Using Expression Language with Tiles + Spring MVC - spring-mvc

If inside a controller I set
model.addAttribute("page-title", "Home");
and I would like to have it on a tiles laytou.jsp like this:
<title><tiles:getAsString name="page-title"/></title>
what should I do?
Write a preparer?
to the preparer de put-attribute definition doesn't matter so looks like it makes no sense.
Just add a <put-attribute name="page-title" value="${page-title}"/>
into definition?
When I do this I just get "${page-title} - My Website" as output. EL is not been evaluated.
So please, what's the best practice and how to make it work?
tiles-defs.xml:
<tiles-definitions>
<definition name="baseLayout" template="/WEB-INF/pages/common/layout.jsp">
<put-attribute name="website-title" value="My Website"/>
<put-attribute name="page-title" expression="Default Title"/>
<put-attribute name="header" value="/WEB-INF/pages/common/header.jsp"/>
<put-attribute name="body" value=""/>
<put-attribute name="footer" value="/WEB-INF/pages/common/footer.jsp"/>
</definition>
<definition name="*" extends="baseLayout">
<put-attribute name="page-title" value="${page-title}"/>
<put-attribute name="body" value="/WEB-INF/pages/{1}.jsp"/>
</definition>
</tiles-definitions>
layout.jsp:
<%# taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core" prefix="c" %>
<%# taglib uri="http://www.springframework.org/tags" prefix="spring"%>
<%# taglib uri="http://tiles.apache.org/tags-tiles" prefix="tiles" %>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/>
<meta name="language" content="English" />
<title><tiles:getAsString name="page-title"/> - <tiles:getAsString name="website-title"/></title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="<c:url value="/resources/css/style.css" />" media="all"/>
</head>
<body>
<div id="container">
<!-- header -->
<tiles:insertAttribute name="header"/>
<!-- main central container -->
<tiles:insertAttribute name="body"/>
<!-- footer -->
<tiles:insertAttribute name="footer"/>
</div>
</body>
</html>
homeController.java:
#Controller
public class HomeController {
#RequestMapping(value = "/", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public ModelAndView home(Locale locale, Model model) {
ModelAndView mav = new ModelAndView();
mav.setViewName("home");
model.addAttribute("page-title", "Home");
return mav;
}
}
servlet-context.xml:
<beans:bean id="tilesviewResolver" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesViewResolver" p:order="0"/>
<beans:bean id="tilesConfigurer" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesConfigurer">
<beans:property name="definitions" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/tiles-defs.xml"/>
</beans:bean>
pom.xml:
<!-- Tiles -->
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.tiles</groupId>
<artifactId>tiles-jsp</artifactId>
<version>2.2.2</version>
<type>jar</type>
<scope>compile</scope>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.tiles</groupId>
<artifactId>tiles-el</artifactId>
<version>2.2.2</version>
</dependency>


Just use pure EL without Tiles. Model attributes are placed on request as attributes (HttpServletRequest#getAttribute) under their name. This is accessible via requestScope['page-title'] or just simply by attribute name itself:
<title><c:out value="${page-title}" /></title>
<title>${page-title} - without HTML escaping provided by c:out</title>
This has nothing to do with Tiles. You don't need to take Tiles into account when working with model / request attributes.


Pavei is right, in your use case it's not obvious why you need to put the request attribute in as a tiles attribute.
If you really do need it as a tiles attribute then do it like
<put-attribute name="page-title" expression="${page-title}"/>


My English is poor. And I haven't use tiles2.x in my project, I use tiles3.x. If you want to use expression language support, first you should enable CompleteAutoloadTilesContainerFactory.
<bean id="tilesConfigurer" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles3.TilesConfigurer">
<property name="definitions">
<list>
<value>/WEB-INF/tiles/tiles-defs.xml</value>
</list>
</property>
<!--enable CompleteAutoloadTilesContainerFactory -->
<property name="completeAutoload" value="true"></property>
</bean>
then you have to configure defintions like this .
<definitions name="*" extends="baseLayout">
<put-attribute name="page-title" expression="${page-title}" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="/WEB-INF/pages/{1}.jsp" />
</definitions>
Tiles Document https://tiles.apache.org/framework/tutorial/advanced/el-support.html
Good luck to you .


Let's recap:
The EL language is supported since Tiles 2.1 without extra configuration.
If we use Tiles 3.x, we should:
Adding this dependency to pom:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.apache.tiles</groupId>
<artifactId>tiles-extras</artifactId>
<version>3.0.5</version>
</dependency>
Enabling CompleteAutoloadTilesContainerFactory:
<bean id="tilesConfigurer" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles3.TilesConfigurer">
<property name="definitions">
<list>
<value>/WEB-INF/tiles/tiles-defs.xml</value>
</list>
</property>
<!--enable CompleteAutoloadTilesContainerFactory -->
<property name="completeAutoload" value="true"></property>
</bean>

