Update, 8/10/2006: There’s at least one other open source calendar generation taglib that looks like it’s worth a download (even though it’s older). That author hoped that code would make it into the Jakarta Taglibs but I didn’t find any evidence of that.
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)
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Actually the source for components in Coldtags suite (http://www.servletsuite.com/jsp.htm) is available too.
Hi Dan,
That’s great to know. I just looked around your site and couldn’t find such a notice on your website. Can you point me to it?
I was looking for exactly the same thing, so thanks for doing your digging around. I found similar taglibs to what you found, but once I stumbled across your blog entry I was very happy–especially with your write-up on the gotchas of the CalendarTag taglib. Thanks!
There is another one at http://www.thogau.net/taglib/calendar.html
Thanks Roshan!
Hi i looked at the calendar this is great for me, but the next and previous month passes the date also with the link so the current day of the next month is always highlighted. is there any way to change that?
Arun, I’m not sure; it’s been a fair while since I looked at the code. Anyone else? Arun, did you try to post something in the bug tracker? http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=678807&group_id=117560&func=browse
Here’s another jsp calendar component. I have not installed or evaluated it, and the link on this page is busted, but I thought it might be worth your time if you’re looking.
http://www.devdaily.com/blog/post/jsp/my-web-calendar-jsp-html-css-source-code