14 Dec 2005 - Apache Struts introduced Tiles as a integral component of
its Struts 1.1 release in June 2003. Since then, several other projects
have been using Tiles, even though it was embedded in the Struts JAR.
Soon, it will be much easier to use Tiles with products like Jakarta
Velocity, Apache MyFaces, and Struts Shale.
Tiles is a templating framework that can be used to create a common
look and feel for a web site or application and to create reusable view
components. A key aspect of Tiles is that it can be configured from a
XML configuration file. A Tile definition can "extend" another
definition, giving the component an object-oriented feel. Tile
developers can create a base Tile (or screen layout), and then indicate
only how other Tiles differ from the base. Changes made to a base Tile
"cascade" to Tiles that extend that base. Significant changes can be
made to the layout of a website just by changing a single Tile
definition.
For more about Tiles, visit the Struts Tiles website [http://struts.apache.org/struts-tiles/].
