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With REXXTAGS you can write XML tags much faster than with JSPs. All your tags are implemented in REXX: you simply write a procedure, drop it in a directory (more about that later), and start using your new tag.

Technically, you can:

• Get the XML tag parameters passed to your REXX tag procedure.
• If desired, process the body of the tag verbatim (i.e. like JSP's body-contents TagDependent).
• If desired, process the body of the tag, after the tags which were found in the body are processed (like JSP's body-contents JSP).
• Return one or multiple lines of HTML code as the expansion of the start tag, the end tag, or the body.
• Return REXX code as the expansion of a REXX tag, allowing communication between tags, state sharing, etc.
• Insert <%=expr%> expressions in your page.
• Import REXX code into the translated page.

Inside your REXX tag, you can do whatever suits you to implement your tag semantics, since you have all the power of REXX at your disposal. In particular, you can:

• Connect to SQL databases, query and update them (for example, to provide accurate page counters for all your pages, track users, etc).
• Do all kinds of REXX file i/o, arbitrary precision arithmetic, subroutine calling, etc.
• Manipulate parameters and XML code easily with REXX's Parse instruction.
• Whatever else you can imagine (and can be programmed in REXX).

/tutorial/page02.html [2547 visits since 06/12/2002] Last update: 29/05/03 at 11:32

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