Related

Next state is not getting called in spring web flow

I have Spring 3 application having Tiles2 as view resolver. Whenever I am clicking on "submit" button next jsp page should be displayed but it stays on same page.
I have a file WebFlow.xml file inside /WEB-INF/flow directory and JSPs are also in same folder.
My configuration as follows:
-servlet.xml
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
xmlns:flow="http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow-config"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow-config
http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow-config/spring-webflow-config-2.0.xsd">
<mvc:annotation-driven/>
<context:component-scan base-package="com.controller.*"/>
<bean id="tilesViewResolver" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesViewResolver"/>
<bean id="tilesConfigurer" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesConfigurer">
<property name="definitions">
<list>
<value>/WEB-INF/tiles.xml</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
<flow:flow-executor id="flowExecutor" flow-registry="flowRegistry"/>
<flow:flow-registry id="flowRegistry">
<flow:flow-location path="/WEB-INF/flow/WebFlow.xml" id="flow"/>
</flow:flow-registry>
<bean id="flowHandlerMapping" class="org.springframework.webflow.mvc.servlet.FlowHandlerMapping">
<property name="flowRegistry" ref="flowRegistry"/>
</bean>
<bean id="flowHandlerAdapter" class="org.springframework.webflow.mvc.servlet.FlowHandlerAdapter">
<property name="flowExecutor" ref="flowExecutor"/>
</bean>
</beans>
WebFlow.xml
<flow xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow
http://www.springframework.org/schema/webflow/spring-webflow-2.0.xsd">
<var name="studentRegForm" class="com.formbean.flows.StudRegForm"/>
<view-state id="login" view="login">
<transition on="studentReg" to="studentReg"/>
</view-state>
<view-state id="studentReg" view="studentReg" model="studentRegForm">
<transition on="submitStudInfo" to="studConfirmPage"/>
</view-state>
<view-state id="studConfirmPage">
<transition on="submit" to="showStoredPage"/>
<transition on="Cancel" to="studentReg"/>
</view-state>
<end-state id="showStoredPage"/>
</flow>
login.jsp
<sf:form id="loginFrm" modelAttribute="loginForm" method="GET" action="${flowExecutionUrl}">
<input type="text" name="_flowExecutionKey" value="${flowExecutionKey}"/>
<input type="submit" value="Student Registration" name="_eventId_studentReg"/>
</sf:form>
StudentReg.jsp
<sf:form id="studRegFrm" modelAttribute="studentRegForm" method="GET" action="${flowExecutionUrl}">
<input type="text" name="_flowExecutionKey" value="${flowExecutionKey}"/>
<table>
<tr>
<td><sf:label path="name">Please Enter Name:</sf:label></td>
<td><sf:input path="name"/></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><sf:label path="address">Please Enter Address:</sf:label></td>
<td><sf:input path="address"/></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td></td>
<td><input type="submit" name="_eventId_submitStudInfo" value="Submit"/></td>
</tr>
</table>
</sf:form>
tiles.xml
<tiles-definitions>
<definition name="mainLayout" template="/WEB-INF/jsp/layout/mainLayout.jsp">
<put-attribute name="Title" value=""/>
<put-attribute name="Header" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/layout/Header.jsp"/>
<put-attribute name="Body" value=""/>
<put-attribute name="Footer" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/layout/Footer.jsp"/>
</definition>
<definition name="login" extends="mainLayout">
<put-attribute name="Title" value="Start Page"></put-attribute>
<put-attribute name="Body" value="/WEB-INF/flow/login.jsp"/>
</definition>
<definition name="studentReg" extends="mainLayout">
<put-attribute name="Title" value="Registration Page"></put-attribute>
<put-attribute name="Body" value="/WEB-INF/flow/StudentReg.jsp"/>
</definition>
</tiles-definitions>
But whenever I am clicking on submit button of login.jsp, it gives ${flowExecutionUrl} & ${flowExecutionKey} as blank and next screen is not displaying. Am I missing some configuration or what's going wrong? Please help.

#Aasif your configuration 'looks' fine. SWF is notoriously un-intuitive to trouble shoot. Try inserting a logger into your flows like this:
Printing log from flow.xml
and determine where the the 'flow' execution is being interrupted. Once you isolate the location. Try to step into the flow code... I suspect an exception is being swallowed.
Possible Answer:
If I had to guess (even though your config looks correct). I would suspect SWF/tiles is NOT resolving the view name 'studentReg'. Try isolate this case by creating a separate flow and see if you can navigate to the view studentReg. You can also step into the Tiles resolver logic to make sure it is being located.
Also:
In my opinion, it is bad practice to give the same name to your viewStateId, transition, and viewName (i.e 'studentReg'). I think it makes trouble shooting more difficult when issues like this arise. Better to append a suffix to them. (i.e studentRegVsId, studentRegViewName, etc...) to create a distinction.

