July 24, 2006

CalendarTag: A simple JSP Calendar Component

I was looking around at jsp calendar components for a client. I'd previously had a hard time finding a decent one, so I didn't hold out much hope. Luckily, this search was slightly different--I don't need any fancy features, just a simple calendar display rendered in html, with links on the day numbers. In addition, the calendar needs to be indexable, so FlatCalendarXP, which I've used before, is not an option.

I looked at the HtmlCalendarBean and the Calendar Taglib, both from ServletSuite. I expected the price to be reasonable, but didn't expect source, which was important for the client.

A bit of digging around on SourceForge found the perfect project: CalendarTag. This project looks abandoned, but the author got things into good shape before ceasing development. I'd say the project is mature, rather than abandoned. In addition, he responded to my questions (including "is this project alive?") in less than 24 hours.

I found the documentation to be very useful. In addition, you can customize the calendar's output to a very large degree. I especially like the decorator, which lets you control exactly how each day is displayed by implementing a relatively simple interface or extending a a class.

Make no mistake. This is a simple component which just displays a calendar in html. There's no support for users or events (Update 3:24. I should have read the docs more closely and said, there's no built in support for events or users. From within the calendar, you have access to the request and so can code up event handling and/or user specific calendars.). If you want those features, I'd look at a more complex calendaring system. Calendartag does something simple and does it well.

One tip--you'll need to have the standard-1.0.4.jar file available to your web application, as well as the calendartag-1.0-rc4.jar file, otherwise you see this rather fearsome exception:

org.apache.jasper.JasperException: org/apache/taglibs/standard/tag/el/core/ExpressionUtil
	at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:254)
	at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:295)
	at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:241)
	at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:247)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:256)
	at 
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
	at 
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.invoke(StandardContext.java:2422)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:180)
	at 
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643)
	at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorDispatcherValve.invoke(ErrorDispatcherValve.java:171)
	at 
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641)
	at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:163)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:174)
	at 
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995)
	at org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:199)
	at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:828)
	at 
org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11Protocol.java:700)
	at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.TcpWorkerThread.runIt(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:584)
	at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:683)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)

root cause

javax.servlet.ServletException: org/apache/taglibs/standard/tag/el/core/ExpressionUtil
	at org.apache.jasper.runtime.PageContextImpl.handlePageException(PageContextImpl.java:536)
	at org.apache.jsp.index_jsp._jspService(index_jsp.java:59)
	at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:137)
	at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853)
	at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:210)
	at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:295)
	at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:241)
	at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:853)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:247)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:193)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:256)
	at 
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:191)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.invoke(StandardContext.java:2422)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:180)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643)
	at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorDispatcherValve.invoke(ErrorDispatcherValve.java:171)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641)
	at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:163)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:641)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:174)
	at 
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline$StandardPipelineValveContext.invokeNext(StandardPipeline.java:643)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardPipeline.invoke(StandardPipeline.java:480)
	at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.invoke(ContainerBase.java:995)
	at org.apache.coyote.tomcat4.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:199)
	at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:828)
	at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Protocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11Protocol.java:700)
	at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.TcpWorkerThread.runIt(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:584)
	at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:683)
	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)
Posted by moore at July 24, 2006 12:05 PM
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