Quick Install

• Create a new web application based on the Struts Blank example.
• Edit the struts-config and uncomment the section that refers to the "Tiles PlugIn".
• Create one or more Tiles Definitions XML files in the /WEB-INF directory of the new application.
• Deploy the new application.

Configuring the Plugin

Here's how to use Tiles in your own application:

• Ensure that a struts-tiles.jar is available in the WEB-INF/lib directory of your web application.

• Add this init-param to the Action Servlet definition in web.xml:

      <init-param>
          <param-name>chainConfig</param-name>
          <param-value>org/apache/struts/tiles/chain-config.xml</param-value>
      </init-param>
      

• Configure the Tiles Plugin to load your definitions.

      <plug-in className="org.apache.struts.tiles.TilesPlugin">
      <set-property
          property="definitions-config"
             value="/WEB-INF/tiles-defs.xml"/>
      </plug-in>
      

• At the top of each JSP page that will use the Tiles custom tags, add a line that declares the Tiles custom tag library.

      <%@ taglib uri="http://struts.apache.org/tags-tiles" prefix="tiles" %>
      

Avoiding ClassNotFoundExceptions

WARNING - Do NOT add tiles.jar to the classpath of your servlet container in an attempt to avoid placing it in the /WEB-INF/lib directory of each individual web app! Doing so will cause problems with ClassNotFoundException exceptions.

For most containers, you need only to:

• Copy the WAR files in your Tiles /webapp directory to your containers webapps directory.
• In some cases, you may need to restart your container if it is running.