Images/CSS/Styles in Tiles and Spring MVC in Included pages not working

Problem
I am developing an application using Spring 4.1.1 and Tiles 3.0.5. I could able to create Layout. When I add the Image tag directly in the layout.jsp, I could able to see the Images/CSS etc, but when I add same Image tag in the different JSP which is added as "attribute" to the Layout, then none of the resources is working.
"I can see error in console as
org.springframework.web.servlet.PageNotFound - No mapping found for HTTP request with URI [/abc/%3Cc:url%20value=%22/resources/images/slides/trial.jpg%22%20/%3E] in DispatcherServlet with name "abc".
Web.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" version="2.5">
<context-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>
classpath:spring/applicationContext-resource.xml
/WEB-INF/spring/applicationContext-base.xml
/WEB-INF/spring/applicationContext-dao.xml
</param-value>
</context-param>
<listener>
<listener-class>org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener</listener-class>
</listener>
<servlet>
<servlet-name>abc</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet</servlet-class>
<init-param>
<param-name>contextConfigLocation</param-name>
<param-value>/WEB-INF/spring/applicationContext.xml</param-value>
</init-param>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>abc</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
</web-app>
Application Context
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd">
<beans:bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.method.annotation.RequestMappingHandlerMapping" id="handlerMapping">
<beans:property name="alwaysUseFullPath" value="true"/>
</beans:bean>
<!-- DispatcherServlet Context: defines this servlet's request-processing infrastructure -->
<!-- Enables the Spring MVC #Controller programming model -->
<annotation-driven />
<!-- Handles HTTP GET requests for /resources/** by efficiently serving up static resources in the ${webappRoot}/resources directory -->
<resources mapping="/resources/**" location="/resources/" />
<resources mapping="/styles/**" location="/resources/css" />
<resources mapping="/images/**" location="/resources/images"/>
<resources mapping="/js/**" location="/resources/js"/>
<resources mapping="/fonts/**" location="/resources/fonts"/>
<!-- Resolves views selected for rendering by #Controllers to .jsp resources in the /WEB-INF/views directory -->
<beans:bean id="tilesConfigurer"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles3.TilesConfigurer">
<beans:property name="definitions">
<beans:list>
<beans:value>/WEB-INF/tiles-defs/templates.xml</beans:value>
</beans:list>
</beans:property>
</beans:bean>
<beans:bean id="viewResolver"
class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.UrlBasedViewResolver">
<beans:property name="viewClass" value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles3.TilesView" />
</beans:bean>
<context:component-scan base-package="com.online.abc" />
</beans:beans>
Tiles Definition
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<!DOCTYPE tiles-definitions PUBLIC
"-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Tiles Configuration 2.0//EN"
"http://tiles.apache.org/dtds/tiles-config_2_0.dtd">
<tiles-definitions>
<definition name="baseLayout" template="/WEB-INF/views/layout/layout.jsp">
<put-attribute name="title" value="abc" />
<put-attribute name="header" value="/WEB-INF/views/layout/header.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="navigation" value="/WEB-INF/views/layout/navigation.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="slider" value="/WEB-INF/views/layout/slider.jsp"/>
<put-attribute name="body" value="" />
<put-attribute name="footer" value="/WEB-INF/views/layout/footer.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition extends="baseLayout" name="login">
<put-attribute name="title" value="SivaLabs : Login" />
<put-attribute name="navigation" value="" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="/WEB-INF/views/login.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition extends="baseLayout" name="home">
<put-attribute name="title" value="SivaLabs : Welcome" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="/WEB-INF/views/home.jsp" />
</definition>
</tiles-definitions>
Layout.jsp
<!DOCTYPE html>
<%# taglib uri="http://tiles.apache.org/tags-tiles" prefix="tiles"%>
<%# taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" prefix="c"%>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title><tiles:insertAttribute name="title" ignore="true" /></title>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href='<c:url value="/resources/css/styles.css" />' />
<script src='<c:url value="/resources/js/jquery/jquery-2.1.3.min.js" />'> </script>
<script src='<c:url value="/resources/js/unslider/unslider.js" />'> </script>
</head>
<body class="body">
<div class="headerContent">
<header class="mainHeader">
<tiles:insertAttribute name="header" />
</header>
</div>
<tiles:insertAttribute name="slider" />
<%-- <content>
<tiles:insertAttribute name="body" />
</content> --%>
<%-- <footer>
<tiles:insertAttribute name="footer" />
</footer> --%>
</body>
</html>
Slider.jsp
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<script type="text/javascript">
$(function() {
$('.banner').unslider();
});
</script>
<body>
<div class="banner">
<ul>
<li><img src='<c:url value="/resources/images/slides/visa.jpg" />'></li>
</ul>
</div>
</body>
</html>
If I use same code of slider.jsp in layout.jsp, it is working.

I found solution but have no clue what is the problem. Found the solution from this link
JavaScript with Spring MVC doesn't work

loading resources in tiles & spring mvc

I am using spring mvc 3 and tiles 2 with wildcard definitions. I want to load additional css and javascript files inside some of my tiles. Is there way to do this? Preferably in tile jsp file, not in tiles-definitions.xml.

