The tag class

A tag in the library can be implemented by any java class that fits the following requirements:

• The class name ends with Model.
• It has a public, non-static, non-abstract method called execute.
• The execute method returns void.
• The parameters of the execute method are as follows:
• the first parameters may be anything you want; at runtime they will contain the values assigned to the attributes of the tag in the template. Those parameters may be annotated with org.apache.tiles.autotag.core.runtime.annotation.Parameter in order to specify the name of the attribute, the default value, or to make the parameter mandatory.
• then, one parameter of type org.apache.tiles.request.Request.
• and finally, one optional parameter of type org.apache.tiles.autotag.core.runtime.ModelBody; at runtime it will contain the contents of the tag in the template.

  For instance:

  public class MyTagModel {
  
      public void execute( 
          @Parameter(required=true) String mandatoryParam, 
          String optionalParam, 
          Request request, 
          ModelBody body) {
          ...
      }
  
  }

Generating the library descriptor

the library descriptor can be generated using the create-descriptor goal of maven-autotag-plugin.

<plugin>
  <groupId>org.apache.tiles.autotag.plugin</groupId>
  <artifactId>maven-autotag-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>1.0</version>
  <executions>
    <execution>
      <goals>
        <goal>create-descriptor</goal>
      </goals>
      <configuration>
        ...
      </configuration> 
    </execution>
  </executions>
</plugin>