Struts Tags vs JSTL

Question

Struts has some useful custom JSP tags, and Struts-EL adds a lot of the necessary EL support. I'm looking for thoughts on the relative merits of using Struts / Strut-EL tags where available, and just using JSTL tags.

Answer 1

Plain:

• Struts marks are only available for projects using Struts.
• JSTL tags can be used anywhere and even work with other frameworks such as Spring or JSF

Answer 2

It depends on the use of custom tags — some tags, like those that create a drop-down list of options, are much easier to use and read than the equivalent c: foreach tag. However, JSTL is common in many applications, so if you stopped using custom struts tags in another web application, you probably would still have access to JSTL.