What is a jsp tag?

Question

I'm coming from a .net background and trying to learn java. I keep seeing references to Tags and Tag Handlers, etc.

Is there an equivalent .NET Construct?

Answer 1

Yes. <% ... %> is what you get for the jsp tag. Tag Handlers are similar to the RUNAT="SERVER" attribute you can add to many HTML tags, except they go much further and allow you to create custom tags to fit your needs. For example you could create a tag called DATETIMEHERE that when encountered simply output the date/time.

E.g.

<span class="somsCSSClass"><DATETIMEHERE /></span>

In ASP.NET MVC you could create a custom ViewEngine and do something as robust as Tag Handlers very easily.