This is a good question because one of the main benefits of tiles is the central view it provides with regards to composition. It would be really nice if this centralization could also include CSS & JS files as well.
It happens that this is possible, here is an example. This example uses tiles3 however it should be pretty simple to adapt to tiles-2 (tiles three lets you use multiple types of expressions) you can side step this.
Also note that I use Struts2 as my action framework, this is not an issue but as I'm going to use a working example you'll know the "OGNL:" prefixed expression means that the EL Struts2 uses will be used. You should also know that if you upgrade to Tiles-3 you can also use Spring EL by prefixing your expressions with "MVEL:".
tiles.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE tiles-definitions PUBLIC "-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Tiles Configuration 3.0//EN" "http://tiles.apache.org/dtds/tiles-config_3_0.dtd">
<tiles-definitions>
<definition name="default" template="/WEB-INF/template/template.jsp">
<put-list-attribute name="cssList" cascade="true">
<add-attribute value="/style/cssreset-min.css" />
<add-attribute value="/style/cssfonts-min.css" />
<add-attribute value="/style/cssbase-min.css" />
<add-attribute value="/style/grids-min.css" />
<add-attribute value="/script/jquery-ui-1.8.24.custom/css/ui-lightness/jquery-ui-1.8.24.custom.css" />
<add-attribute value="/style/style.css" />
</put-list-attribute>
<put-list-attribute name="jsList" cascade="true">
<add-attribute value="/script/jquery/1.8.1/jquery.min.js" />
<add-attribute value="/script/jquery-ui-1.8.24.custom/js/jquery-ui-1.8.24.custom.min.js" />
<add-attribute value="/script/jquery.sort.js" />
<add-attribute value="/script/custom/jquery-serialize.js" />
</put-list-attribute>
<put-attribute name="title" value="defaults-name" cascade="true" type="string"/>
<put-attribute name="head" value="/WEB-INF/template/head.jsp"/>
<put-attribute name="header" value="/WEB-INF/template/header.jsp"/>
<put-attribute name="body" value="/WEB-INF/template/body.jsp"/>
<put-attribute name="footer" value="/WEB-INF/template/footer.jsp"/>
</definition>
<definition name="REGEXP:\/recruiter#candidate-input\.(.*)" extends="default">
<put-list-attribute name="cssList" cascade="true" inherit="true">
<add-attribute value="/style/recruiter/candidate-input.css" />
</put-list-attribute>
<put-list-attribute name="jsList" cascade="true" inherit="true">
<add-attribute value="/script/widgets/resume/resume.js" />
</put-list-attribute>
<put-attribute name="body" value="/WEB-INF/content/recruiter/candidate-input.jsp"/>
</definition>
<definition name="REGEXP:(.*)#(.*)" extends="default">
<put-attribute name="title" cascade="true" expression="OGNL:#com.opensymphony.xwork2.ActionContext#getContext().name"/>
<put-attribute name="body" value="/WEB-INF/content{1}/{2}"/>
</definition>
</tiles-definitions>
/WEB-INF/template/template.jsp
<%#taglib prefix="tiles" uri="http://tiles.apache.org/tags-tiles" %>
<%#taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags"%>
<%#page contentType="text/html" pageEncoding="UTF-8" %>
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<tiles:insertAttribute name="head"/>
<body>
<%-- website header --%>
<div id="wrapper">
<div id="content">
<tiles:insertAttribute name="header"/>
<tiles:insertAttribute name="body"/>
<div class ="outer content">
<tiles:insertAttribute name="footer"/>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
This is the important part getting the lists of CSS files and JS files into the head tile:
/WEB-INF/template/head.jsp
<%#taglib prefix="tiles" uri="http://tiles.apache.org/tags-tiles"%>
<%#taglib prefix="s" uri="/struts-tags"%>
<%#taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
<tiles:importAttribute name="cssList"/><tiles:importAttribute name="jsList"/>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"/>
<s:iterator value="#attr.cssList" var="cssValue">
<link href="<s:url value="%{cssValue}"/>" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
</s:iterator>
<s:iterator value="#attr.jsList" var="jsValue">
<script src="<s:url value="%{jsValue}"/>"></script>
</s:iterator>
<title><tiles:insertAttribute name="title" defaultValue="no title"/></title>
</head>
I think you can figure out the rest. Sorry about the <s:iterator> tags in the last block, I'm not sure of the Spring equivalent nor would I be inclined to test it. But should you translate this to Spring, it would be great for you to self answer here. I'd happily up vote it.

In dispatcher-servlet.xml provide mvc static resource mapping as following :
<!-- static resource mapping for style sheets, etc. -->
<mvc:resources mapping="/styles/**" location="/WEB-INF/skins/" />
<mvc:resources mapping="/scripts/**" location="/WEB-INF/scripts/" />
And on your tiles-layout.jsp file you can access them all by writing
<script type="text/javascript" src="${context}/scripts/jquery-1.7.js></script>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="${context}/styles/css/superfish.css">
See: mvc:resources

That is how I did with Spring, the rest is just like Quaternion posted.
/WEB-INF/template/head.jsp
<tiles:importAttribute name="cssList"/>
<tiles:importAttribute name="jsList"/>
<head>
<c:forEach var="cssValue" items="${cssList}">
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="<c:url value="${cssValue}"/>" />
</c:forEach>
<c:forEach var="jsValue" items="${jsList}">
<script src="<c:url value="${jsValue}"/>"></script>
</c:forEach>
</head>
And don't forget to point on each page the right definition from tiles.xml
<tiles:insertDefinition name="definitionName">
<tiles:putAttribute name="body">
//content
</tiles:putAttribute>
</tiles:insertDefinition>

