Struts Tags vs. JSTL

Question

Struts has a number of helpful custom JSP tags, and Struts-EL adds much needed EL support. I'm looking for thoughts on relative merits of using Struts/Strut-EL tags where available vs. just using JSTL tags.

Answer 1

It depends on your usage of custom tags - some tags, like those that create an option dropdown list, are much easier to use and read than the equivalent c:foreach loop tag. However, JSTL is common across many apps, so if you stopped using the struts custom tags in a different webapp, you'd probably still have access to the JSTL.

Answer 2

Simple:

• Struts Tags are only available to projects that use Struts
• JSTL tags can be used anywhere and can even co-operate with other frameworks such as Spring or JSF