JSP Directives

A JSP directive affects the overall structure of the servlet class. It usually has the following form:

<%@ directive attribute="value" %>

However, you can also combine multiple attribute settings for a single directive, as follows:

<%@ directive attribute1="value1"
attribute2="value2"
...
attributeN="valueN" %>

There are two main types of directive: page, which lets you do things like import classes, customize the servlet superclass, and the like; and include, which lets you insert a file into the servlet class at the time the JSP file is translated into a servlet. The specification also mentions the taglib directive, which is not supported in JSP version 1.0, but is intended to let JSP authors define their own tags. It is expected that this will be the main new contribution of JSP 1.1.