Spring 3.0.5 / Tiles 2.2 Error

I have a large application used in a production environment. My tiles setup is complex, with many tiles per page. The application works great with the exception of one thing. After starting the server the first page load throws an exception, an error in
apache.commons.digester.Digester at line 789/Digester.getParser
It throws this:
UnsupportedOperationException:: This parser does not support specification "null" version null"
The amazing thing is, this error only happens on the first page load, all subsequent loads work just fine. Looking for help with this, let me know what info you need. Thanks in advance.
This is the nested stack trace:
ERROR 08-12-11 15:30:05 (apache.commons.digester.Digester:789) ***Digester.getParser: ***
java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: This parser does not support specification "null" version "null"
at javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory.setXIncludeAware(SAXParserFactory.java:448)
at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.getFactory(Digester.java:534)
at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.getParser(Digester.java:786)
at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.getXMLReader(Digester.java:1058)
at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.parse(Digester.java:1887)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.digester.DigesterDefinitionsReader.read(DigesterDefinitionsReader.java:329)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.BaseLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitionsFromURL(BaseLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:276)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitionsFromURLs(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:251)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitionsFromURLs(ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:65)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadParentDefinitions(ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:58)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitionsFromURLs(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:239)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitionsFromURLs(ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:65)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadParentDefinitions(ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:58)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitionsFromURLs(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:239)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitionsFromURLs(ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:65)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitions(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:222)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.checkAndloadDefinitions(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:204)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.getDefinitions(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:154)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.getDefinition(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:123)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.getDefinition(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:54)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.UnresolvingLocaleDefinitionsFactory.getDefinition(UnresolvingLocaleDefinitionsFactory.java:105)
at org.apache.tiles.impl.BasicTilesContainer.getDefinition(BasicTilesContainer.java:364)
at org.apache.tiles.impl.BasicTilesContainer.render(BasicTilesContainer.java:618)
at org.apache.tiles.impl.BasicTilesContainer.render(BasicTilesContainer.java:321)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesView.renderMergedOutputModel(TilesView.java:124)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.AbstractView.render(AbstractView.java:250)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.render(DispatcherServlet.java:1047)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:817)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:719)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:644)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:549)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:707)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:820)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletServiceAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:227)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper.invokeServlet(StubSecurityHelper.java:125)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletStubImpl.java:292)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletStubImpl.java:175)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext$ServletInvocationAction.run(WebAppServletContext.java:3498)
at weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(AuthenticatedSubject.java:321)
at weblogic.security.service.SecurityManager.runAs(Unknown Source)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.securedExecute(WebAppServletContext.java:2180)
at weblogic.servlet.security.internal.AuthFilterChain$LastFilter.doFilter(AuthFilterChain.java:45)
at weblogic.servlet.security.internal.AuthFilterChain.doFilter(AuthFilterChain.java:37)
at com.bea.common.security.internal.service.NegotiateIdentityAsserterServiceImpl.callChain(NegotiateIdentityAsserterServiceImpl.java:145)
at com.bea.common.security.internal.service.NegotiateIdentityAsserterServiceImpl.process(NegotiateIdentityAsserterServiceImpl.java:132)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor679.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at com.bea.common.security.internal.utils.Delegator$ProxyInvocationHandler.invoke(Delegator.java:57)
at $Proxy19.process(Unknown Source)
at weblogic.security.providers.authentication.NegotiateIdentityAsserterServletAuthenticationFilter.doFilter(NegotiateIdentityAsserterServletAuthenticationFilter.java:35)
at weblogic.servlet.security.internal.AuthFilterChain.doFilter(AuthFilterChain.java:37)
at weblogic.servlet.security.internal.SecurityModule$ServletAuthenticationFilterAction.run(SecurityModule.java:612)
at weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(AuthenticatedSubject.java:321)
at weblogic.security.service.SecurityManager.runAs(Unknown Source)
at weblogic.servlet.security.internal.SecurityModule.invokeAuthFilterChain(SecurityModule.java:501)
at weblogic.servlet.security.internal.CertSecurityModule.checkUserPerm(CertSecurityModule.java:97)
at weblogic.servlet.security.internal.SecurityModule.checkAccess(SecurityModule.java:106)
at weblogic.servlet.security.internal.ServletSecurityManager.checkAccess(ServletSecurityManager.java:82)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.securedExecute(WebAppServletContext.java:2116)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.execute(WebAppServletContext.java:2086)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletRequestImpl.run(ServletRequestImpl.java:1406)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:201)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:173)
Full Stack Trace (Errors above are nested within this exception):
GET /*****_Cust_Search/CustomerDetail?customerId=9 HTTP/1.1
Connection: keep-alive
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1) AppleWebKit/535.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/13.0.782.107 Safari/535.1
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate,sdch
Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.8
Accept-Charset: ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.3
Cookie: nde-textsize=16px; JSESSIONID_CUSTDETAIL=Bnx0TByHMyvvyDBGb0p9TgCDy1h0n2hlzpckxhdYTsCQ5nJLVSzB!1674277528; ADMINCONSOLESESSION=Gh8nTD9Zpcn26tJBNLVl6q1ZqpQ1jrKTT27ZDL6yLvvvLLC2gjwZ!-975699351; JSESSIONID_CUST=l6GGTGKFYQV1cZ8cnJs2G2891JWclP6FnsDr1vL8bPXvTQpJjn9H!-975699351; JSESSIONID_INSURANCEDETAIL=J1lvTGKQ9G13SM8vYMzG1QPB2R939HQDMgHyJM1GpLG6fyvTJHVX!-975699351; JSESSIONID=gpGtTGYfTKwqh9dG6Q1T305LnbHpGJr6WVNHbx6TQwglXc9lPqgL!-975699351
]] Root cause of ServletException.
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.getXMLReader(Digester.java:1058)
at org.apache.commons.digester.Digester.parse(Digester.java:1887)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.digester.DigesterDefinitionsReader.read(DigesterDefinitionsReader.java:329)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.BaseLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitionsFromURL(BaseLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:276)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitionsFromURLs(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:251)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitionsFromURLs(ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:65)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadParentDefinitions(ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:58)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitionsFromURLs(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:239)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitionsFromURLs(ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:65)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadParentDefinitions(ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:58)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitionsFromURLs(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:239)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitionsFromURLs(ResolvingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:65)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.loadDefinitions(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:222)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.checkAndloadDefinitions(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:204)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.getDefinitions(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:154)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.getDefinition(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:123)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.dao.CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.getDefinition(CachingLocaleUrlDefinitionDAO.java:54)
at org.apache.tiles.definition.UnresolvingLocaleDefinitionsFactory.getDefinition(UnresolvingLocaleDefinitionsFactory.java:105)
at org.apache.tiles.impl.BasicTilesContainer.getDefinition(BasicTilesContainer.java:364)
at org.apache.tiles.impl.BasicTilesContainer.render(BasicTilesContainer.java:618)
