The <jsp:plugin> action is used to generate browser-dependent HTML code (OBJECTor EMBED) that displays and executes a Java Plugin software (Java applet or a JavaBean component) in the current JSP page. The <jsp:params> and <jsp:fallback> actions are optional sub elements. Here’s a quick example:

<jsp:plugin
    type="applet"
    code="net.codejava.applet.MyApplet.class"
    codebase="html">

    <jsp:params>
        <jsp:param name="username" value="Tom" />
    </jsp:params>

    <jsp:fallback>
        <p>Could not load applet!</p>
    </jsp:fallback>

</jsp:plugin>

 

1. Syntax of JSP plugin action

Following is the complete syntax of the <jsp:plugin> action:

<jsp:plugin type="bean|applet"

       code="objectCode"

       codebase="objectCodebase"

 

       {optional attributes}

 

       { <jsp:params>

              { <jsp:param name="paramName" value="paramValue" /> }+

       </jsp:params> }

 

       { <jsp:fallback> arbitrary_text </jsp:fallback> }

 

</jsp:plugin>

The optional attributes are described in the Attributes Description section below.

The <jsp:params> and <jsp:fallback> elements are optional. If the <jsp:params> element is specified, it must contain at least one sub element <jsp:param>.

 

2. Attributes of JSP plugin action

Attribute name	Required	Description
type	Yes	Specifies type of the component: applet or bean.
code	Yes	Class name of the applet or JavaBean, in the form of packagename.classname.class.
codebase	Yes	Base URL that contains class files of the component.
align	Optional	Alignment of the component. Possible values are: left, right, top, middle, bottom.
archive	Optional	Specifies a list of JAR files which contain classes and resources required by the component.
height, width	Optional	Specifies height and width of the component in pixels.
hspace, vspace	Optional	Specifies horizontal and vertical space between the component and the surrounding components, in pixels.
jreversion	Optional	Specifies JRE version which is required by the component. Default is 1.2.
name	Optional	Name of the component.
title	Optional	Title of the component.
nspluginurl, iepluginurl	Optional	Specifies URL where JRE plugin can be downloaded for Netscape or IE browser, respectively.
mayscript	Optional	Accepts true/false value. If true, the component can access scripting objects (Javascript) of the web page.

 

3. <jsp:params> action

This action is an optional, direct child of the <jsp:plugin> action. It cannot be used elsewhere. If specified, it must contain one or more <jsp:param> actions to provide additional parameters for the component. For example:

<jsp:params>

	<jsp:param name="param1" value="value1" />

	<jsp:param name="param2" value="value2" />

</jsp:params> 

 

4. <jsp:fallback> action

This action is an optional, direct child of the <jsp:plugin> action. Its purpose is to specify some content which is used by the client browser in case the plugin cannot be started. Common usage is to show some text that indicates there’s a problem of loading the component. For example:

<jsp:fallback>
	<p>Could not load applet!</p>
</jsp:fallback>

This action cannot be used elsewhere outside the <jsp:plugin> action.

 

5. JSP plugin action Examples

Let’s see an example in which we create a simple Java applet class and use the <jsp:plugin> action to run the applet on a JSP page.

Code of the applet:

package net.codejava.applet;

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Font;

import javax.swing.JApplet;
import javax.swing.JLabel;

public class MyApplet extends JApplet {
	
	private JLabel label = new JLabel();
	
	public void init() {
		label.setHorizontalAlignment(JLabel.CENTER);
		label.setFont(new Font("Arial", Font.BOLD, 20));
		label.setForeground(Color.BLUE);
		
		setLayout(new BorderLayout());
		add(label, BorderLayout.CENTER);
	}
	
	public void start() {
		String firstName = getParameter("firstName");
		String lastName = getParameter("lastName");
		label.setText("Hello " + firstName + " " + lastName);
	}
}

 

Code of the JSP page:

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8"
    pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" 
	"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<title>JSP Plugin action Demo</title>
</head>
<body>
	<div align="center">
		<jsp:plugin 
			type="applet"
			code="net.codejava.applet.MyApplet.class" 
			codebase="appletCode"
			align="">
			
			<jsp:params>
				<jsp:param name="firstName" value="James" />
				<jsp:param name="lastName" value="Bond" />
			</jsp:params>
			
			<jsp:fallback>
				<p>Could not load applet!</p>
			</jsp:fallback>
			
		</jsp:plugin>
	</div>
</body>
</html>

Output when running the PluginDemo.jsp page:

 

Other JSP actions:

• jsp:include standard action examples
• jsp:param standard action examples
• jsp:forward standard action examples

 

Other JSP Tutorials:

• Summary of EL operators with examples
• Java Servlet and JSP Hello World Tutorial with Eclipse, Maven and Apache Tomcat
• How to handle exceptions in JSP
• How to list records in a database table using JSP and JSTL
• How to create dynamic drop down list in JSP from database
• Sending e-mail with JSP, Servlet and JavaMail