F.6 The message tag

Retrieves the message with the given code, or text if code isn't resolvable. The HTML escaping flag participates in a page-wide or application-wide setting (i.e. by HtmlEscapeTag or a "defaultHtmlEscape" context-param in web.xml).

Table F.5. Attributes

AttributeRequired?Runtime Expression?Description

arguments

false

true

Set optional message arguments for this tag, as a (comma-)delimited String (each String argument can contain JSP EL), an Object array (used as argument array), or a single Object (used as single argument).

argumentSeparator

false

true

The separator character to be used for splitting the arguments string value; defaults to a 'comma' (',').

code

false

true

The code (key) to use when looking up the message. If code is not provided, the text attribute will be used.

htmlEscape

false

true

Set HTML escaping for this tag, as boolean value. Overrides the default HTML escaping setting for the current page.

javaScriptEscape

false

true

Set JavaScript escaping for this tag, as boolean value. Default is false.

message

false

true

A MessageSourceResolvable argument (direct or through JSP EL). Fits nicely when used in conjunction with Spring's own validation error classes which all implement the MessageSourceResolvable interface. For example, this allows you to iterate over all of the errors in a form, passing each error (using a runtime expression) as the value of this 'message' attribute, thus effecting the easy display of such error messages.

scope

false

true

The scope to use when exporting the result to a variable. This attribute is only used when var is also set. Possible values are page, request, session and application.

text

false

true

Default text to output when a message for the given code could not be found. If both text and code are not set, the tag will output null.

var

false

true

The string to use when binding the result to the page, request, session or application scope. If not specified, the result gets outputted to the writer (i.e. typically directly to the JSP).