How to deploy an Apache Tiles project

Apache Tiles is Java's leading version of a widget container, built on the Portlet specification. In Java, portlets are similar in concept and serve almost the same functional purpose as widgets in the web world

 

Long before the release of the W3C’s Widget specification, most modern programming languages had already (predictably) evolved a system for plugins, extensions and/or the representation of widgets.

I’ve accepted a new position at TeamSpace / TheREDspace in Halifax, NS; and, while I’m not at liberty to divulge much juicy information about my clients or their technologies, I can mention that Tiles is a great open source project on which some of their very popular (i.e. heavily trafficked) online services are currently running quite successfully.

For this new position, I’ve taken the time to brush up on my understanding of portlets and am including some useful steps here for getting started with your first Tiles project:

SHORTCUT IF YOU’RE USING MAVEN

1. Point your POM to the MAVEN repository:

     <dependency>
       <groupId>org.apache.tiles</groupId>
       <artifactId>tiles-extras</artifactId>
       <version>2.2.2</version>
     </dependency>

MANUAL LIBRARY LOADING

1. Download project: http://tiles.apache.org/download.html
2. Unzip to your project directory (or a common one if you plan to reuse it alot)
3. Start a new project in your IDE or create a new directory/folder with a “libs” sub-directiory/sub- folder, or something similar
4. Add the tiles-extra.jar file to your project’s BUILD Path
   (depends on IDE but assuming you know how, if not right-click on the project, if you still can’t figure out, try a search engine)

After following either the Maven or Manual setup, you should be ready to go with your first Tiles project.

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