Spring MVC JSTL Configuration

JSTL (JSP Standard Tag Library) is a collection of standard JSP tags used to perform common tasks such as iteration, conditional processing, URL handling, formatting, and XML processing. It reduces the need for Java code inside JSP pages and makes the view layer cleaner and easier to maintain.

Makes JSP pages cleaner and more readable.
Supports looping and conditional rendering.
Works seamlessly with Spring MVC model attributes.

Syntax

For Display Output:

<c:out value="${message}" />

Loop Through Collection

<c:forEach var="item" items="${items}">
${item}
</c:forEach>

Step-by-Step JSTL Configuration in Spring MVC

Follow these steps to configure JSTL in Spring Mvc Applications.

Step 1: Create a Maven Project

Open STS IDE.
Click File - New - Maven Project.
Select Create a simple project (Select archetype ) and click Next.

Then Enter the following details:

Group Id: com.gfg
Artifact Id: SpringMVCMultipleViewPage
Packaging: war

Click Finish.

Step 2: Add Required Dependencies

Add the following maven dependencies and plugin to your pom.xml file.

XML

<dependency>
  <groupid>javax.servlet</groupid>
  <artifactid>jstl</artifactid>
  <version>1.2</version>
  <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
 
<dependency>
  <groupid>taglibs</groupid>
  <artifactid>standard</artifactid>
  <version>1.1.2</version>
  <scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>

Step 3: Configure Dispatcher Servlet

This file handle all incoming requests and forwards them to the appropriate controller.

XML

<web-app>

    <servlet>
        <servlet-name>spring</servlet-name>
        <servlet-class>
            org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet
        </servlet-class>
        <load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
    </servlet>

    <servlet-mapping>
        <servlet-name>spring</servlet-name>
        <url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
    </servlet-mapping>

</web-app>

Step 4: Configure Spring MVC

This file enables component scanning and configures JSTL-enabled JSP view resolution.

XML

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
       xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

       xsi:schemaLocation="
       http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
       https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd

       http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
       https://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd

       http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
       https://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc.xsd">

    <context:component-scan base-package="com.gfg.controller"/>

    <mvc:annotation-driven/>

    <bean
        class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">

        <property name="viewClass"
                  value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView"/>

        <property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/"/>

        <property name="suffix" value=".jsp"/>

    </bean>

</beans>

Step 5: Create Controller(HomeController.java)

Sends data from the controller to the JSP page using the Model object.

Java

package com.gfg.controller;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.ui.Model;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;

@Controller
public class HomeController {

    @RequestMapping("/")
    public String home(Model model) {

        model.addAttribute(
                "message",
                "Welcome to GeeksforGeeks");

        return "home";
    }
}

Step 6: Create JSP Page(home.jsp)

Uses JSTL <c:out> tag to display model data on the JSP page.

HTML

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

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>JSTL Demo</title>
</head>

<body>

<h2>
    Welcome Message :
    <c:out value="${message}" />
</h2>

</body>
</html>

Step 7: Run the Application

Right-click the project.
Select Run As - Run on Server.
Choose Apache Tomcat Server.
Click Finish.

After that use the following URL to run your controller.

http://localhost:8080/SpringMVCJSTLDemo/

Output: