*************************************
** OpenSymphony SiteMesh 2.4.2 **
*************************************
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.
--------------------------
-- Obtaining --
--------------------------
The latest version of SiteMesh can be obtained from:
http://www.opensymphony.com/sitemesh/
--------------------------
-- Requirements --
--------------------------
SiteMesh requires a Java Servlet container conforming to the Servlet 2.3
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
--------------------------
-- Installation --
--------------------------
* Copy sitemesh-@VERSION@.jar to the WEB-INF/lib/ directory of your web-app.
* OPTIONAL: Copy sitemesh.xml to the WEB-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.tld
and sitemesh-page.tld to WEB-INF/lib and add the following to WEB-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>
--------------------------
-- Getting started --
--------------------------
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>
--------------------------
-- Further support --
--------------------------
You get the idea. Play around. See the SiteMesh website for
full documentation.
http://www.opensymphony.com/sitemesh/
--------------------------
-- Credits --
--------------------------
Thank these guys:
* Mathias Bogaert <NOSPAMm.bogaert@memenco.com>
* Mike Cannon-Brookes <mikeNOSPAM@atlassian.com>
* Victor Salaman <salamanNOSPAM@teknos.com>
* Joseph Ottinger <joeoNOSPAM@adjacency.org>
* Hani Suleiman <NOSPAMfate@users.sourceforge.net>
* Scott Farquhar <scottNOSPAM@atlassian.com>
- Joe Walnes <joe@NOSPAMtruemesh.com>