manavendra's Journal: JSP tag library design

I'm currently working on defining the interfaces between the layer that houses the presentation logic and tag libraries that will invoke that logic from the JSP for a large j2ee application.

There seeem to be several books out there that talk about tag libraries, and several frameworks that handle one aspect or the other, but I believe creating a new tag is akin to creating a new language, and there are the usual concerns of usability, extensibility and customization that I am trying to resolve.

At the simplest best, a good tag library design (IMO) should provide the following:

1. Well defined interfaces between presentation layer and tag libraries themselves
2. Tag library syntax should be declarative - on the lines of markup languages like HTML - where you describe what you want, and not HOW it should be done. From what I've read so far, I have come to believe the tag library syntax should not be procedure-oriented, but action-oriented.
3. Perhaps the biggest challenge is to foresee the customization needs of future users, ISV and OEM's. A well defined taglib should not only ease the life of web page designers, but also make it easy to customize the views.