-called inner templating: I can describe

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Seems like JSPs, Velocity, Freemarker etc. can offer so-called “inner templating”: I can describe an outer template, then define inner parts. Like this (simplified):

main.jsp:

<html>
<body>
    <div class="container">
        <%@ include file="menu.jsp"%>
        <%@ include file="content.jsp"%>
    </div>
</body>
</html>

So I can define menu.jsp and content.jsp and all works just fine. But here outer block has references to inners. Not very suitable for me.

I’m looking for technology for Java, that can let me implement something like this:

some_block.jsp:

<template file="main_template.jsp">
<div>
    ... my content here
</div>
</template>

main_template.jsp:

<html>
<body>
    <div class="container">
        <inner_content />
    </div>
</body>
</html>

I. e. vice versa – inner blocks have references to outer. Is it possible with JSPs? If not – what should I use with Spring MVC?

EDIT: Why it be more comfortable for me: when Controller receives a request, it detects what view it should render. So I can render, for example, feedback form:

feedback.jsp:

<template file="main_template.jsp">
    <form> ... feedback form content here ... </form>
</template>

or a product page product.jsp:

<template file="main_template.jsp">
    <div> ... product page content here ... </div>
</template>

and there is no need to describe page structure for every kind of pages, and there is no need to pass any parameters to outer template to render content correctly. And even no need in dynamic compilation – all pages are just an implicit set of precompiled servlets.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I created a JSP taglib you might be interested in:

    http://www.inamik.com/projects/webframes/

    Here is how I would implement your request using the WebFrames taglib

    Notice that this is an exact 1-to-1 correlation to your example, but unlike your example, WebFrames allows you to create unlimited place-holders so you could have things like dynamic titles, css-includes, right-channel content, left-navs, etc.

    feedback.jsp

    <%@ page language="java" %>
<%@ taglib prefix="wf" uri="/WEB-INF/tld/webframes.tld" %>
<wf:render file="main_template.jsp">
    <wf:section name="inner_content">
        <form> ... feedback form content here ... </form>
    </wf:section>
</wf:render>

    product.jsp

    <%@ page language="java" %>
<%@ taglib prefix="wf" uri="/WEB-INF/tld/webframes.tld" %>
<wf:render file="main_template.jsp">
    <wf:section name="inner_content">
        <div> ... product page content here ... </div>
    </wf:section>
</wf:render>

    main_template.jsp

    <%@ page language="java" %>
<%@ taglib prefix="wf" uri="/WEB-INF/tld/webframes.tld" %>
<html>
<body>
    <div class="container">
        <wf:render section="inner_content" />
    </div>
</body>
</html>

    Official WebFrames Example

    Below is the full example set from the website showing how you can create/populate multiple place-holders:

    http://www.inamik.com/projects/webframes/examples/simpleexample.jsp

    Start by looking at the source for the example main page:

    main http://www.inamik.com/projects/webframes/examples/simpleexample.jsp.txt

    <%@ page language="java" %>
<%@ taglib prefix="wf" uri="/WEB-INF/tld/webframes.tld" %>
<wf:render file="frame.jsp">
    <wf:section name="title">WebFrames Simple Example Page</wf:section>
    <wf:section name="header" file="headersection.html" />
    <wf:section name="footer" file="footersection.html" />
    <wf:section name="body">
        This page is a composite of the following sub-pages.  Click the links below to see
        the jsp/html that makes up each sub-page.
        <UL>
            <LI><A href="simpleexample.jsp.txt">simpleexample.jsp</A></LI>
            <LI><A href="frame.jsp.txt">frame.jsp</A></LI>
            <LI><A href="headersection.html.txt">headersection.html</A></LI>
            <LI><A href="footersection.html.txt">footersection.html</A></LI>
        </UL>       
    </wf:section>
</wf:render>

    See how this defines the content sections without defining the layout.

    If you look at the layout (‘frame.jsp’) You’ll see it doesn’t know what content is going to be displayed, it just creates place-holders for the content:

    frame http://www.inamik.com/projects/webframes/examples/frame.jsp.txt

    <%@ page language="java" %>
<%@ taglib prefix="wf" uri="/WEB-INF/tld/webframes.tld" %>
<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE><wf:render section="title" /></TITLE></HEAD>
<BODY>
    <TABLE width="100%">
        <!-- Header -->
        <TR>
            <TD>
                <TABLE width="100%">
                    <TR>
                        <TD>
                            <wf:render section="header" />
                        </TD>
                    </TR>
                </TABLE>
            </TD>
        </TR>
        <!-- Body -->
        <TR>
            <TD>
                <TABLE width="100%">
                    <TR>
                        <TD>
                            <wf:render section="body" />
                        </TD>
                    </TR>
                </TABLE>
            </TD>
        </TR>
        <!-- Footer -->
        <TR>
            <TD>
                <TABLE width="100%">
                    <TR>
                        <TD>
                            <wf:render section="footer" />
                        </TD>
                    </TR>
                </TABLE>
            </TD>
        </TR>
</BODY>
</HTML>

    header http://www.inamik.com/projects/webframes/examples/headersection.html.txt

    <!--  BEGIN headersection.html -->
<TABLE bgcolor="#00C0C0" width="100%">
    <TR>
        <TD nowrap="nowrap" align="LEFT">
            <H1>WebFrames Sample Header</H1>
        </TD>
    </TR>
</TABLE>
<!-- END headersection.html -->

    footer http://www.inamik.com/projects/webframes/examples/footersection.html.txt

    <!--  BEGIN footersection.html -->
<TABLE bgcolor="#00C0C0" width="100%">
    <TR>
        <TD nowrap="nowrap" align="CENTER">
            Copyleft (c) SampleFooter Inc.
        </TD>
    </TR>
</TABLE>
<!-- END footersection.html -->

    This pattern provides a much more flexible solution that creates components that are re-usable and easier to maintain.

    NOTES

    This was based on earlier work by David Geary:

    http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-12-2001/jw-1228-jsptemplate.html

    Also, if you’re willing (or considering) non-JSP solutions, I wrote a Java-based template engine in the spirit of PHP’s Smarty template engine

    https://github.com/iNamik/iNamik-Template-Engine

    I also have a ‘Frames’ taglib for this engine, which isn’t on GitHub yet.

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