Book Image

Building Websites with OpenCms

Book Image

Building Websites with OpenCms

Overview of this book

This book takes you through the process of creating content-rich websites and applications using OpenCms. Although powerful and flexible, OpenCms can be daunting on first approach, but its advanced features reward the investment in learning. This book exists to ease Java developers into getting the most from OpenCms. OpenCms OpenCms is a professional-level, open source Website Content Management System, with which you can create and manage complex websites. Based on Java and XML technology, it fits into almost any modern IT environment. With hard-won experience of the practical difficulties faced by developers working with OpenCms, this book is the embodiment of the author's expertise, and the perfect way to master the system.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)
Building Websites with OpenCms
Credits
About the Author
Introduction

Working with Templates and Tags


When a client requests a page, OpenCms retrieves the contents for the page, and then places the contents into a template that provides the look and feel, navigation, and surrounding structure for the content.

Since the 5.0 release, most templates are JSP pages, the preferred format. However, they may also be in the proprietary OpenCms XML template format. In fact, the 5.0 release requires that each JSP have an associated XML template—one which simply points to the JSP engine. This will change in subsequent versions of OpenCms, and XML templates will be phased out completely. Hence, we will focus primarily on JSP pages.

Before we can create our own templates, we need to designate a place to store them. We use a module for these purposes.

Creating a Site Module for Templates

In the last chapter, I talked about modules as a mechanism for extending OpenCms functionality. As we turn from use and administration to development, we are now focusing on extending OpenCms...