Are JSP files valid in any HTML version?

**Gerard Oberle** · Jul 17 '05, 09:38 PM

Re: Are JSP files valid in any HTML version?

There is something in the JSP standard about an XML representation for
JSP pages (see http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/download.html#specs),
but JSP pages are NEITHER XML nor HTML. To illustrate why, consider
the generation of an img tag with the name of the image file coming
from a call to some method on some object:

<img src="<%=picture .getFileName()% >" alt="generated picture">

How could you write this substitution in well-formed xhtml?

That said, I think the relevant question isn't so much whether JSP (or
its competitors, ASP, PHP, ColdFusion, etc.) are valid html, xml or
xhtml. It really is, can they be used to generate conforming valid
xhtml and/or html. If that is relevant, then what you may want to do
is carefully write your JSP so that it constructs a page which is both
valid xhtml (and therefore valid xml) and at the same time, valid
html. Go to the www.w3c.org site, and look up the specification for
xhtml. There is a discussion in that document on how to write a page
that fills this requirement. Of course, that discussion is based on a
static view. You have to build a JSP whose output conforms to those
guidelines.

Cheers!
- Jerry Oberle

**Ingo Pakleppa - ingo at kkeane dot com** · Jul 17 '05, 09:38 PM

Re: Are JSP files valid in any HTML version?

On Fri, 25 Jul 2003 20:05:24 -0700, Gerard Oberle wrote:
[color=blue]
> There is something in the JSP standard about an XML representation for
> JSP pages (see http://java.sun.com/products/jsp/download.html#specs),
> but JSP pages are NEITHER XML nor HTML. To illustrate why, consider the
> generation of an img tag with the name of the image file coming from a
> call to some method on some object:
>
> <img src="<%=picture .getFileName()% >" alt="generated picture">
>
> How could you write this substitution in well-formed xhtml?
>
> That said, I think the relevant question isn't so much whether JSP (or
> its competitors, ASP, PHP, ColdFusion, etc.) are valid html, xml or
> xhtml. It really is, can they be used to generate conforming valid
> xhtml and/or html. If that is relevant, then what you may want to do is
> carefully write your JSP so that it constructs a page which is both
> valid xhtml (and therefore valid xml) and at the same time, valid html.
> Go to the www.w3c.org site, and look up the specification for xhtml.
> There is a discussion in that document on how to write a page that fills
> this requirement. Of course, that discussion is based on a static view.
> You have to build a JSP whose output conforms to those guidelines.[/color]

Excellent advice. I just want to add the recommendation to submit the HTML
generated by the JSP to http://validator.w3c.org. Hint: download the Opera
browser. If you use Opera to test your page, just bring up your JSP and
hit Shift+Ctrl+V (on Windows or Linux; Opera on other operating systems
might use different key combinations), and it will automatically go to
this validator site.

By the way, the validator site also has a link to a similar CSS validator.

Do be aware that it is not always possible to write 100% W3C compliant
HTML. One of the most troublesome problems is the marginwidth= and
marginheight= attribute in the <body> tag; they are illegal in compliant
HTML, but the only way to achieve the desired effect on some versions of
IE and Netscape.

--
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**javadoc** · Jul 17 '05, 09:38 PM

Re: Are JSP files valid in any HTML version?

JSP files are NOT XML-compliant, so there is no DTD for validation. Even if
you include your JSP scriptlets, expressions, and declarations in an
XHTML-formatted file, the JSP tags themselves do not conform to XML syntax.
The only way to get what you want is to use JSP bean tags only (like
jsp:useBean), and put them in an XHTML-formatted file.

"Shyamal Prasad" <shyamal.prasad @ericsson.com> wrote in message
news:yzsznj2k06 d.fsf@ericsson. com...[color=blue]
>
> Hi,
>
> Is there anyway to write JSP files as valid HTML of any sort. What I
> want to know is if JSP files are some sort of valid XML with a DTD
> that will check contents. Perhaps JSP files are valid XHTML documents?
>
> Any pointers would be appreciated. Searching the web seems to be
> leading me nowhere quickly.
>
> Cheers!
> Shyamal[/color]

**Shyamal Prasad** · Jul 17 '05, 09:39 PM

Re: Are JSP files valid in any HTML version?

"Jerry" == goberle <goberle@hotmai l.com> writes:

Jerry> That said, I think the relevant question isn't so much
Jerry> whether JSP (or its competitors, ASP, PHP, ColdFusion,
Jerry> etc.) are valid html, xml or xhtml.

Thanks to everyone for responses.

Incidentally, the relevant question actually actually was about the
possiblity of writing JSP files as DTD validated documents.

I write my xml/html files with a DTD aware editor, and I love being
able to point and click to add tags/attributes, and validate structure
with simple keystrokes. I was hoping to be able to train my editor
(xemacs with PSGML) to learn how to write JSP for Struts so I don't
have to keep looking up all the struts tags and so on (a concept that
works great, for example, with ant build files and plain old
HTML/XHTML).

As it turns out the answer seems to be pretty much that I can't do
this even when writing JSP files in the XML format because of
limitations when it comes to DTD validation with namespaces in
use. Not being able to validate mark up is something I am not used
to. So for now my ant build files invoke jasper and compile.....not
quite what I want, but close.....;-)

Cheers!
Shyamal

Are JSP files valid in any HTML version?

Are JSP files valid in any HTML version?

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