JSTL over Servlets for database work

Question

I have form that searches data using a Bean and use a Servlet to update and delete records in my database. It works great but was wondering why not use JSTL which seems to be alot easier to use?
What is the negatives about JSTL??
Please advise if JSTL is 100% way to go for accessing an updating databases?
Also my Tomcat container is in an Intranet environment with no available connection to the internet.
How would I use this tag:
<%@ taglib prefix="sql" uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql" %>
<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" %>
Do I need to download them from somewhere and where would I put them?
I have never used Custom Tags.

Answer 1

Quoted from the JSTL specification Chapter 10
Many web applications need to access relational databases as the source of dynamic
data for their presentation layer. While it is generally preferred to have database
operations handled within the business logic of a web application designed with an
MVC architecture, there are situations where page authors require this capability
within their JSP pages (e.g. prototyping/testing, small scale/simple applications,
lack of developer resources).Basically this functionality is only intended for prototyping and (very) small applications.
MVC architecture aims to separate the view from the data. JSP is the view (in this case) and should not be accessing a database. That responsibility lies elsewhere.
Its mainly a design thing. Embedding SQL statements in your JSP makes it harder to maintain than if you had a Bean data access layer. If you write it in beans, you can change/test it independantly of a JSP page and Server.
- The taglib retrieves the entire resultset into memory.
- It uses a generic getObject() to retrieve data.
- You don't have quite as much control as you would in java code.
Having said all that though, the sql tags DO work well within their limitations. If you do end up using them, make sure you configure a JNDI datasource, rather than use the "url", "driver" etc attributes to define the connection.
<%@ taglib prefix="sql" uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/sql" %>
Do I need to download them from somewhere and where would I put them? Although it looks like a location on the internet, it isn't used as such.
You don't need to download anything extra.
Longer explanation:
That URI is specified in the .tld for each tag library.
The tlds for the taglibrary are bundled with standard.jar.
If you have standard.jar and jstl.jar in your WEB-INF/lib directory, your server should find the tag library automagically, with no further help required.
- No entries in web.xml (its specified in the tld)
- No tld files lying around (they are bundled in the jar)
Basically, all you need for JSTL are the jar files in the WEB-INF/lib directory. THATS IT.
Cheers,
evnafets