at org.apache.tiles.impl.BasicTilesContainer.render(BasicTilesContainer.java:321)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesView.renderMergedOutputModel(TilesView.java:124)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.view.AbstractView.render(AbstractView.java:250)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.render(DispatcherServlet.java:1047)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:817)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:719)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:644)
at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:549)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:707)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:820)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletServiceAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:227)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper.invokeServlet(StubSecurityHelper.java:125)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletStubImpl.java:292)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletStubImpl.java:175)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext$ServletInvocationAction.run(WebAppServletContext.java:3498)
at weblogic.security.acl.internal.AuthenticatedSubject.doAs(AuthenticatedSubject.java:321)
at weblogic.security.service.SecurityManager.runAs(Unknown Source)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.securedExecute(WebAppServletContext.java:2180)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.WebAppServletContext.execute(WebAppServletContext.java:2086)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletRequestImpl.run(ServletRequestImpl.java:1406)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:201)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:173)
This is the root-context.xml.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">
<!-- Root Context: defines shared resources visible to all other web components -->
<bean id="tilesConfigurer" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesConfigurer">
<property name="definitions">
<list>
<value>/WEB-INF/tiles/Templates.xml</value>
</list>
</property>
<property name="preparerFactoryClass" value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.SpringBeanPreparerFactory"/>
</bean>
</beans>
This is the servlet-context.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans:beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:beans="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xsi:schemaLocation="
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">
<!-- DispatcherServlet Context: defines this servlet's request-processing infrastructure -->
<!-- Enables the Spring MVC #Controller programming model -->
<annotation-driven />
<!-- Resolves views selected for rendering by #Controllers to .jsp resources in the /WEB-INF/views directory -->
<!-- <beans:bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">-->
<!-- <beans:property name="viewClass" value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView"/>-->
<!-- <beans:property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/views/" />-->
<!-- <beans:property name="suffix" value=".jsp" />-->
<!-- </beans:bean>-->
<!-- Imports user-defined #Controller beans that process client requests -->
<beans:import resource="controllers.xml" />
<beans:bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.ResourceBundleViewResolver">
<beans:property name="basename" value="tiles"/>
</beans:bean>
<beans:bean id="messageSource" class="org.springframework.context.support.ResourceBundleMessageSource">
<beans:property name="basenames">
<beans:list>
<beans:value>customer</beans:value>
</beans:list>
</beans:property>
</beans:bean>
</beans:beans>
controllers.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc"
xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd
http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd">
<!-- Scans within the base package of the application for #Components to configure as beans -->
<context:component-scan base-package="redacted.controllers" />
</beans>
tiles.properties
CustomerTile.(class)=org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesView
CustomerTile.url=CustomerTile
CustomerSearchForm.(class)=org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesView
CustomerSearchForm.url=CustomerSearchForm
CustomerSearchResults.(class)=org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesView
CustomerSearchResults.url=CustomerSearchResults
EditCustomer.(class)=org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesView
EditCustomer.url=EditCustomer
NewCustomer.(class)=org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesView
NewCustomer.url=NewCustomer
(My Tile Templates) templates.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE tiles-definitions PUBLIC
"-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Tiles Configuration 2.1//EN"
"http://tiles.apache.org/dtds/tiles-config_2_1.dtd">
<tiles-definitions>
<definition name="baseLayout" template="/WEB-INF/tiles/main-container-tile.jsp">
<put-attribute name="title" value="AMHOM" />
<put-attribute name="header" value="normalheader" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/body.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="footer" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/footer-tile.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="baseLayout2" template="/WEB-INF/tiles/main-container-tile.jsp">
<put-attribute name="title" value="AMHOM" />
<put-attribute name="header" value="custdetailheader" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/body.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="footer" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/footer-tile.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="baseLayout3" template="/WEB-INF/tiles/main-container-tile.jsp">
<put-attribute name="title" value="AMHOM" />
<put-attribute name="header" value="editcustheader" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/body.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="footer" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/footer-tile.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="normalheader" template="/WEB-INF/tiles/header-tile.jsp">
<put-attribute name="menutabs" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/tabs.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="notabsheader" template="/WEB-INF/tiles/header-tile.jsp">
<put-attribute name="menutabs" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/notabs.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="custdetailheader" template="/WEB-INF/tiles/header-tile.jsp">
<put-attribute name="menutabs" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/custdetail_tabs-tile.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="editcustheader" template="/WEB-INF/tiles/header-tile.jsp">
<put-attribute name="menutabs" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/editcust_tabs-tile.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="completecust" template="/WEB-INF/tiles/custdetail_complete-tile.jsp">
<put-attribute name="navigation" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/custdetail_cpapnav-tile.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="customertile" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/custdetail_content-tile.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="diagtile" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/custdetail_diagnosis-tile.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="resptile" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/custdetail_responsibleparty-tile.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="doctortile" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/custdetail_doctor-tile.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="insurancetile" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/custdetail_insurance-tile.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="customersearch" template="/WEB-INF/tiles/customersearch_complete-tile.jsp">
<put-attribute name="errors-tile" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/customersearchform_errors-tile.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="content-tile" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/customersearchform_content-tile.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="custsearchresults" template="/WEB-INF/tiles/custsearchresults_complete-tile.jsp">
<put-attribute name="errors-tile" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/customersearchform_errors-tile.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="content-tile" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/custsearchresults_content-tile.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="editcust" template="/WEB-INF/tiles/editcust_complete-tile.jsp">
<put-attribute name="navigation" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/custdetail_cpapnav-tile.jsp" />
<put-attribute name="editcustomertile" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/editcust_content-tile.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="newcust" template="/WEB-INF/tiles/newcust_complete-tile.jsp">
<put-attribute name="navigation" value="" />
<put-attribute name="newcustomertile" value="/WEB-INF/tiles/newcust_content-tile.jsp" />
</definition>
<definition name="CustomerSearchForm" extends="baseLayout">
<put-attribute name="title" value="" />
<put-attribute name="appName" value="Customer Search" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="customersearch" />
</definition>
<definition name="CustomerSearchResults" extends="baseLayout">
<put-attribute name="title" value="" />
<put-attribute name="appName" value="Customer Search" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="custsearchresults" />
</definition>
<definition name="CustomerTile" extends="baseLayout2">
<put-attribute name="title" value="Customer Display" />
<put-attribute name="appName" value="Customer Display" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="completecust" />
</definition>
<definition name="EditCustomer" extends="baseLayout3">
<put-attribute name="title" value="Edit Customer" />
<put-attribute name="appName" value="Edit Customer" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="editcust" />
</definition>
<definition name="NewCustomer" extends="baseLayout3">
<put-attribute name="title" value="New Customer" />
<put-attribute name="appName" value="New Customer" />
<put-attribute name="body" value="newcust" />
</definition>
</tiles-definitions>

