SiteMesh is a web-page layout system that can be used to abstract common look and feel from the functionality of a web-application and to assemble large webpages from smaller components. Pages and components can have meta-data extracted from them (such as body, title and meta-tags) which can be used by decorators (skins) that are applied.
SiteMesh won't tread on your toes or force you to work in a certain way (except for cleaner) - you install and carry on working as before. It seamlessly fits in with existing frameworks.
Forget the hype - just try it! You'll be impressed with how it can simplify things.
The latest version of SiteMesh can be obtained from:
| 2.4.x | 2.5.x | 2.6.x | 2.7.x |
|---|---|---|---|
| Java 7+ | Java 8+ | Java 17+ (2.4.x base) | Java 17+ (2.5.x base) |
| Servlet API 3.1-4.0.1 | Servlet API 3.1-4.0.1 | Jakarta | Jakarta |
| 2.4.x | 2.5.x | 2.6.x | 2.7.x |
| Java Docs | |||
| Download 2.4.4 | Download 2.5.0 | Download 2.6.0-M1 | Download 2.7.0-M1 |
Docs: https://sitemesh.github.io/sitemesh2/
See the latest snapshot in action by running:
../gradlew
or for Windows run:
../gradlew.bat
from the src directory.
To force refreshing a snapshot, run:
../gradlew --refresh-dependencies
SiteMesh requires a Java Servlet container conforming to the Servlet 3.1 specification. Versions prior to 2.3 are not enough.
Currently known containers that support this and SiteMesh was tested with:
- Orion 1.5.4 and up - http://www.orionserver.com
- Tomcat 4.0, 4.1 and 5.0.19 - http://jakarta.apache.org/tomcat
- Resin 2.1.11, 2.1.12, 2.1.13 and 3.0.7 - http://www.caucho.com
- Oracle OC4J 2 - http://www.oracle.com
- WebLogic 7.0 SP2, 8.1 and 8.1 SP2 - http://www.bea.com
- WebSphere 5.0 - http://www.ibm.com
- Jetty 4.2.20 - http://jetty.mortbay.org
-
Copy
sitemesh-@[email protected]to theWEB-INF/lib/directory of your web-app. -
OPTIONAL: Copy
sitemesh.xmlto theWEB-INF/directory if you need to specify a custom decorator mapper configuration then the default configuration. -
Add the following to
WEB-INF/web.xml:
<filter>
<filter-name>sitemesh</filter-name>
<filter-class>com.opensymphony.sitemesh.webapp.SiteMeshFilter</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>sitemesh</filter-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>- ORION USERS ONLY. For performance reasons, Orion does not auto-load tab library descriptors
from Jars by default. To get passed this you will also have to copy
sitemesh-decorator.tldand sitemesh-page.tld toWEB-INF/liband add the following toWEB-INF/web.xml:
<taglib>
<taglib-uri>http://www.opensymphony.com/sitemesh/decorator</taglib-uri>
<taglib-location>/WEB-INF/lib/sitemesh-decorator.tld</taglib-location>
</taglib>
<taglib>
<taglib-uri>http://www.opensymphony.com/sitemesh/page</taglib-uri>
<taglib-location>/WEB-INF/lib/sitemesh-page.tld</taglib-location>
</taglib>Ok, let's assume you have some basic JSPs already on the site. These should contain vanilla HTML.
If you don't, here's a JSP to get you started (test.jsp).
<html>
<head>
<title>Hello world</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Today is <%= new java.util.Date() %>.</p>
</body>
</html>Once you have some content (preferably more imaginative than the example above),
a decorator should be created (decorator.jsp).
<%@ taglib uri="http://www.opensymphony.com/sitemesh/decorator" prefix="decorator" %>
<html>
<head>
<title>My Site - <decorator:title default="Welcome!" /></title>
<decorator:head />
</head>
<body>
<decorator:body />
</body>
</html>Now you need tell SiteMesh about that decorator and when to use it. Create the
file WEB-INF/decorators.xml:
<decorators>
<decorator name="mydecorator" page="/decorator.jsp">
<pattern>/*</pattern>
</decorator>
</decorators>Access your original JSP (test.jsp) though your web-browser and it should look
pretty normal. Now if you add some styling to your decorator it shall
automatically be applied to all the other pages in your web-app.
You can define as many decorators as you want in decorators.xml. Example:
<decorators defaultdir="/decorators">
<decorator name="default" page="default.jsp">
<pattern>/*</pattern>
</decorator>
<decorator name="anotherdecorator" page="decorator2.jsp">
<pattern>/subdir/*</pattern>
</decorator>
<decorator name="htmldecorator" page="html.jsp">
<pattern>*.html</pattern>
<pattern>*.htm</pattern>
</decorator>
<decorator name="none">
<!-- These files will not get decorated. -->
<pattern>/anotherdir/*</pattern>
</decorator>
</decorators>You get the idea. Play around. See the SiteMesh website for full documentation.
https://github.com/sitemesh/sitemesh2/issues
Thank these guys:
-
Mathias Bogaert [email protected]
-
Mike Cannon-Brookes [email protected]
-
Victor Salaman [email protected]
-
Joseph Ottinger [email protected]
-
Hani Suleiman [email protected]
-
Scott Farquhar [email protected]
-
James Roper [email protected]
-
Matt Quail [email protected]
-
Charles Miller [email protected]
- Joe Walnes <[email protected]>