'JspDoc' targets Administrators and Jsp Developers and allow them to
Implement a standard 'documentation' for Jsp
Browse on-line the documentation of a Jsp collection
Understand the Jsp structure and learn about them or debug them
Why, What
There is no standard tools to document a jsp collection analogous to Javadoc for java packages. We had to develop a set of presentation jsp and java classes documenting jsp providing
A classified view of the jsp directory of an application server, including summary and categorization of each file
(sample) see source directoryjsp2.jsp
A detailed view for any jsp file including a documentation section (embedded inside the jsp relying on our proposed standard) and summarizing the main elements of a jsp (directives, taglib tags, java objects declaration…)
(sample) see source documentjsp.jsp
A rendering of the final layout, where all the html is 'as in the final page' but all jsp processing instructions rendered as embedded html text
(sample) see source jspskelton.jsp
We also provide a 'classic' to 'xml' converter for those who wants to transform jsp in the new or the old format.
Those features are implemented with 3 jsps and a set of Java classes supporting jsp parsing and some data processing to simplify the jsp presentation task (selecting and sorting).
Benefit
The benefit of such an approach is that the jsp is the unique source of information not only for processing of course but also for documenting what services are provided (a jsp becomes a self documenting unit). As with javadoc, this system has the intelligence of what the Jsp structure is and tells a lot without verbose over documentation by the jsp programmer: the documentation section should really be a functional description of the service provided by the jsp, jspDoc complements it providing intelligent information about all the different elements processed by the jsp: what are the directives used, what are the beans or taglibs entries used, what are the Java objects and the methods called (either in scriptlet or expressions)…
This tool, being on-line and real time (every time a modification is done on a given jsp is reflected in the documentation) provides a valuable resource to learn and debug a set of jsp.
One other benefit of this utility is to provide a verification tool allowing to verify the jsp and html syntax of all the jsp files. This is quite useful as both, application servers and browsers are fault-tolerant and accept input source not so well formed but that can produce not exactly what is wanted.
Finally this tool can be used as a jsp learning tool depicting all the different facets of this technology. And really, this tool does what a jsp programmer does will reading jsp code…