I had this problem today so thought I'd add a post, the problem was because of AppSensor (actually its ESAPI 2.0GA dependency), which comes with two different versions of xerces in its includes (2.6.1 from xom depenency, and 2.8.1 from antisamy dependency), but 2.6.1 comes before 2.8.1 so 2.8.1 is not included and the exception happens.
Fixed by adding a 2.8.1 dependency just before the AppSensor dependency in my POM:
<dependency>
<groupId>xerces</groupId>
<artifactId>xercesImpl</artifactId>
<version>2.8.1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.owasp.appsensor</groupId>
<artifactId>AppSensor</artifactId>
<version>${appsensor.version}</version>
</dependency>

There is some issue with weblogic windows installation.
Set this value in your setDomainEnv.cmd and restart the server.
set JAVA_OPTIONS=%JAVA_OPTIONS% -Djavax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory=com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.SAXParserFactoryImpl

Spring 3.2.1 with tiles 2.2.2 caused the same error. It was solved by updating xerxesimpl. Here is a snippet of the pom.xml
<properties>
<java-version>1.6</java-version>
<org.slf4j.version>1.5.8</org.slf4j.version>
<log4j.version>1.2.16</log4j.version>
<xercesImpl.version>2.9.1</xercesImpl.version>
<org.springframework-version>3.1.2.RELEASE</org.springframework-version>
<tiles.core.api.servlet.jsp.version>2.2.2</tiles.core.api.servlet.jsp.version>
</properties>

