Having problems compiling *.java with import javax.servlet.jsp......

Question

I've been trying to do the tutorials in a book titled Apache Jakarta-Tomcat as part of my introduction to JSP. I'm new to Java but do know the basics. I have on my machine Java 1.3, Java 1.4, Java FrameWorks 2.1 and Jython 2.1 on Win2000 Pro. So enough about my configuration. I have never worked with packages also.
I downloaded the files from the books site due to the fact I make a lot of typos when hand coding Java (I've become a pretty good debugger of my own code). But everytime I go to compile the *.java I get error messages. So below you will find HelloTag.java and beneath that the error messages that are thrown when I try and compile it. I tested other bits of *.java and have had no problem compiling them. Is there a JSP module I'm missing?
Am I doing something wrong or am I missing something from my configuration.
Marijan Madunic
package chapter2;
import javax.servlet.jsp.JspException;
import javax.servlet.jsp.JspTagException;
import javax.servlet.jsp.tagext.TagSupport;
public class HelloTag extends TagSupport
public void HelloTag() {
// Method called when the closing hello tag is encountered
public int doEndTag() throws JspException {
try {
// We use the pageContext to get a Writer
// We then print the text string Hello
pageContext.getOut().print("Hello");
catch (Exception e) {
throw new JspTagException(e.getMessage());
// We want to return SKIP_BODY because this Tag does not support
// a Tag Body
return SKIP_BODY;
public void release() {
// Call the parent's release to release any resources
// used by the parent tag.
// This is just good practice for when you start creating
// hierarchies of tags.
super.release();
D:\Java\JDK 1.3\bin>javac HelloTag.java
HelloTag.java:3: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : class JspException
location: package jsp
import javax.servlet.jsp.JspException;
^
HelloTag.java:4: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : class JspTagException
location: package jsp
import javax.servlet.jsp.JspTagException;
^
HelloTag.java:5: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : class TagSupport
location: package tagext
import javax.servlet.jsp.tagext.TagSupport;
^
HelloTag.java:7: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : class TagSupport
location: class chapter2.HelloTag
public class HelloTag extends TagSupport
^
HelloTag.java:14: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : class JspException
location: class chapter2.HelloTag
public int doEndTag() throws JspException {
^
HelloTag.java:20: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : variable pageContext
location: class chapter2.HelloTag
pageContext.getOut().print("Hello");
^
HelloTag.java:24: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : class JspTagException
location: class chapter2.HelloTag
throw new JspTagException(e.getMessage());
^
HelloTag.java:28: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : variable SKIP_BODY
location: class chapter2.HelloTag
return SKIP_BODY;
^
HelloTag.java:37: cannot resolve symbol
symbol : variable super
location: class chapter2.HelloTag
super.release();
^
9 errors

Answer 1

Well, it looks like you've not got the servlet development kit JAR on your classpath. I think it'll probably be called servlet.jar on your system. Add that to the classpath if it's not already there.
Incidentally, you've bumped into one of the areas Java's slightly lenient - declaring a method that looks like a constructor:
public HelloTag() { }
public void HelloTag() { }The first is a constructor, the second is a normal method. I'm assuming you intended to have the former instead of the latter.
Anyway, hope this helps.