Requirements

To use Tiles in your application you need:

  • a Java Runtime Environment following the Java SE 5.0 specifications;
  • a servlet container that supports Servlet 2.4 (or above) and JSP 2.0 (or above).

Installation

To install Tiles in your web application:

  • download a distribution of Tiles;
  • if you downloaded the binary distribution, unpack it;
  • copy the tiles-core-VERSION.jar, tiles-api-VERSION.jar, tiles-servlet-VERSION.jar and tiles-jsp-VERSION.jar files in the WEB-INF/lib directory of your web application. It is not reccomended to put them in a location where they are shared across the container;
  • copy the Tiles dependencies JARs:

    These dependencies are present in the lib directory of the binary distribution;

  • if you need JSP support, copy the tiles-jsp-VERSION.jar in the WEB-INF/lib directory of your web application;
  • if you need to load Tiles definition files using wildcards, copy the spring-web-VERSION.jar, spring-core-VERSION.jar, spring-context-VERSION.jar, spring-beans-VERSION.jar, aopalliance-VERSION.jar files under the WEB-INF/lib directory;
  • if you need to load Tiles definition files using wildcards under a portlet environment, copy the spring-webmvc-portlet-VERSION.jar, spring-core-VERSION.jar, spring-context-VERSION.jar, spring-beans-VERSION.jar, aopalliance-VERSION.jar files under the WEB-INF/lib directory;
  • if you need to use EL in XML definition files under a Servlet 2.4/JSP 2.0 environment, copy el-api-VERSION.jar and jasper-el-VERSION.jar files under the WEB-INF/lib directory.

Usage

If you are using Tiles for the first time, read the Tutorial.

If you are migrating from Struts-Tiles, see the Migration guide.

Examples

To see Tiles in action, there are two examples:

  • The Tiles test web application, included in examples directory of the binary distribution (download it).
  • The Tiles showcase, that shows Tiles features and integration with other technologies and frameworks (currently only Struts 1).

    Currently it is still under development, and you can access it through its subversion repository:

    http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/tiles/examples/trunk/tiles-showcase/