You can also get this error if you do something stupid like duplicate the tag at the top of your file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE tiles-definitions PUBLIC
"-//Apache Software Foundation//DTD Tiles Configuration 3.0//EN"
"http://tiles.apache.org/dtds/tiles-config_3_0.dtd">
<tiles-definitions>
<tiles-definitions>
<definition name="base.page.definition" template="/WEB-INF/layout/basePageLayout.jsp">
...
Hopefully your eyes are sharper than mine and you won't have to come all the way to SO to realize your sloppines....:)

Spring MVC, Tiles, Multiple Controllers

I'm experimenting with Spring MVC for an upcoming project. I'll need some web pages in the application to render multiple reusable "components" and figured that Tiles should help me accomplish this? Each component would have it's own controller.
The example I've put together is only partially working. It's a page with 3 tiles. The 3rd tile has a controller that's trying to return an ArrayList (via #ModelAttribute annotation) to the client but the ArrayList is empty when the view is included as a tile.
Here's the tiles setup in *-servlet.xml:
<bean id="viewResolver" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.UrlBasedViewResolver">
<property name="viewClass" value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesView"/>
<property name="order" value="0"/>
</bean>
<bean id="tilesConfigurer" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.tiles2.TilesConfigurer">
<property name="definitions">
<list>
<value>/WEB-INF/tiles-config/tiles.xml</value>
</list>
</property>
</bean>
<bean id="viewResolver2" class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.InternalResourceViewResolver">
<property name="order" value="1" />
<property name="viewClass" value="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.JstlView"/>
<property name="prefix" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/"/>
<property name="suffix" value=".jsp"/>
</bean>
Here's my tiles config (tiles.xml):
<tiles-definitions>
<definition name="parent" template="/WEB-INF/jsp/tiles/parent_layout.jsp">
<put-attribute name="header" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/tiles/header.jsp"/>
<put-attribute name="body" value=""/>
<put-attribute name="recordsSection" value=""/>
<put-attribute name="widgetsSection" value=""/>
</definition>
<definition name="_n/list.htm" extends="parent">
<put-attribute name="recordsSection" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/_n/list.jsp"/>
<put-attribute name="widgetsSection" value="/WEB-INF/jsp/_n/widgets.jsp"/>
</definition>
</tiles-definitions>
Here's the JSP code behind the tile in question. The "widgetsList" expression is what is bound to the controller method but coming back empty when this view is included as a tile.
<%#page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" pageEncoding="ISO-8859-1" isELIgnored="false"%>
<%#taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jsp/jstl/core"%>
<%#taglib prefix="spring" uri="http://www.springframework.org/tags"%>
<%#taglib prefix="display" uri="http://displaytag.sf.net" %>
<h3>Widgets</h3>
<p>widgetsList=${widgetsList}</p>
<div id="displaylist">
<display:table id="items" name="${widgetsList}" cellspacing="0" export="true">
<display:column title="Widget ID" property="widgetId"/>
<display:column title="Widget Name" property="widgetName"/>
<display:column title="Widget State" property="widgetState"/>
</display:table>
</div>
Here's the controller:
#Controller
public class WidgetController {
#Autowired
private WidgetDaoImpl widgetDao = new WidgetDaoImpl();
#RequestMapping("_n/widgets.htm")
public String widgets() {
return "_n/widgets.htm";
}
#ModelAttribute("widgetsList")
public ArrayList<Widget> getWidgets() {
System.out.println("executing getWidgets()");
ArrayList<Widget> records = widgetDao.listWidgets();
return records;
}
}
When I access the the view "widgets.jsp" directly, the "widgetsList" attribute gets populated, it's only when it's added as a tile that it returns nothing.

Tiles only gives you a composite view and with Spring MVC a controller can only return one view, in this case a whole tiles-defined page will be returned by a single controller.
I don't have much experience with tiles configuration, but what you're trying to achieve is only possible if you can have controller-mapped URLs (and not JSPs) as tiles elements, so that the tiles processor will invoke the spring controllers for each of the "components".
But since you're talking about components and you seem to need them here, why not start with a component oriented framework (Wicket for instance can easily be integrated with Spring out-of-the box).

A pattern i found great while doing this is using jQuery, ajax and json with tiles. On the pages you want your widgets include a marker div like
<div id="displayWidgets"></>
With jQuery check for this div on page load and if it exists do a json call to the controller for this content.
This approach is great because when you include the javascript below, the controller for each page doesn't need to know about any model information except its own. I use this for populating common information like headers and footers that are dynamic.
$.ready(){
if($('div#displayWidgets')){
$.getJSON('/widgetsList', function(data) {
//loop over json and create your html, url below has great examples
}
}
}
http://api.jquery.com/jQuery.getJSON/
Json tutorial from spring controller using jackson
http://www.mkyong.com/spring-mvc/spring-3-mvc-and-json-example/

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